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The warning came amid reports that foreign aid was being sold
openly in markets, and that the military was pilfering and
diverting aid for its own use.

The ruling junta has been blasted by aid agencies for refusing
to allow most foreign experts into the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta and
not responding adequately to what they say is a spiraling crisis.

Relief workers reported that some storm survivors were being
given spoiled or poor-quality food rather than nutrition-rich
biscuits sent by international donors, adding to fears that the
ruling military junta in the Southeast Asian country could be
misappropriating assistance.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement Wednesday
that it had confirmed an Associated Press report that the military
had seized high-energy biscuits that came from abroad, and
distributed low-quality, locally produced biscuits to survivors.

Thursday’s state radio announcement obliquely denied the
military was misappropriating aid.

“The government has systematically accepted donations and has
distributed the relief goods immediately and directly to the
victims,” it said. “Effective legal action will be taken against
those who hoard, sell or buy, use or misuse the international or
local donations or relief goods or cash to the cyclone victims.”

Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said aid workers who visited
all the major markets in Yangon found no evidence of hoarding or
sale of relief goods.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
spokesman Matthew Cochrane said the organization also had not
received any such reports.

The government said Thursday that the official death toll from
the May 2-3 cyclone had climbed by almost 5,000 to 43,318. The
number of missing has remained at 27,838 for at least two days.

But the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies estimated the death toll was between 68,833 and 127,990.
The U.N. says more than 100,000 may have died.

The U.N. and the Red Cross say between 1.6 and 2.5 million
people are in urgent need of food, water and shelter. Only 270,000
have been reached so far by the aid groups.

Tons of foreign aid including water, blankets, mosquito nets,
tarpaulins, medicines and tents have been sent to Myanmar, but its
delivery has been slowed down because of bottlenecks, poor
infrastructure and bureaucratic tangles.

The junta insists on taking control of the distribution. It has
allowed the U.N. and some other agencies to hand out the aid
directly but prohibited their few foreign staff allowed into
Myanmar from leaving Yangon, the country’s main city.

Police have turned back foreigners from checkpoints at the
city’s exits.

“There is a visible fence around Yangon that we don’t dare
cross. A circle has been drawn around Yangon and expats are
confined there,” said Tim Costello of aid group World Vision.

He said the group has delivered aid to 100,000 people in spite
of the “narrow parameters.” But there are tens of thousands more
who haven’t received help because of heavy rain and lack of
helicopters and expert staff.

“While you are getting aid through, it’s like getting it
through on a 3-inch pipe not 30-inch pipe,” Costello said.

The regime insists it can handle the disaster on its own - a
stance that appears to stem not from its abilities but its deep
suspicion of most foreigners, who have frequently criticized its
human rights abuses and crackdown on democracy activists.

In a clear sign that politics is playing a role, the junta
granted approval to 160 relief workers from India, China,
Bangladesh and Thailand, which have rarely criticized Myanmar’s
democracy record.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Thursday that so far the
U.S. has done 13 airlifts. Reports from the ground indicate “that
international relief supplies transported by the Burmese military
have been arriving in disaster areas,” he said.

“It’s impossible for us to completely verify that all the
relief supplies are getting to the affected areas but we are
monitoring that through our contacts that are inside the country”
- UN and aid private aid groups, he said. “And to the best of our
ability, to date, we have not seen any U.S. assistance that has
been diverted.”

He said the Navy ships from the USS Essex expeditionary strike
group were moved slightly after Wednesday’s warning of another
approaching storm, but they now remain some 30 nautical off
Myanmar’s coast, also waiting to help if asked.

Even Myanmar citizens are being restricted by the security
forces, said Zaw Htin, a 21-year-old medical student who visited
hard-hit Bogalay town on Wednesday.

“They (military) don’t want us to stay and talk to people. They
want us to leave the supplies with them for distribution. But how
can I treat them if I can’t talk to them? How do we administer
medical care if we can’t touch them, feel their pulse or give them
advice?” she said.

“It was overwhelming even for us who have seen a lot of
suffering and death,” Zaw Htin said.

Britain’s prime minister said Thursday that an emergency U.N.
summit to coordinate efforts to rush aid to cyclone victims in
Myanmar will be held in Asia.

Gordon Brown told a news conference the summit was being
organized by the U.N. and Asian countries and would be held in the
region. He said the meeting represented “great progress” but gave
no details of when it would take place.

Also Thursday, the junta announced that voters had
overwhelmingly backed a pro-military constitution in a referendum
that was held one week after the cyclone.

Human rights organizations and dissident groups bitterly accused
the junta of neglecting disaster victims in going ahead with the
vote, and have criticized the proposed constitution as designed to
perpetuate military rule.

State radio said the draft constitution was approved by 92.4
percent of the 22 million eligible voters. It put voter turnout
Saturday at more than 99 percent of eligible voters in areas that
went to the polls.

Voting was postponed until May 24 in the Irrawaddy delta and
Yangon areas, which were worst hit by Cyclone Nargis. But state
radio said the results of the late balloting could not
mathematically reverse the constitution’s approval.

“People are dying and they are talking about the referendum?”
said Kyaw Muang, a small food store owner in Yangon. “They (the
generals) don’t even care about dying people, you think they care
about democracy for living people?” he said.

“I don’t care about the referendum. It doesn’t mean anything,”
he said.

Human Rights Watch also slammed the timing of the constitution
announcement and questioned the accuracy of the results.

David Mathieson, a spokesman in Bangkok, Thailand, said the
junta hopes that by announcing the results now it would divert
attention away from its handling of the disaster and its refusal to
cooperate with the international community.

“It seems strategically timed because you would have thought
with how busy they were in cleaning up the cyclone that they never
would have had time to count this properly,” he said.