Millions of victims of the Burmese cyclone remained hungry and exposed today as the military government failed for the fifth day to allow international aid workers to help those affected by the high winds and surging seas.

“We are trying to get maximum cooperation from the government,” Rashid Khalikov, a top emergency relief official from the United Nations, told reporters in New York. “We applied for visas. We have not got the visas. “This is a critical moment for the affected populations.”

Pledges of cash, supplies and assistance are pouring in from around the world as it becomes apparent that the official estimates of 22,000 dead and hundreds of thousand homeless were likely to be vastly exceeded.

India today sent two plane-loads of supplies, following two navy ships already dispatched, whilst Indonesia announced pledges of $1million in emergency aid.

Much of that aid is now stacking up unused, as frustrated agencies are refused access by Burma’s reclusive and xenophobic junta. They now worry that it will arrive too late for those worst affected.

Rare eyewitness reports from the Irrawaddy delta described near-apocalyptic scenes, as the bodies of people and animals rotted in the tropical heat, stacked up bloated in ditches. In the delta town of Labutta, survivors have received almost no help, and are resorting to drinking coconut milk because the water supply is badly infected.

Saturday’s storm battered coastal regions of Burma with 120 mile per hour winds, whilst the low pressure created a storm surge that submerged whole villages under 20-foot waters higher than the tree tops. The concern now is that those who survived the initial cyclone will die because of lack of food, water and sanitation.

“This is a critical moment for Myanmar’s vulnerable populations,” the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said today. “In the next few days assessments must be provided or thousands more could die.”

“The food security situation in the country, which was already severe, looks set to become far more acute.”

Foreigners who tried today to cross the Yangon River, which divides Burma’s largest city from the devastated delta areas were not allowed to use the small sampans which ferry back and forth. “The police told us no foreigners are allowed, not for any money,” one boatman said.

“If I take foreigners, they will arrest me.”

Times Recommends

• No apology for Germany’s own Nazi victims
• Intricate web of fear and hope tying down deal
• Victims remembered a year after Mumbai attacks