followed in the wake of the cyclone will remain for the foreseeable future, leading to further misery. Reports of social unrest are filtering through from remote areas where civil administration and public services have completely broken down. Anger and despair mingle as victims desperately await the arrival of international relief, held up by visa formalities applied by Burmese authorities suspicious of admitting even United Nations personnel.

The anger is further fuelled by assurances from Thailand that its Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre, established after the 2004 tsunami, gave Burma a week's warning of the cyclone.

The Burmese regime claims it passed the warning on to the public, but survivors in the Irrawaddy delta dispute that. One third of the 300,000 residents of

one delta city, Laputta, are reliably reported to have died, caught completely unawares by the tidal wave unleashed by the cyclone before dawn on Saturday. "If we had known the cyclone was approaching it would have been madness not to seek higher ground," said one resident. "The city was taken unawares."

The bitterness caused by a combination of regime duplicity, indifference and neglect boils over into hot rage in the ruined cities, towns and villages where one quarter of Burma's population live - or used to live. "The factors that triggered last year's demonstrations have returned a hundred-fold," said commentator Moe New Win. "All the pieces are in place for another explosion. This could spell the final meltdown for the generals. But don't count on it."