Myanmar issues weekend cyclone warning

Apr 17, 2009, 6:26 GMT

   Yangon - Myanmar's state-controlled press Friday issued warnings that Cyclone Bijli could hit the country's western coast over the weekend.

   According to Myanmar's meteorological office, Cyclone Bijli, which was centred in the west-central part of the Bay of Bengal on Thursday, was forecast to enter the area between Bangladesh and Myanmar's Rakhine State on Saturday, the New Light of Myanmar reported.        

   The state-run newspaper warned all fishing vessels to stay in port as the cyclone could raise tidal waves to 2 metres along the Rakhine coast and up to 1 metre in the Irrawaddy Delta region which was devastated by Cyclone Nargis last year.

   Cyclone Nargis smashed into the Irrawaddy Delta and Yangon on May 2-3 last year, leaving about 140,000 people dead or missing.

   The government was widely faulted for not providing adequate warnings of the storm and the accompanying tidal waves, especially in the more remote regions of the delta which were the most vulnerable.

   Emergency relief efforts by the international community for the victims of Cyclone Nargis were initially hampered by Myanmar's notoriously paranoid junta, drawing more condemnation on the regime.

   Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962.