2004 Indian Ocean earthquake - affected countries

Official reports from the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

(Burma) cite a death toll of 90 due to the

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

caused by the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...

on 26 December 2004. However, some estimates put the toll at between 400 and 600. 30,000 citizens of Myanmar were estimated to be in need of shelter, food and water, and 788 buildings were reported damaged and destroyed. An NGO estimated that 2,500 citizens of Myanmar based in Phang Nga Province,

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

during the event may have been killed, and that 7,000 Burmese were still unaccounted for. Many of these missing were, however, not presumed to be dead. Many refugees fled to Thailand's interior after the destruction, or were deported or chased back into the hills that divide the countries by Thai authorities. Although loss of life and property in Myanmar was suspected to be higher than official reports suggest, loss of life was not as high as in neighbouring

due to various factors, most significantly the numerous islands off the coast of Myanmar which served to dissipate the force of the tsunami, a rocky shoreline, and the position of the coastline. Also contributing is the fact that it is less developed than neighboring Thailand; international disapproval of the Burmese military regime has prevented the country from building a successful

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

industry. A

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

-based representative from the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

stated, "Conjecture fuelled by the experiences in neighbouring countries created a major and dangerous disconnect with reality". This assessment was also corroborated by

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photographs according to

Colin Powell Colin Luther Powell ( ; April 5, 1937 – October 18, 2021) was an American politician, statesman, diplomat, and United States Army officer who served as the 65th United States Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African ...

United States Secretary of State The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...

. Myanmar does not allow journalists into the country and maintained a strong hold on information disseminated in its state-run newspapers - some of which did not acknowledge the tsunami had hit. Burma had refused foreign aid, insisting it was capable to cope by itself.Moe, Kyaw Zwa (December 31, 2004)
Burma Regime Rejects Offers of Disaster Aid
''

The Irrawaddy ''The Irrawaddy'' () is a news website by the Irrawaddy Publishing Group (IPG), founded in 1990 by Burmese exiles living in Thailand. From its inception, ''The Irrawaddy'' has taken an independent stance on Burmese politics. As a publication pr ...

''. This policy has created a difficult environment to gauge the lives affected by the tsunami.

References

{{Tsunami2004impact History of Myanmar (1948–present)

2004 in Myanmar Tsunamis in Myanmar 2004 disasters in Myanmar

See also

References