A CARGO ship carrying relief supplies for more than 1,000 cyclone victims in Myanmar sank early yesterday.

International Red Cross spokesman Michael Annear called the accident a big blow to the already slow relief work. The boat was traveling from Yangon to Mawlamyinegyun when it hit a submerged tree trunk and sank.

The crew members, including four staff from the Myanmar Red Cross, managed to get to safety.

Meanwhile, food and water reached cyclone victims in greater amounts yesterday after many roads were cleared, but there was no sign Myanmar’s government would allow foreign experts to handle the distribution, international aid groups said.

Myanmar’s state television said yesterday that the cyclone’s death toll has gone up by about 5,000 to 28,458.

The government said it only wanted international relief material and money but not the people to manage it.

It wanted to hand out all donated supplies on its own to an estimated 2 million people who are without food or shelter, facing the threat of diseases.

Myanmar held a referendum Saturday to seek public approval of a new constitution, which the government said would be followed by a general election in 2010. Both votes are elements of what the government called its “roadmap to democracy.”

(SD-Agencies)