This sort of money can do an enormous amount with regard to the cyclone disaster, but it seems to be deliberately withheld."

Meanwhile, aid is trickling into Burma, at least at Rangoon’s international airport—and at least here the facts are being meticulously recorded.

A regime report on Thursday listed the latest arrivals at Rangoon airport: "AN-12 flight carrying 17.12 tons of office equipment, generators, tarpaulin and racks donated by WFP, four C -130 flights carrying about 20 tons of plywood, water bottles, blankets, plastic, nylon ropes, hammers and nails donated by the United State of America, Y 7-100 flight carrying 3 tons of medicines for Laos medical team from Lao PDR, A- 300 flight carrying over 22 tons of foods, cables, medicines and medical equipments donated by KOICA of the Republic of Korea, IL-76 carrying 35.75 tons of water purifiers and related equipment, medicines, tents, foods and plastic donated by Doctors Without Borders of Belgium and IL-76 flight carrying 59.64 tons of construction material and tarpaulin donated by IFRC.”

Laura Bush, a strong advocate of Burma's democracy movement, stepped in with some numbers, too. The First Lady told Voice of America: "The United States has been very active in trying to help. I think so far about 40 C-130s have landed in Rangoon with supplies for the people of Burma."

The impressive numbers of US relief flights to Rangoon also present accounting problems for Lt-Col Douglas Powell, spokesman for the US relief mission at Thailand’s Utapao air base. "I think we have 36 flights so far,” he said. “Oh… wait a minute, let me check my notebook. Err…we now have 41 flights so far."

The US has also offered dozens of CH-47 helicopters and amphibious vehicles to deliver aid and supplies, but the regime is uninterested.

A particularly heartrending statistic is the number of children who died or lost their parents in the cyclone. But even here the numbers are vague.

UNICEF estimates that 40 percent of those who died in the cyclone and its aftermath were children. Ramesh Shrestha, UNICEF's representative in Burma, said the number of children left without guardians is more than 600 and could rise.

Shrestha admitted to The Associated Press: "We have no idea as to how many there are, but from the bits and pieces that we have, there are more than 600 or 700 unaccompanied minors so far."

A volunteer relief worker in the Irrawaddy delta estimated that more than 1,000 children under the age of 13 in Laputta Township alone lost their parents in the cyclone.

The British-based charity Save the Children estimates that 30,000 children under the age of five living in the Irrawaddy delta region were already malnourished before the cyclone and warns that thousands of them now face death from starvation.

The numbers game continues on Saturday, when the regime resumes its constitutional referendum in the cyclone-hit areas. We can expect ludicrously inflated numbers again, probably matching the statistics dreamt up by the junta after the first session of voting on May 10.

Aung Toe, head of the Referendum Holding Committee, said that in the May 10 voting the draft constitution was approved by 92.4 percent of the 22 million eligible voters, and he put the voter turnout at more than 99 percent.

The constitution will guarantee 25 percent of parliamentary seats to the military and promises the construction of a "modern, developed and flourishing disciplinary democracy."

Aung Toe said a further 5 million citizens are eligible to vote on May 24 in Rangoon and the Irrawaddy delta, the region worst hit by the cyclone.

One cyclone survivor Kyi Hla, a 65-year-old grandmother, lost 12 members of her family, including her grandchildren. She is now reunited with three of her sons and five daughters-in-law, while the rest of her family perished in the cyclone and its tidal wave.

She related her remarkable survival story in Laputta to an undercover reporter from the The Irrawaddy magazine—and, unlike the improbable statistics the regime plucks out of thin air, the numbers contained in her story ring with the deafening resonance of truth.