CYCLONE VCDS ARE SELLING FASTER THAN...

THE VCDs have gruesome images of battered and bloated dead bodies left behind by Cyclone Nargis. Seen in newspapers and on TV programmes around the world, these are visuals which are not so easily accessible in Myanmar.

A man buying VCDs of footage recorded during the passage of cyclone Nargis. -- Picture: AFP
Ordinary citizens have turned to their usual underground sources of information: Overseas satellite broadcasts, along with websites blocked by the Myanmar government but available with some minor technicaltricks.

So it is not much of a surprise that when evidence of the cyclone was suppressed, it would emerge on the black-market video circuit there.

Hidden behind a stack of pornographic video discs, Yangon street vendor Mg Zaw has even more sought-after contraband: Footage of the destruction caused by the cyclone, which cut a deadly path through Myanmar's heartland two weeks ago.

People are generally barred from travelling to the area and the state television monopoly mostly has shown more upbeat scenes of the country's military leaders handing out aid.
Mr Mg Zaw, who runs a video disc stall in central Yangon, said he started hawking the storm videos just two days after Nargis struck.

'People buy them because they are interested in seeing what happened out there,' he said, eyes warily scanning for police conducting checks.

The discs are packaged in slim plastic holders with paper covers featuring grainy montages of bloated corpses floating in flood waters.
In one video, stray dogs sniff the ground near the corpse of a woman.
The videos are being bought either out of curiosity or, some say, as a way of coping with the tragedy, which left about 78,000 people dead and another 55,000 missing, according to the official government count. The Red Cross and the UN expect the death toll to soar well above 100,000.

Mr Khin Soe, 28, who has been told that his parents and three siblings died in the disaster, bought one of the videos Saturday afternoon.

'I want to know what happened, that's why I am buying this,' he said.
Each disc is priced at 500 kyat (about 70cents). Mr Mg Zaw said he makes 100kyat per disc. Some hawkers said they have been selling about 100 copies a day. -AP.