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Foreign workers in Myanmar disaster zone
Zimbabwe Star
Saturday 17th May, 2008
Foreign aid workers have been briefly admitted to an area of Myanmar, which was hit by Cyclone Nagris at the beginning of the month.
Foreign diplomats and workers were taken to an area in the Irrawaddy delta, the scene of the deaths of at least 78,000 people.
The foreigners were taken by helicopter to the delta, but they said the tour was too quick and too selective to form a proper picture of the situation.
Meanwhile the military regime is under increasing pressure to allow foreign aid workers into the country.
US President George Bush has extended sanctions against the military regime and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called the treatment of the disaster victims 'inhumane'.
France has also strongly criticised the junta for refusing to allow a French naval ship to enter local waters with aid.
The French ambassador to the United Nations says the Myanmar regime is on the verge of committing a crime against humanity.
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Comments on this story
| By onlooker, 05-18-08, 02:10 AM |
so rescue work is on?i bet in a few days time, if not already happening , those caring and mike hugging speakers in UN will shout and gloat that had it not been for them to speak up no aids would have successfully arrived in Myanmar !..what cheek..ignoring efforts from around here simply because as always they like to give the impression to the world, and successfully do so , with the help of western controlled tv and other propaganda paraphernalia , that only them are naturally imbued with sympathatic feelings or knowledge of rendering assistance to disaster affected people effectively ..and that the rest of us only know how to “eat each other”..but not so.. if what i saw and concluded about the biased and bungling actions of the Home Land Security (US)in the flood stricken Lousiana sometime ago.like i said yesterday adopt the gentle and Asean ways and you can get results. even tigers can be tamed if treated properly . see..no wars and our Aussie old chap can continue drinking his beer ..even at ABC !!! |
| By Anonymous, 05-18-08, 06:17 AM |
Waiting gameHow long would all the representatives from UN would wait before they would call it crime against humanity. It doen’t take a genious to figure it out that people are dying each minute.It has been proven time and time again that military regime will not act to save their own people. would more hundreds and thousands of people have to die just to prove to the Council of UN that they must act now.The scale of devastation in Myanmar is far worse than Tsunami in 2004. The only difference is there is no media coverage to highlight to the world that they are crying out for help.If you think about it while we are sleeping and eating well these people have been deprived of basic needs of survival. How long will the UN take to weigh the term " crime against humanity Vs using diplomacy to the regime government who doen’t even know what a diplomacy is”. I think it will be waste of time to wait . And yes wait for what ? is it to wait for millions of surviving people to die of starvation,lack of medical treatment'. |
| By Anonymous, 05-18-08, 10:59 AM |
the trojan horse story.Put yourselves in the junta’s shoes then you’ll get an idea of their fear. US’s navy ships sending the aid,france’s warship sending the aid. If you were the junta,would you open your doors to let these people in. |
| By Anonymous, 05-17-08, 09:05 PM |
Foreign workers in Myanmar disaster zoneThe French ambassador to the United Nations says the Myanmar regime is on the verge of committing a crime against humanity.
What do they mean with on the “verge”? The military regime has done that right from the time they came into power, and no-one ever did a friggin' thing about it! |
| By paul`, 05-17-08, 10:09 PM |
Land anywayI doubt they could stop it. Just force the aid in. |
| By Anonymous, 05-17-08, 11:36 PM |
| I doubt they could stop it. Just force the aid in.
My idea too, but too many “bleeding hearts” would object! |
| By waltky, 05-18-08, 06:12 AM |
| Children starving `cause the generals are too uppity to accept help...
:eek:
Starvation Warning for Burma’s Kids
Sunday, May. 18, 2008 — Thousands of children in Burma will starve to death in two to three weeks unless food is rushed to them, an aid agency warned Sunday as an increasingly angry international community pleaded for approval to mount an all-out effort to help cyclone survivors.
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The United Nations said Burma’s isolationist ruling generals were even forbidding the import of communications equipment, hampering already difficult contact among relief agencies. A U.N. situation report said Saturday that emergency relief from the international community had reached an estimated 500,000 people. But the regime insists it will handle distribution to victims of Cyclone Nargis. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has been unable to sway Burma’s leaders by telephone, said he was sending U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes to Myanmar this weekend.
Holmes was expected to arrive Sunday evening in Burma’s largest city, Rangoon, said Amanda Pitt, a U.N. spokeswoman in Bangkok, the capital of neighboring Thailand. “He’s going at the request of the secretary-general to find out what’s really going on the ground, to get a much better picture of how the response is going and ... to see how much we can help them scale up this response," Pitt said. Details of the visit, she said, were still being worked out.
The U.N. report said all communications equipment used by foreign agences must be purchased through Burma’s Ministry of Posts and Communications — with a maximum of 10 telephones per agency — for $1,500 each. Importing equipment is not allowed. State-run radio said the government has so far spent 20 billion kyat (about $2 million) for relief work and has received millions of dollars worth of relief supplies from local and international donors. It said the government was distributing assistance promptly and efficiently to the affected areas.
Aid agencies were not convinced. Save the Children, a global aid agency, said Sunday that thousands of young children face starvation without quick food aid. “We are extremely worried that many children in the affected areas are now suffering from severe acute malnourishment, the most serious level of hunger," said Jasmine Whitbread, who heads the agency’s operation in Britain. “When people reach this stage, they can die in a matter of days."
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| By Justincase, 05-18-08, 11:48 AM |
| I do not understand the Burma goverment.,But if they want us to help them so be it.We know it is very cruel if they could survive without the outside help I would not force ourselves to be there and play goodie,goodie. If they could sustain on there own well being and establish a moderate rescue system by the Burma goverment resources,let them do it.We can enterfer with out there permission so leave them alone. |
| By Zaw Min Lay, 05-18-08, 08:27 PM |
Just drop the Aids or drop the couple of pinpoint accuracy missilesJust drop the Aids or drop the couple of pinpoint accuracy missiles at Nay Pyi Daw jungle.These people real criminal for the whole mankind.Nobody did this kind of crimes against their own people.
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