Burma Part 2

Yesterday, Thursday May 22nd UN Sectary General ban Ki-Moon visited cyclone hit Burma for the first time. During this visit General Than-Shwe, the leader of the ruling Junta took Mr Ban and the worlds gathered media on a tour of a show camp which allowed the general a fantastic photo opportunity to show the world and the Burmese people how well his government were coping with the disaster.

Amid the rows and rows of UN provided tents the smiling victims stood, some in brand new Manchester United shirts, telling anyone who would listen how well they'd been cared for and how grateful they were to the military Junta and all the efforts it had made.

Later in negotiations about the aid effort General Than Shwe declared that the time for the relief effort was over and it was time for the reconstruction effort to begin. On this point I have to sadly say that I agree with him because in any disaster relief effort the first 48 hours are crucial. In this case those first 48 hours were squandered and we are now in the twentieth day of 500th hour of the response to cyclone Nargis. This means that anybody who was injured in the cyclone have now died of their wounds. Those who were left without shelter have now suffered the effects of exposure. Those left without food are now well on their way to starvation and any corpses which were left unburied have now decomposed into the water supply spreading disease to anybody who has been forced to drink that water. In short the relief effort has failed and the only choice left now is what to do with the dead.

It is at this depressing point that with some 125,000 dead that the Burmese Generals have finally announced that they are prepared to allow foriegn aid workers to enter they country and bring with them all sorts of specialist equipment. Far from being a humanitarian gesture hard won by diplomatic efforts this is simply another cynical ploy by Burma's rulers. This time to get western development agencies to come in and build Burma up to a point where their standard of living is higher then it was before the cyclone hit. The Generals will then obviously take the credit for the improvement.

All this raises an important moral question for all those aid agencies involved because do they go in and improve the lives of many of the Burmese people at the risk of strengthening the Junta that caused their suffering or do they sit back and watch those same people suffer while the regime reaps what it's sowed?

Personally, although uncomfortable as it is, I have to say that I would go for the do nothing approach because the Burmese people have suffered for many years at the hands of their rulers and to alleviate their suffering in response to this cyclone would only allow this murderous regime to further tighten it's grip on the country and leave the Burmese people open to rape, torture and suffering for many years to come.