Myanmar Crisis

CYCLONE NARGIS RELIEF

By Rob Stone

The first wave of Cyclone Nargis killed tens of thousands of people in Myanmar (Burma), laid waste to countless homes and inundated vital rice producing acreage with salt water. 

The impact of the second wave is likely to be worse. People lack even rudimentary shelter, the countryside is littered with the rotting corpses of humans and animals, clean water and food are non-existent in many areas, and the military junta that has ruled Myanmar since 1962, which is highly suspicious of the motives of outsiders, has moved slowly to deal with the situation. Disease is already beginning to break out across the country. Millions of peoples’ lives are at risk.

The situation in Myanmar is extremely fluid:

• At first the ruling junta claimed that its own resources could adequately address the humanitarian crisis. However, the Myanmar government lacks personnel trained in disaster relief, and possesses but a handful of helicopters and small transport aircraft. 

• Then offers of emergency food shipments from other countries were rejected; now some have been accepted, although foreign aid workers are not being granted visas for Myanmar. 

• Reports have circulated of food aid packages being re-labeled with pictures of the junta’s generals by the Myanmarese government before distribution. Reports have also surfaced that the military is seizing food aid for its own use or black market sales, and is handing out poor quality or even spoiled food in its place. 

• Please write the Myanmarese ambassador to the United States, encouraging his government to accept foreign aid and expertise in the spirit in which it is being offered, and to distribute it fairly. Note that such letters must be cast in courteous language: castigating the junta at this point will have no constructive effect. 

Ambassador U Linn Myaing
Embassy of the Union of Myanmar
2300 S Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20008

 

 

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