AID ALLOWED: Last week a top U.N. official persuaded Myanmar's military government to accept foreign aid. Although it's been three weeks since the cyclone, millions of survivors still wait for help.

Meanwhile, Myanmar's regime decided to keep pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for another year. She legally won the country's general election in 1990, but has not been allowed to take charge. The current regime has detained her for 12 of the past 18 years.

Cyclone Nargis: Quick Facts

According to the U.N., more than 1.4 million in desperate need have not received any aid yet. When Doctors Without Borders made it to remote delta villages near Bogalay this weekend, they found thousands of people who hadn't had food in three days.

Without help, these survivors may die from:

• thirst
• starvation
• injuries
• infectious diseases, including typhoid, dysentery, cholera, and e. coli

Three Weeks after Cyclone, Aid Allowed in Myanmar

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spent four days in Myanmar last week. He met with military generals who control the country to persuade them to accept foreign aid.

More than three weeks after the cyclone, Myanmar's junta finally said yes on Sunday. It then issued seven visas Monday for international aid workers, and allowed them into the devastated delta regions of the country. U.N. helicopters began flying in energy bars and instant meals to villagers, some of whom haven't eaten for three days.

Before Ban's meeting and the U.N. summit, the junta had refused help, particularly from Western nations. The regime worries that if it accepts aid and relief workers from the West, it will lose control over the Burmese people.

Suu Kyi, the NLD and the United States

Military dictators have ruled Burma for 46 years. But in 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy (NLD) party won Burma's general election by a landslide. The military regime in power immediately nullified the election and placed Suu Kyi under house arrest. She has been detained for 12 of the past 18 years.

Yesterday NLD members marched from NLD headquarters to Suu Kyi's home in Rangoon on the anniversary of her fifth consecutive year of detention. They protested the government's continued detainment of Suu Kyi, and called for her release or trial. Police arrested about 20 NLD members.

Western democracies support the NLD. The United States, for instance, has imposed sanctions on Myanmar's military leaders since the first regime took power in 1988, and again in 1990 when the regime refused to allow Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy to take over.

Over the years, the United States' sanctions against Burma have included:

• refusing to recognize the regime's change of the country's name from Burma to Myanmar
• withdrawing the U.S. ambassador from Rangoon
• preventing Burma from joining various financial organizations
• prohibiting the export of military-related goods to Burma
• imposing economic sanctions, such as limiting trade
• freezing junta leaders' assets held in American banks

Original Stories

Myanmar Cyclone Disaster Worsens (update 5)

Copyright © 2008 Informify

Sources

Suu Kyi's house arrest extended (BBC, 5/27/08)

Foreign Aid Workers Enter Myanmar's Cyclone-Hit Delta (Associated Press/Wall Street Journal, 5/27/08)

U.S. SANCTIONS AGAINST BURMA: A Failure on All Fronts (Cato Institute Center for Trade Policy Studies)

Question for Readers:

Do you think Western countries should have intervened—by force if necessary—to bring aid to the Burmese instead of standing by for three weeks while millions suffered?