EMERGENCY AID: Myanmar’s military-led government gave the United Nations (UN) permission to fly in emergency supplies to cyclone survivors. However, aid workers are still awaiting visas before they can enter the country.

While the death toll remains at an estimated 22,500 people, more than 40,000 people are still missing. Myanmar’s government dropped food and water by helicopter to marooned villagers yesterday in a delta region of the country. Critics of the military junta hope its inept response to the disaster will destroy the junta and restore democracy.

Cyclone Nargis: What We Know Now

• Considered one of the world’s deadliest disasters.
• Combination of 120 mph winds and 12-foot waves killed more than 22,000.
• Government neglected to warn people about approaching storm.
• Waves killed more people than winds by flooding low-lying areas. (Many people live in delta villages along the southern tip of the country, exposed to storms coming off the ocean.)
• Country’s entire coastal plain now under water
• Of the country’s 52 million people, more than 1 million now homeless.

Isolationist Government Fails Citizens

Burma was once a democracy, before a military takeover of its government. The new leadership—a military junta—changed the country’s name to Myanmar and radically restricted people’s freedoms. It also arrested the legitimate leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 20 years.

The Burmese challenged the junta’s authority in 1988 and again in 2007, but the military prevailed, killing hundreds of protesters.

The military junta is secretive and paranoid, particularly of the Western world. To protect itself from outsiders, it has refused to allow foreign emergency supplies and aid workers into the country.

Critics hope the government’s ineptitude in responding to Cyclone Nargis may finally topple it.

Supplies Ready, Visas Not

The UN is prepared to send in emergency supplies from its warehouse in Italy. Here’s a list of some of those supplies:

• tents
• blankets
• generators
• kitchen sets
• plastic sheeting
• water purification tablets

The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) started stockpiling food even before the cyclone hit last week. It has been giving out rice in Myanmar’s capital city, Yangon.

Copyright © 2008 Informify

Sources

"U.N. gets Myanmar permit for emergency aid flight " (Reuters, 5/7/08)

"Burma's Katrina moment " (Christian Science Monitor, 5/7/08)

Question for Readers:

Do you think the Myanmar government’s response to Cyclone Nargis is worse than the U.S. government’s response to Hurricane Katrina?