'Criminal neglect', indeed

Monday marked the one-month anniversary of Cyclone Nargis’s devastating rampage through Burma, and the outlook for victims remains dire.\nInternational aid workers are still discovering survivors who have yet to receive any form of assistance since the storm hit. The United Nations estimates approximately 1.4 million people are still in dire need of food, water, shelter and medical care. Naval ships from France, Britain and the United States holding vital helicopters that are necessary to reach the hardest hit areas loiter offshore awaiting permission from the junta (Burma’s military government) to spring into action or, as seems more likely now, return home unused. \nBureaucratic red tape continues to obstruct relief efforts, prompting frustration from the international community: “By still delaying and hampering aid efforts ... the generals are showing that, even during a disaster, oppression rules,” said the group Human Rights Watch. The extremely xenophobic junta fears that their repressive and tyrannical grip could be weakened by allowing international agencies and workers into the country; additionally, they want to avoid victims witnessing aid coming directly from countries that the junta have portrayed as hostile powers, such as the U.S. \nThe irritation and vexation culminated on Sunday, as relief agencies still reported much difficulty in reaching survivors, despite the ruling junta’s leader’s promise of full access to the hardest hit areas nine days before, when U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates indicted Myanmar of “criminal neglect” for obstructing large-scale international relief efforts. \nDespite the international community’s exasperation and inability, by no fault of their own, to provide the necessary relief, it is extremely important that we do not turn our eyes away from this humanitarian disaster.\nThis false promise made by the junta has not been their first in recent history; analysts of Myanmar point out that the regime has successfully used assurances and deception in the past to divert worldwide censure until Burma disappears from the headlines. This tactic was employed as recently as September, during a peaceful uprising led by monks. Their commitments included a dialogue with the democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is now under house arrest, but were quickly consigned to oblivion after international attention waned.\nJosef Silverstein, an expert on Myanmar at Rutgers University, explained in an article in the International Herald Tribune: “In all these crises that the Burmese face, there always is the teaser to take the pressure off the government. They seem like they are going to cooperate, and just as soon as comment dies down, anything that is going to be useful dies with it.” \nThe junta is attempting to forcibly rebuild its tattered country. They are evacuating thousands from shelters and coercing children to jeopardize their safety by returning to still damaged and hazardous schools, where disease can often spread. However, it is important to remember that the Burmese still face extremely hard times. Materials for rebuilding are becoming more unavailable and expensive, their economy could possibly collapse, and less than a month remains to sew seeds in the Irrawaddy Delta to avoid dangerously reduced rice production and a possible food shortage. It is of the utmost importance for the survivors of the cyclone that the international community doesn’t forget about them – or avert their scrutiny from the oppressive junta government.