Cyclone Nargis, which hit Burma last weekend, has obviously claimed a horrific number of lives. Burma’s military regime, which renamed the country Myanmar in 1989, admits to more than 22,000 dead. But inside observers say the death toll could rise as high as 100,000. (more…)
Over a week since Cyclone Nargis struck Burma, the death toll is estimated to be at least 100,000—and still rising. Yet as the bodies decompose, Burma’s ruling Generals continue to refuse access to international aid workers. The limited aid supplies that have reached Burma have been seized by the military, either to distribute themselves for propaganda purposes or, according to some reports, to sell on the streets. And now the regime has taken a three-day public holiday and closed its embassies, causing another delay for international aid workers trying to find a way in to help. (more…)
Burma is in the middle of a catastrophe—the lives of more than a million people are at great risk and about 100,000 people have been killed. The damage to the country’s infrastructure and agriculture caused by Cyclone Nargis will be felt for years. (more…)
WHAT are we waiting for? Where now is liberal interventionism? (more…)
Since security is all about preventing any major threat to human life, the effect of the deadly cyclone that hit Burma last Saturday must be seen from a serious human security perspective. However, the Burmese military junta is far from comprehending such a humane concept.
(more…)
The ruling junta denies lifesaving aid to its own people.
A horrific crime is being carried out by the clique of generals that rules Burma, with the world as witness. According to the United Nations, some 1.5 million people near the country’s southern coast are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance following Cyclone Nargis last weekend. Tens of thousands are dead, and 1 million or more are homeless. The few reports reaching the outside world from the Irrawaddy Delta region, where 2,000 square miles are underwater, speak of thousands of refugees camped in the open without food, medicine or clean water amid the stench of rotting bodies. (more…)
Long before the catastrophic cyclone smashed into Burma and brought down the already feeble nation to its knees, the core of the military organization suffered a serious blow last September. During the monks’ uprising, a Burmese diplomat privately expressed his sympathy for the monks uprising and his worries about the affect of western sanctions on his family. He did not approve of the killing of the monks and he was unhappy to be identified with the generals who had ordered the killing. (more…)
A US air drop of humanitarian aid to the desperate survivors in the Irrawaddy delta—with or without Burma’s permission—is the only way to save lives that hang in the balance with each passing hour. (more…)
As a major humanitarian crisis in Burma unfolds and the death tool reaches 100,000, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Burmese military government is not doing enough to save lives.
(more…)
On May 10 most of the people of Burma will go to the polls in a referendum on a new constitution. This constitution aims to cement in place a regime (now styled the ‘State Peace and Development Council,’ or SPDC) that has impoverished this once prosperous land. (more…)
Four days after cyclone Nargis, large areas of southern Burma remain paralyzed, including the country’s largest city, Rangoon, and international aid agencies fear that unless large-scale relief rapidly reaches the survivors the death toll could soar yet again.
(more…)
For Burma’s normally reclusive military rulers, resented by their own citizens and mistrustful of the outside world’s intentions, the devastation wrought by tropical cyclone Nargis has posed an uncomfortable dilemma at a sensitive political moment.
(more…)
The devastating cyclone that killed at least 22,000 people in Myanmar is driving up the cost of basic commodities and could stir fresh protests against the country’s military rulers, who violently put down a pro-democracy uprising last year. (more…)
The junta has launched a daily media campaign designed to promote “Yes” votes during the May 10 constitutional referendum, but evidence is mounting its pro-constitution blitz has convinced many people to vote “No.”
(more…)
Thailand must stop pandering to the Burmese junta and do more to bring positive change
(more…)
Myanmar’s military regime is under fire for the language in a new constitution to be approved at a national referendum on May 10. The full text of the charter was made public only a month ahead of the plebiscite.
(more…)
It has now been a year since Burma and North Korea announced their
intentions to renew diplomatic relations. In the ordinary course of
events, such an announcement between two nations at loggerheads would be a
welcome sign. (more…)
In less than three weeks the Burmese people will vote in a national
referendum on the country’s draft constitution. It will be a historic
democratic battle between the iron-fisted government that wants to impose
its rule and impoverished voters who want to be free. (more…)
Ever since 1962, when General Ne Win toppled the democratic government of
U Nu and imposed military rule in Myanmar, Communist China has
consistently supported the junta and its repressive policies. (more…)
Orange-robed, serene Buddhist monks recently engaged in the unserene business of unseating the junta in Burma. And the stoic Aung Sang Suu Kyi is engaged in an awkward, and very public, pirouette with the generals. But a quieter battle has been underway for two decades in Burma, entirely undramatic, but profoundly consequential. Its quiet nature should not obscure the fact that it is a slugfest. In one corner, China. In the other, India. Sino-Indian competition for influence in the common hinterland of the two countries is heating up, and will get a lot hotter. (more…)