As the tragedy in Burma becomes worse by the day, with new estimates that as many as 100,000 people may have died when the cyclone hit, it’s becoming evident that the situation on the ground is being made worse by a military dictatorship that doesn’t want to accept help from the outside:
BANGKOK, May 7 — Small quantities of drinking water, food, tents and other vital supplies reached Burma’s devastated Irrawaddy Delta region Wednesday, as bodies floated uncollected in swollen rivers and sea-flooded rice paddies five days after a cyclone roared through.
Survivors, speaking in video interviews, gave harrowing accounts of clinging to the trunks of palm trees to escape swirling floodwaters and then escaping to high ground in rickety boats, the Associated Press reported. A U.S. diplomat said the human toll, now tentatively at least 22,000 dead and 40,000 missing, could reach 100,000 dead.
As evidence mounted of long-term damage to one of the world’s premier rice-producing zones, international aid agencies expressed new frustration that a huge operation to help the estimated 1 million survivors is being held up by the apparent reluctance of Burma’s military rulers to let foreign relief experts into the country.
Four Asian citizens who are part of a U.N. emergency team were cleared by the government to enter Burma on Thursday, but a fifth member, a Westerner, got no permission, and nearly 40 others remained uncleared, the United Nations said. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the government to speed “in every way possible” the arrival of workers and supplies in Burma, a Southeast Asian nation surrounded by India, China and Thailand.
“The government authorities have never had to deal with a disaster on this scale before, and it is imperative that the lessons from other major disasters can be applied rapidly, rather than having to be re-learnt,” said Richard Horsey, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
This is on top of reports that came out right after the cyclone hit indicating the the Burmese government failed to pass on warnings about the approaching storm to the public in time for people to at least try to get out of the way:
Australian researchers say Burmese authorities could have had as much as 72 hours notice of the devastating Cyclone Nargis.
But they say authorities were either unable or unwilling to communicate the danger to the public or advise them how to protect themselves.
This despite the fact that the Burmese had apparently been given at least 48 hours notice that the storm was headed their way:
INDIAN meteorologists tracking the cyclone that killed more than 22,000 people in Burma said they had given their neighbour 48-hours warning of an impending storm.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), which had been monitoring the deepening depression over the Bay of Bengal since late last month, said it gave 48-hours warning that the cyclone would barrel into Burma.
“Forty-eight hours before (tropical cyclone) Nargis struck, we indicated its point of crossing (landfall), its severity and all related issues to Myanmarese (Burmese) agencies,” IMD spokesman B.P. Yadav said.
“Our job is to give warnings and in advance, and we take pride in saying that we gave warnings much, much in advance and there was enough time to take precautionary measures such as evacuation,” Yadav said.
The IMD is mandated by the World Meteorological Organisation to track cyclones over South Asia and parts of South-East Asia.
The comments came after US First Lady Laura Bush accused Burma’s military regime of failing to warn its citizens in time about the cyclone, which devastated the impoverished countr
Would everyone have been saved if they’d had notice that the storm was coming ? Probably not, but some of them would have and that would’ve been something. The Burmese dictators, however, were either too incompetent to do anything about it, or just didn’t care.
