Tragedy Befalls A Dictatorship

by dday

The destruction from the cyclone in Myanmar is so widespread that the country is asking for outside help. For context, Myanmar was battered during the tsunami and resisted outside help.

“YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar said Monday more than 10,000 people died in the cyclone that battered the impoverished nation, whose secretive military rulers made a rare appeal for international help to cope with the tragedy.

Reeling from the weekend disaster, which also left thousands missing, the Southeast Asian country once known as Burma — one of the world’s poorest — warned that the staggering death toll could still rise further.

‘There could be more casualties,’ said Nyan Win, foreign minister of the military junta which has ruled the country with an iron fist for decades, and normally puts tight restrictions on aid agencies from the outside world.

‘We will welcome help like this from other countries, because our people are in difficulty,’ he said.”

It should be noted that NPR is reporting that relief organizations haven’t yet been allowed inside the country, although World Vision already had a small group there and they have begun to operate emergency services.

This plays into the food crisis as well, because the area hit the hardest is full of rice paddies. Myanmar exports rice to Sri Lanka. Also, the World Food Program is coordinating relief efforts, which means a further strain to their resources.

The most recent number I heard was 22,000 dead. (I also don’t put it past this government to add those monks murdered in last year’s riots on to the top of the piles of bodies.)

I cannot say if relief money will actually get through, which is frustrating, but here’s a link.

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