The death toll from a tropical cyclone that struck the nation of Myanmar on Saturday could reach 10,000, according to foreign minister Nyan Win. Myanmar’s “rice bowl,” the Irrawaddy delta, has been hit by massive flooding [map], and many are worried that the disaster could worsen a world rice shortage. Because Myanmar is governed by a repressive and isolationist military junta, observers fear the nation’s leaders may refuse to accept outside aid.
Today, there appeared to be a breakthrough when UN officials said Myanmar had expressed a willingness to accept outside help. In light of the sensitive negotiations, it is hard to fathom why First Lady Laura Bush, speaking for the White House today, followed up an offer of disaster assistance with criticism of Myanmar’s government.
“It’s troubling that many of the Burmese people learned of this impending disaster only when foreign outlets … sounded the alarm,” she said. “Although they were aware of the threat, Burma’s state-run media failed to issue a timely warning to citizens in the storm’s path. The response to this cyclone is just the most recent example of the junta’s failures to meet its people’s basic needs.” (Associated Press)
Mrs. Bush followed up the criticism with an announcement that, tomorrow, President Bush will sign legislation awarding a Congressional Gold Medal to a Myanmar activist who has been a very public thorn in the junta’s side. In so doing, the White House risks derailing an opportunity to provide urgently needed aid. The hypocrisy of treating desperate people as political pawns while condemning the Myanmar government for violating human rights will likely reduce any political points the White House hoped to score.
Other potential relief providers appear to be putting politics aside in order to expedite aid to the thousands of disaster survivors who lack clean water and food. If the Bush administration had learned the most important lesson provided by Hurricane Katrina, it would have done the same.
(A full transcript of Mrs. Bush’s remarks is available here.)
1 user commented in " How not to offer disaster aid "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackWhat a joke.
It isn’t a matter of putting politics aside. The government of Myanmar want’s these people to die. It wants to stop (or better yet intercept) foreign aid. It wants to weaken opposition in the country side, it wants to use food, water, and medicine as a weapon to coerce these people into supporting them.
The only way any signicant amounts of aid are going to get through is will military force. US (or other foreign) troops go in guns blazing and topple the government. Otherwise, the government is going to refuse any aid or workers which it can not use as a weapon against its own people.
Same as North Korea, Somalia, Iran, etc. They don’t want foreign aid, because foreigners would help save the lives of the people they are fighting.
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