PoliGazette » Myanmar Death Toll Rising

Myanmar Death Toll Rising

Filed under: General News — Claudia, Assistant Editor on May 6, 2008 @ 3:29 pm CEST

The brutal military junta of Myanmar is admitting 22,500 deaths as a result of a cyclone that hit the nation on Saturday. Considering that this is the same government that admitted to only 3 deaths during it’s brutal repression of the popular uprisings several months ago, it’s safe to say that this number is far below the actual count. Even official news sources (all other sources are, as always, banned) are estimating 40,000 missing.

Some of the hardest hit areas are the ones that have been the most repressed by the dictatorship in the former Burma. People are complaining (secretly, for fear of reprisals) of ineffectual or outright nonexistent government aid, while at the same time it appears that Buddhist monks are hard at work clearing wreckage and opening their monasteries to refugees. It doesn’t help of course that as part of the political oppression all manner of communication equipment, from cellphones to radios, are forbidden, making communication with stricken areas nearly impossible.

Children Taken in at a Buddhist temple

The minister of information did have this to say:

The people not to be duped by rumors or fabrication.”

Translation: Please only listen to and report the things we say, refrain from listening to people or paying attention to what your eyes tell you.

Children taken in at a Buddhist temple

The US is promising aid only if they are allowed a disaster team inside the country, said First Lady Laura Bush in a news conference punctuated with lectures on human rights and disaster relief, concepts that are probably totally alien to the brutes in the military junta. A junta-friendly pundit had this to say:

“This is a cheap shot,” said Aung Nain Oo, a Burmese political analyst who is based in Thailand. “The people are dying. This is no time for a political message to be aired. This is a time for relief. No one is asking for anything like this except the United States.”

“Cheap shot”? Demanding oversight from a country notorious for lack of it and reminding them that it’s a good idea to treat people like more than insects is a “cheap shot”? The US should include a section of it’s armed forces with the aid group, to teach these heartless pigs what shots actually look like, up close.

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