Myanmar rebuffs Northwest aid groups

[spindrifter]

The first U.S. relief place finally got the OK to fly urgently needed food and supplies to cyclone-devastated Myanmar, but relief workers - including many from the Puget Sound area - are still forbidden to enter the country.
Sixty-five thousand people have died and a situation that was already critical is now desperate, international relief officials said.

Most areas still have no electricity, no phone lines, no shelter, no medicine and no clean water. And hundreds of thousands of people still have no help.

<snip>

"Not only don't they have the capacity to deliver assistance, they don't have experience," said Mark Farmaner, director of the pro-democracy Burma Campaign UK. "It's already too late for many people. Every day of delays is costing thousands of lives."

<more>

http://www.komotv.com/news/18816989.html

+++++

This will be one of the world's worst humanitarian aid failures. Why? Because of some paranoid generals who care only about themselves.

[Beregond2]

1. I can only presume

they don't want the world to see how bad things are in that country. And of course, any reduction of population is all to the good, from their POV.

[malaise]

2. That's one hell of an assumption

Maybe the simple truth is that no one trusts America anymore. The world is wary of 'Greeks bearing gifts'. People are real scared of that so called Iraqi freedom and democracy model.

[spindrifter]

3. The generals are not just shutting us out.

They don't want the U.N., either. World Vision had an established relationship in Myanmar--but only their workers who are already there can do anything. There is a referendum Sunday that may have something to do with the generals' decisions. NGO's are hoping that after it is over they will lighten up.