CYCLONE NARGIS has caused horrific suffering, and the military junta ruling Burma has only been compounding it. In the face of this humanitarian calamity, international aid organizations and governments must focus on saving lives. But from now on no government can have an excuse for overlooking the sheer destructiveness of Burma's narco-trafficking generals - or for cooperating with them for commercial or strategic advantage.
There were forecasts as early as Wednesday about the 150-mile-per-hour winds that tore through the Irrawaddy River delta Friday night and Saturday, but the military regime failed to issue timely warnings. In the crucial days following the disaster, when rapid delivery of disaster relief is needed for people who are without food, water, power, or shelter, the generals are delaying or thwarting aid shipments from the United States and other nations critical of the junta.
The generals rejected foreign assistance after the 2004 tsunami, at some cost to their people. But the devastation today is far worse.
Some knowledgeable outsiders estimate that hundreds of thousands of people who initially survived the cyclone are now at risk of perishing. To his credit, President Bush has offered to send in US teams trained for disaster assessment, and to have helicopters from US naval ships in the region fly in drinking water, biscuits, blankets, and building materials for the millions left homeless by the cyclone.
But the paranoid generals are refusing to allow US aircrafts into Burma's airspace. They are denying needed visas to foreign aid workers representing international relief agencies. They have a history of treating aid workers from abroad as spies.
Some of the aid shipments they have accepted were not delivered directly to people in need but unloaded at the airport by uniformed soldiers. Given the past performances of the regime, there is reason to doubt that the goods received by the military were transferred to the people whose villages were flooded.
Soldiers and security agents aplenty were dispatched in September to assault Buddhist monks and civilian supporters staging peaceful protests, but few government forces have been seen helping victims of the cyclone. Even more revealing is the junta's insistence on holding a rigged referendum Saturday on a sham constitution to institutionalize military rule. The generals' two-week delay for balloting in flooded areas only highlights their contempt for democracy and the people of Burma.
The ruin brought to Burma by Cyclone Nargis is multiplied by the political catastrophe wrought by the junta.
