http://www.qando.net/ - How paranoid is Myanmar’s Junta?

Myanmar's military leaders seized aid shipments headed for cyclone survivors and told the top U.S. diplomat there Friday that they're not ready to let in American aid workers despite warnings the country is on the verge of a medical catastrophe.

Another 4 inches of rain was forecast to fall next week as more than 1 million people waited for food, clean water, shelter and medicine to reach them. Diplomats and aid groups warned number of dead could eventually exceed 100,000 because of illnesses and said thousands of children may have been orphaned.

The U.N. World Food Program said two planeloads of supplies containing enough high-energy biscuits to feed 95,000 people were seized Friday, prompting the world body to say it was suspending food-aid flights.

When their total control is threatened by catastrophe, their reaction is to tighten control even more. They obviously don't feel secure enough to allow foreign aid workers to be traipsing all over their country spreading such ideas as freedom, liberty and, quite possibly, sparking revolution, do they.

So instead:

Myanmar's government acknowledged taking control of the shipments and said it plans to distribute the aid itself to the affected areas.

In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press, government spokesman Ye Htut said the junta had clearly stated what it would do and denied the action amounted to a seizure.

"I would like to know which person or organization (made these) these baseless accusations," he said.

Yeah, I bet he would. Of course, if you think about it, the junta's reaction isn't much different than that you might expect from a number of other totalitarian regimes. There's the Sudan, as an example. And can you imagine Robert Mugabe's regime allowing aid workers free access to the necessary areas? Or Hugo Chavez? Iran?

Oh they'll take the aid. Fly it or ship it in, and hand it over. That way the top dogs get their cut and they can control who does or doesn't get what based on their assessment of who is most deserving politically. Of course, for those suffering people in need, the rest of the world is stuck dancing to the dictators tune if they hope to help anyone. Yes, it is sometimes a wonderful world we live in, isn't it?

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Personally, I think they took the opportunity provided by this storm to practice a little nature based genocide.
I recall reading the reports India had given them two days notice of the oncoming storm, and they did nothing.

Perhaps ’nothing’ consisted of advising people you wanted to keep, and forgetting to advise people you really didn’t want. If nature takes them out on day 1, good, if not, well, a little delay in aid, food, water, ought to finish the job over the course of the next couple weeks.

All natural genocide^TM.

Written By: looker
URL: http://

If this isn’t a reason to support a revolution in Burma I don’t know what is. This junta obviously doesn’t think saving its people is in its job description. Forget a food drive. What the people need there are guns pointed at their leaders.

Written By: Sean Hackbarth
URL: http://www.theamericanmind.com

I blame Bush, not the Junta...after the example our Dear Leader has provided of US Imperialism in our War of Aggression against Irak I can’t say as I blame the Junta for refusing foreign intervention. When will it end, if ever? The CIA has penetrated a majority of NGO’s and they simply become spies, outside agitators, and agents provocateur....

IF, the Jimmy Carter were to be placed in charge of this operation I might feel differently, but considering our recent past, both for its violent oppression and the incompetence manifested in Katrina, I say the Myanmar-ese are the better for NOT having US agents tromping thru their paddies.

Please sign up for my on-line class, "New Paradigms in Soft-Power: Jimmy Carter as Trendsetter in Dealing With Authentic Leaders of the People."

Written By: Joe
URL: http://

Well, it won’t be the first time the Junta has reacted this way. Look at the dreaded panties scandal.

They are a weird bunch of characters. So weird they should be in the middle east.

Written By: capt joe
URL: http://

Looker may be right; the first thing that occurred to me was "Ukrainian famine". But I wouldn’t make such an accusation without some very firm evidence. Remember that it’s the same thing of which Bush has been accused by the moonbats regarding Katrina and New Orleans.

Also, I believe Iran should not be on your list. At the time of their last major earthquake they accepted help from us and almost everyone else; the only exception was a refusal to allow Israeli teams to come to help look for survivors.

Written By: kishnevi
URL: http://kishnevi.wordpress.com/

Also, I believe Iran should not be on your list. At the time of their last major earthquake they accepted help from us and almost everyone else; the only exception was a refusal to allow Israeli teams to come to help look for survivors.

If I’m not mistaken, that was pre-Amadinejhad. I believe the last significant quake that required such aid was in Dec 2003 when the much more moderate Khatami was president.

Written By: McQ
URL: http://www.QandO.net

Here is a technology that all tyrants can use.

Written By: Neo
URL: http://

Wait for "failure of the United States & the West" once the bodies are stacked for counting.

"If only the west had given us the aid ~~with no accountability~~ when we needed it countless lives ~~of people the government wanted to elminate~~ would have been saved. And we’ve had to tell the survivors ~~that we didn’t want to kill outright because it would cause international outcry~~ that the west didn’t care about their plight and failed to supply lifesaving aid ~~under our terms of control~~.

We’ll get to have a ’George Bush hates Myanmar’ moment.

And other petty thugs and US haters will peddle that we should have given them aid supplies and just hoped for the best.

Written By: looker
URL: http://

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