Burma aid faces ’siphon’
Paul Maley; 14/5/08
Senior aid officials in Burma have warned that Australia’s first aid shipment to the stricken country, which arrived yesterday, will almost certainly be rebadged as the property of the Burmese Government, with sizeable portions likely to be siphoned off by corrupt officials. Kevin Rudd yesterday launched a fresh attack on the “demonstrably inadequate” response of the Burmese junta to the May 2 cyclone, which has left up to 100,000 people dead and a further 1.5 million homeless. The Prime Minister told parliament an RAAF C-117 Globemaster aircraft had touched down in Rangoon with 31 tonnes of supplies. On board were water purification tablets, medical supplies, tarpaulins and blankets.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23695383-5013404,00.html
Cyclone death toll updated to 34,000; 14/5/08; See; http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23696362-12335,00.html;
Heavy rain lashes Burma; Aung Hla Tun; 13/5/08; http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23695192-12335,00.html
Inaction in Burma a ‘crime against humanity’; Leo Lewis; 14/5/08; http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23692575-25837,00.html
The deluge to come
Emma-Kate Symons;14/5/08
He is a reclusive, disease-riddled, notoriously superstitious former postal worker. Than Shwe, the self-styled star of his own propaganda channel, the chilling proto-Stalinist Myanmar TV network, is the war criminal who heads Burma’s military junta. A kung-fu film enthusiast and former psychological warfare expert, Shwe has been leader of the junta since 1992. He is buttressed by his second and third in command, fellow generals Maung Aye, 68, and Shwe Mann, 60, and by Prime Minister Thein Sein. Now 75 and reeling from the social and political blowback of Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma 11 days ago, the increasingly paranoid dictator is said to be in fear for his health and political future.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23692864-25837,00.html
Skinned alive by Cyclone Nargis
Kenneth Denby; 14/5/08
In Lay Htat monastery, an area of perhaps 10000sq m, 8000 people eat, sleep and struggle to keep clean, so at first it is easy to miss the marks of the storm. Stepping among the refugees, so dense in places that there is not 30cm of space between them, you begin to notice the marks - on elbows, arms and naked backs. Some have crusted over, but others are raw and red as burns. These are the scars of Cyclone Nargis, a storm of wind, water and debris so intense it rubbed the skin off the flesh. And they are just one of a list of health menaces after the devastation of the storm. Walking through Lay Htat monastery is an overwhelming experience, all the more so when you learn that it is one of 58 improvised “camps” - most of them in schools and Buddhist temples - in Laputa, one of the worst-hit towns in the Irrawaddy Delta.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23692570-25837,00.html
Tags: Aid, Australia, Environment, Toll