Burma expels foreign aid workers
Kenneth Denby; 16/5/08
The Burmese authorities have sealed off the cyclone disaster zone from the outside world, expelling foreign aid workers and placing multiple checkpoints along roads into the Irrawaddy Delta, to the despair of foreign diplomats and aid workers. The isolation of the delta confirms the growing sense among international organisations that the Burmese junta is never going to allow a wide-ranging foreign-led aid effort of the kind that was mounted in several countries after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Aid groups are trying instead to mount a stealth operation in which Western aid is distributed by government organisations, local aid workers, and international staff from countries that the regime regards as friendly and compliant.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23705084-2703,00.html
Burma kids in peril as survivors struggle; 15/5/08; http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23699863-25837,00.html
Tags: Burma, Children, Environment, Human Rights