Refugees flee disaster zone
Aung Hla Tun; 12/5/08
Desperate survivors of Cyclone Nargis poured out of Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta yesterday in search of food, water and medicine as aid workers warned that up to 1.5 million faced death if emergency supplies did not get through soon. Buddhist temples and schools in towns on the outskirts of the storm’s trail of destruction were now makeshift refugee centres for women, children and the elderly as millions of dollars in emergency aid was stalled on airport tarmacs pending permission to enter the country and hundreds of relief specialists were waiting for visas. The reclusive military government is accepting aid from the outside world, including from the UN, but has made clear it will not let in the foreign logistics teams needed to transport the aid into the inundated delta.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23681111-2703,00.html
1.5 million left clinging to survival; Graeme Jenkins; 12/5/08; http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/15-million-left-clinging-to-survival/2008/05/11/1210444240317.html
As Burma’s junta counts its fake votes, photos show the reality; 12/5/08; http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/as-burmas-junta-counts-its-fake-votes-photos-show-the-reality/2008/05/11/1210444244358.html
Australia lifts Burma aid to $25m
Elizabeth Gosch & Anthony Klan; 12/5/08
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has announced Australia will boost its aid commitment to Burma more than eight times to $25million in the wake of Cyclone Nargis. The latest funding promise includes the original $3million pledged in the days following the devastating May 3 cyclone that hit southern Burma, killing about 100,000 people and leaving at least 1.5 million people homeless. In Perth yesterday, Mr Smith said that the increased funding would be split equally between the UN flash appeal and Australian non-government organisations.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23682045-2702,00.html
Grief is compounded by desperation
Harry McKenzie; 12/5/08
Burma’s great Irrawaddy river runs flat and muddy. It twines and forks through kilometres of rich delta and has always given nurture and good fortune to the people of southern Burma. But in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, death and sickness have replaced the captivating beauty of this triangle of fertile land. A terrible sadness has settled in. In many places, not a living thing moves - not even a thread of smoke from a village fire. It is deathly still. The pinnacles of the pagodas that dot the landscape have toppled in the wind. Bodies float in the water like chunks of wood. Trees are down, houses are flattened and everywhere in the inundated rice fields of this devoutly Buddhist land is an unbearable sense of loss.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23680480-25837,00.html
Tear down Burma’s bamboo curtain
Editorial; 12/5/08
There seems to be no underestimating the brutality of Burma’s regime as millions of people struggle to stay alive in the wake of the world’s worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami. Parts of the Irrawaddy Delta have been turned into a mass graveyard, with bloated bodies strewn across the devastated landscape. Estimates of those killed in the days since Cyclone Nargis slammed into the Burmese coast on the night of May 2 range from the official figure of 22,000 (unchanged for almost a week) to 400,000. Now aid officials are bracing for a second, potentially greater disaster with up to two million people at risk from malnutrition and disease.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23681224-16741,00.html
Tags: Aid, Australia, Burma, Environment, GriefAdd new tag, Refugees