The Latest Disaster in Burma
Posted on May 4, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under International.
Exile media organization the Democratic Voice of Burma has been collecting photographs from its under-cover journalists inside Burma of the damage done by Saturday’s cyclone. You can see the images and a video of the cyclone here.
Wire services are estimating that at least 351 people died and thousands of homes have been destroyed. They are sourcing “state media,” which means that the damage is either much more severe than reported, or the Burmese junta has had a change of heart. The Burmese government is notorious for guarding news on bad storms like state secrets. The generals tend to be a superstitious bunch and believe that natural disasters signal a change to come. When I lived in Rangoon, I did not hear about a storm that struck Western Burma until my aunt living in New York emailed me about it.
Cyclone Nargis, which flattened entire villages around the country, came a week before a national referendum on Burma’s draft constitution (see post here).
The junta has already come under attack for its slow response to the disaster. The AP quotes an anonymous trishaw driver as saying: “Where are all those uniformed people who are always ready to beat civilians? They should come out in full force and help clean up the areas and restore electricity.”
Exile groups are pressuring the government to allow international relief organizations to operate freely in the country. This has a problem in the past. Prices of food, gas and other staples have skyrocketed. And, to make things even uglier, the worst hit areas were outside Rangoon, where there is limited access to health services, roads and other infrastructure. DVB does not have photos from the rural areas yet.
