UPDATE: Latest reports say 15,000- Burmese dead from cyclone. Given that dictator Than Shwe said only three monks died during the peaceful demonstrations by Buddhist holy people last September, when in fact the numbers maimed and murdered were in the thousands…
and given that after the September 2007 peaceful demonstrations, Than Shwe confiscated all cell phones and computers amongst the citizenry, jailing anyone or ‘disappearing’ anyone who had one…. thus Than Shwe managed to leave outlying regions in such a crisis as this cyclone aftermath unable to communicate their losses and their needs.
Such cavalier undervaluation of others’ lives is the hallmark of Than Shwe’s cruel dictatorship. While he endlessly gluts himself in fine drink and fine food and the best of everything, including his ill gotten gains from the cocaine trade exports of Burma, the people of Burma have nothing, no shelter, no water, no food.
The cyclone hit the productive rice fields. The price of eggs and rice have rocketed overnight. Thus far Senior General Than Shwe has left the babies sucking air, the old people without food, the injured without help, the dead without recovery or burial.
China is Than Shwe’s consort. With an nth of all Chinese manpower, they could have been boots on the ground and helping within hours. It is now nearing two days. According to my contact there, very little to nothing is being allowed into Burma or carried to those in need.
I feel certain that Than Shwe’s dragging his knees– again– is a tactic meant to murder the populations, instead of just slowly killing them, breaking their hearts and starving them as he was before.
Than Shwe’s past tactics are to dress some of his military up in monks robes and for them to pretend to be happy; to make sure to take pictures of such. The pictures are phony. It would not be beyond Than Shwe to mock up some ‘doctors’ and even display a red cross– and take pictures of these– to prove to the world he is letting aid into Burma that goes directly past his overstuffed coffers and to the poor people
There’s one thing Than Shwe hasnt counted on, however, and that is that the world is far smarter than he thinks and he is the one who is provincial and uneducated. People across the world see through him. The sight is not pretty.
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Previous article by Dr. E, posted earlier today:
Cyclone in Burma (the junta calls the country Myanmar)
120 mph winds and rain.
Concentrated near Rangoon, (now called Yangon)
more than 10,000 Burmese men, women, children, old people are dead.
Dead, dead, dead.
military junta and soldiers slow slow slow to respond to the hundreds of thousands of Burmese who need shelter and clear drinking water…
… let alone helping to bury the dead
…let alone tend to the injured
not anywhere near as fast as the bloated self-appointed dictator Than Shwe moved his military in to murder peaceful Buddhist monks and nuns who protested the regime’s doubling the cost of essentials like cooking oil, overnight last September… cooking oil… an essential nourishment to Burma’s tribal groups and vast shanty towns of poor.
While Than Shwe sports lots of shiny military medals on his shirt over his prosperous girth,
the Burmese people’s ribs show through their backs
To this point, Than Shwe has not okayed that rescue and medical teams can come into Burma, though those mercy groups are packed and poised to spring into action from all over the world, including the US, which has pledged money and disaster response teams. The UN also stands ready. As does the Red Cross. As do Doctors to the World.
But, Than Shwe, like Warren Jeffs, the leader of an arcane group of polygamists, knows that exposure to the outside world, not only exposes criminal activity within the sealed group, but can also expose the sealed-in people to ideas and warmth and kindness and views of the world –should they choose to see them—that they’ve never experienced from their own regime before.
Just enough to cut doors in walls… where there were no doors before. Hunger for freedom is a heck of a reciprocating blade saw.
Ships from all over the world are loaded and waiting to sail for Burma. Cargo planes are loaded and waiting. The world is waiting Than Shwe. You must only say the word.
What will you say, when will you say it, but more importantly, how soon will you unleash mercy instead of murder? Murder by intent, or murder by neglect, Than Shwe, are the very same thing.
CODA
Meanwhile Senior General Than Shwe and his military generals are sequestered out of harm’s way 250 miles away from the center of the cyclone damage, and have publicized that despite the cyclone, despite the Nation of Burma groaning in such pain, despite people dying from their crushing and projectile wounds, the junta leaders just wanted to make sure that all Burmese know they will go ahead with their May 10 “referendum” on a new army-drafted constitution that critics say will entrench the military—in perpetuity.
Meanwhile, also, the military and police killed 36 Burmese incarcerated at Rangoon’s Insein prison, known as the jail to silence dissidents. The military said it had to kill 36 prisoners to stop a riot that started when inmates were herded into a large hall and started a fire to try to keep warm. This last fact given in a communique from a longstanding Thai human rights group.