Myanmar Cylone

Just today I received a message from our Emergency Response Team in Myanmar and I wanted to share some information with you about the crisis.

Our emergency response colleagues are working closely with two international partners already established in country, CESVI and GAA. With water sources contaminated, food supplies scarce and a great risk of disease outbreaks, future critical needs are clear. Today 2,000 households will be supplied with a two week food ration of rice, pulses, oil and salt. One thousand other households will receive non-food items like soap, plastic buckets, containers and plastic sheeting. Plastic sheeting is especially important as it can be used for rainwater collection.

Our appeal is simple. We need to raise funds quickly to help our team alleviate the suffering of the people whose lives have been devastated by this cyclone. If any of your friends, family or work colleagues are interested in supporting Concern's appeal, please forward this email today, or they can always visit our website at www.concernusa.org. Our update is right there on the front page.

Be assured we will keep you updated as soon as we hear more information from the field.

Thank you for caring.

Best wishes,
Siobhan Walsh
Concern Worldwide US
www.concernusa.org

Myanmar death toll rise to 43,318
The death toll of Myanmar's cyclone storm Nargis rose by 4,827, bringing the total to 43,318, according to the state radio.
• 320 tons of aid supplies transported to Myanmar
• China sends relief supplies to Myanmar

Burmese Junta Requests Aid to Rehabilitate Farms
Washington Post, United States -
By Amy Kazmin and William Branigin BANGKOK, May 15 -- Burma's military rulers are appealing for international funding to get rice farmers in the ...

Monsoon conditions forecast for Burma
ABC Online, Australia -
By ABC correspondent Peter Lloyd and wires Heavy rain is forecast for the weekend over Burma's cyclone affected south-east, adding to the humanitarian ...

Saving Burma
TIME -
There is only one major road leading to Naypyidaw. Nearly three years ago, when Burma's new capital was carved out of scrubland, the country's ruling ...

U.N.: Myanmar deaths could exceed 100,000

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/...?iref=hpmostpop

Heavy rain "worst scenario" for cyclone survivors (Extra)
Monsters and Critics.com - May 14, 2008
Geneva - Heavy rain forecast for the disaster-struck Irrawaddy Delta in Myanmar represented 'the worst scenario imaginable,' said a spokesman for the ...

Red Cross: Myanmar death toll as high as 128000
Newsday, NY -
AP YANGON, Myanmar - The Red Cross estimated yesterday that the cyclone death toll could be as high as 128000 - much higher than the government tally.

Myanmar resists world pressure
Aljazeera.net, Qatar -
Myanmar's military rulers appear to be digging in their heels in the face of mounting international pressure to allow more aid into the country.

Myanmar survivors wonder: 'Where do they want us to go?'
Yangon (AFP) May 15, 2008 - "Where do they want us to go? We have no house any more, and it is raining," says 30-year-old Gangamani, one of thousands of cyclone victims ordered to leave monasteries where they have been sheltering. Some 1,000 people, both Buddhists and ethnic Indian Hindus, have made a makeshift camp in the grounds of a monastery across the river from Myanmar's main city Yangon. But now the military ... more

More aid relief access to Myanmar needed to avert “human catastrophe”
Yangon, May 15, 2008 / 08:02 pm (CNA).- Catholic partners of the global charity Caritatis Internationalis have begun delivering aid to the people of Myanmar suffering in the devastated aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. Though aid workers in the country report scenes of “death and mayhem,” aid agencies are still pleading with the Myanmar government to allow more aid into the country to avert a “human catastrophe.”

The death toll of the May 3 storm presently stands at 100,000 people and is expected to rise. At least 1.5 million people have been affected by the cyclone.

In a Caritas Media press release, a Caritas worker who was inside Myanmar during the cyclone’s landfall described the situation as “overwhelming.”

“Nature unleashed an orgy of death and mayhem, wounding an already suffering population,” said the aid worker, who wished to remain anonymous.

The worker was in Phyapon, down the Irrawaddy River, when the cyclone hit.

“The bodies of human beings and cattle were floating alongside our boat. We reached a destroyed village and were the first outsiders to reach them. Cyclone Nargis bombed them, flattened them and left them rattled with their spirit rattled,” the worker said.

“The body of a five year-old boy drifted by, [the] child of a mourning mother somewhere, the boy drifting in an unknown waters, waiting for a burial, unwept and unsung,” the worker continued.

The most crucial needs of people in the disaster area are water, food, and shelter.

“We witnessed children biting at old coconut shells as we went in,” said the worker. “Dead people and animals are everywhere. The people neither have the energy nor the will to bury them. There were many refugees, living in roofless churches and monasteries. Help has not reached them.”

Caritas Australia CEO Jack de Groot urged the speedy deployment of relief aid teams.

“It is clear the scale of this disaster teeters on becoming a human catastrophe unless we get emergency teams into the most remote and isolated parts of the affected areas – many of which are yet to receive assistance to this point,” de Groot said.

He said that the medical infrastructure in Myanmar is “already at breaking point.” If cholera or amoebic dysentery breaks out, hundreds of thousands of lives could be lost.

“We plead with the leaders in Burma to please, please, please allow international access to the international community who can offer critically needed assistance in Burma. The need is so urgent for international access. We can still avert a human catastrophe but our window of opportunity is diminishing quickly,” de Groot continued.

Church partners of Caritas Internationalis are providing food and other aid to 10,000 people in Yangon and Irrawaddy. They expected to increase their volume of relief aid to help 40,000 people by Wednesday. Church medical staff are also traveling to the worst affected areas to provide treatment to survivors.

At least $1 million has been spent on Caritas International’s relief efforts. The relief organization is coordinating its 162 national members to respond to the humanitarian crisis.

According to a Caritas Internationalis press release, Archbishop Charles Bo of Yangon said, “As a Church, we are reaching out to the victims with all the means at our disposal. At this hour of darkness, we are encouraged by the show of support by our friends from abroad. There are urgent needs for food, water and shelter. Thousands are in need of medical help.”

New storm deepens misery in cyclone-hit Myanmar

[/url]Video: Aid Groups Want Access to MyanmarVideo: Aid Groups Want Access to Myanmar

Burma Requests Aid to Rehabilitate Farms - Kazmin and Branigin, Washington Post
Burma Farmers May Miss Harvest - New York Times
Burma Junta Hails Poll Win as People Suffer - Kenneth Denby, London Times
Burma: Monks vs. Junta - Christopher Johnson, Christian Science Monitor
Pentagon Calls on Burma's Junta to Accept Aid - Al Pessin, VOA
Aid for Burma 'Must be Monitored' - BBC News
Limited Options in Burma - Austin Bay, Washington Times opinion
Burma's Junta Will Survive the Cyclone - Leslie Hook, Wall Street Journal opinion

Burmese Cyclone Claims at least 43,000
May 15, 2008
That may be the death toll from the natural disaster but no one knows what the toll will be as a result of the Myanmar Junta not allowing foreign aid workers to help them assess damage and figure out how to feed, bring water, and give shelter to around 1.5 million people: More

ASIA HAND
Myanmar's killing
fields of neglect
With the international community looking on in stunned disbelief, Myanmar's humanitarian crisis has intensified as the military government pilfers foreign aid and the UN dithers through dead-end talks. Only the US military now has the power to avert a wider human catastrophe. - Shawn W Crispin (May 16, '08)

No foreigners, no cameras for Myanmar

The Myanmar junta is attempting to keep the death and devastation caused by Cyclone Nagris from the public and give the impression, locally and internationally, it has relief efforts under control - no foreigners and no cameras in the affected areas, please. As for foreign cash donations and aid in kind, it should be given directly to the generals. (May 14, '08)

Why Myanmar's junta steals foreign aid
To the Myanmar junta's top generals in their bunkers in the secluded capital Naypyidaw, far away from the devastated Irrawaddy Delta, their aid distribution policy is one of political survival at all costs. With rice crops destroyed, bases wiped out and soldiers running out of food, the military leadership is scrambling to preserve control by commandeering relief supplies to channel to its own members. - Brian McCartan (May 13, '08)

Myanmar cyclone toll tops 77,000 : The UN is now warning that 2.5 million people are facing hunger and disease

Rain deepens Myanmar misery; death toll soars
Reuters India -
India sends doctors to Burma BBC News
More rain deepens misery in cyclone-hit Myanmar Washington Post

6-May-2008 -- Vatican Information Service
Telegram for Victim of Cyclone in Myanmar
VATICAN CITY, 6 MAY 2008 (VIS) - Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. has sent a telegram, in the Pope's name, to Archbishop Paul Zinghtung Grawng of Mandalay, and president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Myanmar, for the cyclone which struck the country recently, leaving thousands of victims in its wake. The text of the English-language telegram is given below:

"Deeply saddened by news of the tragic aftermath of the recent cyclone, the Holy Father expresses his heartfelt sympathy. With prayers for the victims and their families, he invokes God's peace upon the dead and divine strength and comfort upon the homeless and all who are suffering. Confident that the international community will respond with generous and effective relief to the needs of your countrymen, His Holiness asks you to convey his solidarity and concern to the civil authorities and to all the beloved people of Myanmar".

6-May-2008 -- Catholic News Agency
Relief Agencies Request 'Urgent' Access to Myanmar
Yangong, May 5, 2008 (CNA).- Relief agencies are pleading for government cooperation in response to the devastating cyclone in Myanmar that has killed almost 4,000 people, leaving thousands missing and hundreds of thousands homeless. According to diplomats who spoke anonymously to the Associated Press, Foreign Minister Nyan Win said at a closed-door briefing that the death toll could rise to more than 10,000.

On Saturday Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit the Southeast Asian country with wind speeds nearing 120 miles per hour. A radio station in the capital city Naypyitaw said that 2,879 people are unaccounted for in a single town, Bogalay, which is located in the low-lying Irrawaddy River delta where the storm was most damaging.

The Associated Press reports that the cyclone blew roofs off of hospitals and schools and cut electricity in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city. Citizens have lined up to buy candles and water. The failure of electric water pumps has left most households dry.

The ruling military junta of Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, has spurned the international community for decades. It appealed for aid on Monday, but the U.S. State Department said Myanmar’s government had not granted permission for a Disaster Assistance Response Team to enter the country.

According to Matthew Cochrane at the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies' Geneva headquarters, volunteers are already distributing some basic items. However, a Red Cross official in Bangkok said widespread destruction is hindering the distribution of aid.

The World Food Program has pre-positioned 500 tons of food in Yangon and plans to bring in more relief supplies, according to the Associated Press.

The Caritas network of Catholic aid agencies has informed CNA that it is coordinating relief efforts for its 162 national organizations and is working with staff in the region.

Caritas Internationalis Emergency Response Team Leader Dolores Halpin-Bachmann said in an e-mail that, “There is an urgent need for access to aid workers to the affected areas so that we can assess the damage, start to provide food, shelter, clean water, and medical assistance. Myanmar is a poor country and will most likely need international help to respond to a disaster on this scale.”

“We’ve only been receiving sketchy reports, but they’re enough to make us concerned about the humanitarian situation. Nagris hit a major city with a population of five million people. In that environment, we know how important it is for people to get access to clean water to stop the spread of disease.”

Halpin-Bachmann said that the first few days are “crucial” for saving lives. After the great Asia tsunami disaster in 2004, she said, hundreds of thousands of lives were saved because of “rapid and effective response” from the humanitarian community in its early stages.

“The government must do all it can to help aid workers respond,” she said.

The Myanmar government has indicated that a planned referendum on the country’s draft constitution would proceed as scheduled on May 10, though officials have said the vote could be delayed by “a few days” in the worst hit areas. Pro-democracy groups and international critics claim the proposed constitution is only a means for the ruling junta to give the appearance of democracy.

7-May-2008 -- Vatican Information Service
Myanmar: Generous Assistance to Victims of Cyclone
VATICAN CITY, 7 MAY 2008 (VIS) - At the end of today's general audience, the Pope reiterated his closeness to people affected by the cyclone that struck southern Myanmar recently.

"I make my own the cry of pain and the call for assistance of the dear people of Myanmar", he said, "who without warning saw so many lives, and so much property and means of sustenance destroyed by the terrifying violence of the cyclone Nargis.

"As I already said in the message of solidarity I sent to the president of the episcopal conference, I remain spiritually close to the people affected. I would also like to repeat to everyone my call to open their hearts to pity and generosity so that, thanks to the collaboration of people who can and wish to bring help, the suffering caused by such an immense tragedy may be relieved".

8-May-2008 -- ZENIT.org News Agency
Benedict XVI Urges Aid as Myanmar Fears the Worst
VATICAN CITY, MAY 7, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI again expressed his closeness to the stricken people of Myanmar, as some 100,000 are feared dead after Saturday's cyclone.

At the end of today's general audience, the Pope reiterated his sympathy for the people affected by Cyclone Nargis, which devastated the Southeast Asian nation nestled between India, China and Thailand. More than 23,000 people are confirmed dead and 42,000 missing. Many expect the death toll could reach 100,000.

The Holy Father said he makes his own "the cry of pain and the call for assistance of the dear people of Myanmar, who without warning saw so many lives, and so much property and means of sustenance destroyed by the terrifying violence of the Cyclone Nargis."

"As I already said in the message of solidarity I sent to the president of the episcopal conference, I remain spiritually close to the people affected," the Pontiff continued. "I would also like to repeat to everyone my call to open their hearts to pity and generosity so that, thanks to the collaboration of people who can and wish to bring help, the suffering caused by such an immense tragedy may be relieved."

International aid is ready to be delivered, but the relief effort has been slow, in part because Myanmar's ruling military junta has been slow to grant visas to foreign aid-workers.

The president of Caritas Internationalis sent a message of solidarity Tuesday.

Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga said, "People in Myanmar are facing a terrible humanitarian crisis. The message of our global network to them is that they are not alone. Messages of support have flooded into our offices from around the world.

"The Burmese should know that we are doing everything we can to ensure international aid efforts get through. So far we are receiving very positive messages from the Myanmar government on their need for international help. We hope this will allow nongovernmental organizations such as ourselves access into the affected areas.

"Caritas members have expertise in the region in responding to similar humanitarian crises. We know from past emergencies such as the Asia tsunami and Cyclone Sidr that getting fresh water, medical supplies, food and shelter into a disaster zone quickly can prevent a second wave of deaths from disease and exposure. Caritas is ready to use that experience to help survivors in Myanmar as quickly as possible."

6-May-2008 -- Catholic News Agency
More Aid Relief Access Needed to Avert “Human Catastrophe” in Myanmar
Yangon, May 15, 2008 (CNA).- Catholic partners of the global charity Caritatis Internationalis have begun delivering aid to the people of Myanmar suffering in the devastated aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. Though aid workers in the country report scenes of “death and mayhem,” aid agencies are still pleading with the Myanmar government to allow more aid into the country to avert a “human catastrophe.”

The death toll of the May 3 storm presently stands at 100,000 people and is expected to rise. At least 1.5 million people have been affected by the cyclone.

In a Caritas Media press release, a Caritas worker who was inside Myanmar during the cyclone’s landfall described the situation as “overwhelming.”

“Nature unleashed an orgy of death and mayhem, wounding an already suffering population,” said the aid worker, who wished to remain anonymous.

The worker was in Phyapon, down the Irrawaddy River, when the cyclone hit.

“The bodies of human beings and cattle were floating alongside our boat. We reached a destroyed village and were the first outsiders to reach them. Cyclone Nargis bombed them, flattened them and left them rattled with their spirit rattled,” the worker said.

“The body of a five year-old boy drifted by, [the] child of a mourning mother somewhere, the boy drifting in an unknown waters, waiting for a burial, unwept and unsung,” the worker continued.

The most crucial needs of people in the disaster area are water, food, and shelter.

“We witnessed children biting at old coconut shells as we went in,” said the worker. “Dead people and animals are everywhere. The people neither have the energy nor the will to bury them. There were many refugees, living in roofless churches and monasteries. Help has not reached them.”

Caritas Australia CEO Jack de Groot urged the speedy deployment of relief aid teams.

“It is clear the scale of this disaster teeters on becoming a human catastrophe unless we get emergency teams into the most remote and isolated parts of the affected areas – many of which are yet to receive assistance to this point,” de Groot said.

He said that the medical infrastructure in Myanmar is “already at breaking point.” If cholera or amoebic dysentery breaks out, hundreds of thousands of lives could be lost.

“We plead with the leaders in Burma to please, please, please allow international access to the international community who can offer critically needed assistance in Burma. The need is so urgent for international access. We can still avert a human catastrophe but our window of opportunity is diminishing quickly,” de Groot continued.

Church partners of Caritas Internationalis are providing food and other aid to 10,000 people in Yangon and Irrawaddy. They expected to increase their volume of relief aid to help 40,000 people by Wednesday. Church medical staff are also traveling to the worst affected areas to provide treatment to survivors.

At least $1 million has been spent on Caritas International’s relief efforts. The relief organization is coordinating its 162 national members to respond to the humanitarian crisis.

According to a Caritas Internationalis press release, Archbishop Charles Bo of Yangon said, “As a Church, we are reaching out to the victims with all the means at our disposal. At this hour of darkness, we are encouraged by the show of support by our friends from abroad. There are urgent needs for food, water and shelter. Thousands are in need of medical help.”

urma Cyclone Toll Reaches 78,000 - Farley and Richter, Los Angeles Times
US Frustrated by Burma Junta’s Aid Limits - Cooper and Shanker, New York Times
Neighbors to Press Burma on Response - Glenn Kessler, Washington Post
Looming Dangers for Orphaned Burmese - Seth Mydans, New York Times
New Depths of Repression Under Burma's Than Shwe - Olivia Ward, Toronto Star
Burma 'Guilty of Inhuman Action' - BBC News
US Ships in Frustrating Wait Off Burma's Coast - Luis Ramirez, VOA

Myanmar (Burma) cyclone death toll rises to 77,738

Myanmar's Junta Gets a Pass from Powerful Neighbors

Andrew Lam, New American Media

Many wealthy Asian countries are more concerned with appeasing Myanmar's junta than helping victims of the cyclone.

Burma


THE EDITORS: The sad answer is that there is little we can do — or at least little we can do prudently. “The Suffering” 05/16 6:00 AM

International Pressure on Myanmar Junta Is Building

Burma Junta Killing its Own People - Alan Brown, London Daily Telegraph
Asian Health Professionals Allowed Into Burma - VOA
As Cyclone Refugees Wait, Burma Refuses Aid - Associated Press
In Burma, A Price for 'Stability' - Jim Hoagland, Washington Post opinion
Save Us From the Rescuers - David Rieff, Los Angeles Times opinion
Fed Up With Peace - Nicholas Kristof, New York Times opinion
UN to Burma: Drop Dead - Matthew Continetti, Weekly Standard opinion

Burma's Desperate Hour - The Nation

UN Envoy Heads to Burma with Urgent Relief Message
Over two weeks have passed since Cyclone Nargis touched down in Burma, killing 78,000 people and leaving tens of thousands more unaccounted for in its wake. Now, the UN is pushing Burma’s ruling junta to cooperate with international aid efforts, sending an envoy with a message from Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in hopes that a more personal approach will produce life-saving results.

Over Three Million Burmese Potentially Affected By Cyclone
Baltimore MD (SPX) May 19, 2008 - As many as 3.2 million Burmese are estimated to be affected by the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis, according to geographic risk models developed by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Lehman College, CUNY. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the researchers calculated the likely distribution of the population of Burma ... more

Burmese Leader Pays First Visit to Refugees - New York Times
UN Chief to Visit Cyclone-devastated Burma - Associated Press
Burma's Children 'Starving to Death' - Associated Press
More Humanitarian Flights Arrive in Burma - AFPS
Britain Backs Air Drops to Deliver Aid to Burma - Kenneth Denby, London Times
UN Chief to Visit Cyclone-devastated Burma - Associated Press
Burma Leader Meets Storm Victims - BBC News
A Burma Airlift - London Times editorial
Orwell Lives in Burma Today - Emma Larkin, Wall Street Journal opinion

The Cyclone Disaster in Myanmar...and the Human Tragedy of Global Capitalism- by Li Onesto - 2008-05-20

The Other Burmese Disaster

Although natural disasters often bring out the best in people, Cyclone Nargis has brought out the worst: it has shown the world that Myanmar’s (Burma’s) generals are concerned more with retaining and enhancing their political power than with saving the lives of the unfortunate people they rule.

“The Myanmar catastrophe is the result of a political mind-set—that is, of cold-blooded decisions aimed at protecting the military government from the threat of instability,” writes Alvaro Vargas Llosa, director of the Independent Institute’s Center on Global Prosperity.

Myanmar’s rulers concealed from the public the magnitude of the approaching tempest, lied about the number of victims left in its wake, obstructed the efforts of foreign relief agencies, forbade civilians from distributing the little aid that made it through, and sought to legitimize and further entrench their rule with a bogus referendum. “The Myanmar government’s conduct in the last few weeks,” continues Vargas Llosa, “may soon rank among the worst tragedies in living memory caused by people obsessed with power.”

“Myanmar’s Real Cyclone,” by Alvaro Vargas Llosa (5/14/08) Spanish Translation

Military Humanitarianism Won't Help Myanmar
by Leon Hadar Reading the memoirs of European colonialists who led the efforts to extend Western control over parts of Asia and Africa in the 19th century, one cannot help but be moved by what seem to be the genuine convictions held by these diplomats, soldiers, businessmen, and missionaries that they were helping spread civilization among the backward people of the world, who should have been grateful for the assistance and guidance of Europe's paternalistic powers.

According to that myth of the White Man's Burden, selfless devotion and not – God forbid! – political, military, or economic interests, were behind the imperialist drive of Britain and France in what is now called the Third World.

That the Indians, the Chinese, or the Africans would resist that show of goodwill exhibited by these supposedly altruistic outside powers seemed to reflect another sign of intellectual underdevelopment displayed by "these people" and their ungrateful and power-driven leaders.

One could hear the echoes from this past in the recent urging by British, French, and American officials and pundits that the leaders of Myanmar should be forced to open their borders to Western aid agencies as part of an effort to help the victims of Cyclone Nargis, which has devastated the country.

Both British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner have proposed that the United Nations Security Council should consider the use of collective military action to get the aid into the country.

At the same time, columnists in influential American and European newspapers have argued that the most effective way to help the suffering power of Myanmar is by doing a "regime change" in Yangon and replacing the military junta there with international peacekeeping forces engaged in "nation-building."

Both Mr. Miliband and Mr. Kouchner represent left-of-center governments and have insisted that they are not trying to bring back to life old-fashioned imperialism, only trying to advance what has been referred to as "humanitarian interventionism."

This principle seems to suggest that democratic governments have the right and the obligation to intervene in the affairs of other nation-states, including by deploying military power, when their governments are perceived – by the democratic governments and their elites – as abusers of the rights of their own people.

You don't have to be a fan of the cruel and paranoid regime that rules Myanmar to question this somewhat revolutionary principle, which runs contrary to the traditional notion of national sovereignty that has been pivotal in the modern international system.

Indeed, violating that rule, in particular by using military power, has been considered an act of war. That the British and the French in the early 21st century, not unlike their esteemed predecessors in the 19th century, rationalize such moves by portraying themselves as "do-gooders" who are standing-up to the "evildoers" makes very little difference here.

But it's a slippery slope when you start challenging common principles and violate accepted rules that for better or for worse have helped secure a fragile peace in the international system.

Who is going to decide what a "democratic" government is and how to define "abuse"? Why shouldn't the international community have the right and the obligation to intervene in Saudi Arabia to help provide political rights to more than half of the population (women) there? And what about the rights of the Roma people in parts of Europe? Or for that matter, the African-American victims of hurricane Katrina in Louisiana or the victims of white racism in America's inner-cities?

The Saudis, the Europeans, and the Americans would consider such proposals as absurd (and rightly so) and would certainly question the intentions of those raising them.

In much of the discussion about the role of the aid agencies in Myanmar (or in other parts of the world), one very rarely hears about the way many of these organizations have gradually been transformed into another Big Business whose motivations and policies need to be addressed.

And the notion that the Europeans and the Americans may have non-altruistic reasons for establishing a foothold in Myanmar, which happens to be located in a strategically and economically important part of the world, is certainly a legitimate issue to raise in the aftermath of the American military fiasco in Iraq.

The architects of the Iraq adventure also advanced the notion that all they wanted to do in Mesopotamia was liberate Iraq from a cruel military regime.

Copyright 2008 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.

Breaking Burma's Cruel Wall of Silence - Harry McKenzie, Sydney Morning Herald
Burma Mourns Victims of Cyclone - Mydans and Cowell, New York Times
UN Keeps Pressure on Burma - Associated Press
Burma Mourns Dead as UN Reports Aid Progress - Reuters
With the Junta or Without It - Washington Post editorial
Burma: Dealing with Evil - The Australian editorial
Burma Outside the U.N. Umbrella - Steven Groves, Washington Times opinion