Disaster Response: A study in opposites

Posted on July 2, 2008
Filed Under Burma news |

US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice was in China recently and spent some time visiting areas affected by the earthquake in Sichuan. She was full of praise for Chinese officials and their response to the disaster which killed almost 70,000 people.
Rice also took time to criticise Burma’s ruling military junta for its slow response to Cyclone Nargis, which occurred less than a week before the Chinese earthquake. The Associated Press reported that Rice said, “It has been sad that … instead of making possible the international community’s response to their people, that they have put up barriers to that response” (see report)
Immediately after the earthquake, China moved thousands of soldiers into the disaster zone to help with rescue efforts. Many of them arrived on foot due to damage to road and rail links.
By comparison, in the weeks after Cyclone Nargis, while tens of thousands of villagers were in desperate need of food and clean water, the Burma army continued its operations against unarmed civilians in Karen State.
The Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma notes that the offensive continued despite the start of the rainy season. On 4 June, just days after Cyclone Nargis, SPDC Army troops from Infantry Battalion 240 attacked Te Mu Der village in Karen State’s Papun District. Soldiers burned rice stores, destroyed homes, farms, and damaged a church. Over 1,000 people from Te Mu Der and the nearby villages fled to the jungle.
And the Free Burma Rangers report that in recent weeks the army has continued to expand its network of military camps in northern Karen State.

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