Homyrrh
05-09-2008, 03:25 PM
Got a News Alert email from the Times this morning about Myanmar's military government seizing all aid shipments from the UN, consequently prompting the latter to halt all relief.
“All the food aid and equipment that we managed to get in has been confiscated,”
Seems all's in order now (link (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/world/asia/10myanmar.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin)),
Myanmar’s military junta said in a statement it was willing to receive disaster relief from the outside world but would distribute supplies itself rather than allowing in relief workers. But aid agencies want to coordinate and control their own aid.
Myanmar said it had turned back one relief flight because, in addition to disaster relief supplies, it carried disaster assessment experts and an unauthorized media group.
“Myanmar is not in a position to receive rescue and information teams from foreign countries at the moment,” the statement, from the Foreign Ministry, said. “But at present Myanmar is giving priority to receiving relief aid and distributing it to the storm-hit regions with its own resources.”
The first of two major international aid shipments arrived Thursday by aircraft from the United Nations World Food Program, carrying high-energy biscuits, water containers, food and plastic sheets. Altogether, by one count, 11 chartered planes with relief supplies have landed in Myanmar, a tiny amount for a disaster that the United Nations said has affected 1.5 million people.
Hmm. No world leader or international relations professor, but seems a pretty remedial task, just on a much grander scale. Country X gets hit with a cyclone that claims, as of now, nearly 23,000 deaths. Country X, incapable of adminstering aid to the surviving displaced victims, unconditionally accepts any and all aid from the UN and other humanitarian causes. Country X saves lives by acting swiftly. Rest of world approves of actions of Country X.
??? Please explain.
“All the food aid and equipment that we managed to get in has been confiscated,”
Seems all's in order now (link (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/world/asia/10myanmar.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin)),
Myanmar’s military junta said in a statement it was willing to receive disaster relief from the outside world but would distribute supplies itself rather than allowing in relief workers. But aid agencies want to coordinate and control their own aid.
Myanmar said it had turned back one relief flight because, in addition to disaster relief supplies, it carried disaster assessment experts and an unauthorized media group.
“Myanmar is not in a position to receive rescue and information teams from foreign countries at the moment,” the statement, from the Foreign Ministry, said. “But at present Myanmar is giving priority to receiving relief aid and distributing it to the storm-hit regions with its own resources.”
The first of two major international aid shipments arrived Thursday by aircraft from the United Nations World Food Program, carrying high-energy biscuits, water containers, food and plastic sheets. Altogether, by one count, 11 chartered planes with relief supplies have landed in Myanmar, a tiny amount for a disaster that the United Nations said has affected 1.5 million people.
Hmm. No world leader or international relations professor, but seems a pretty remedial task, just on a much grander scale. Country X gets hit with a cyclone that claims, as of now, nearly 23,000 deaths. Country X, incapable of adminstering aid to the surviving displaced victims, unconditionally accepts any and all aid from the UN and other humanitarian causes. Country X saves lives by acting swiftly. Rest of world approves of actions of Country X.
??? Please explain.