Aid Becomes Propaganda as More Burmese Die
The tyrants in Burma are at it again.
Myanmar’s military regime distributed international aid Saturday but plastered the boxes with the names of top generals in an apparent effort to turn the relief effort for last week’s devastating cyclone into a propaganda exercise.
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State-run television continuously ran images of top generals — including the junta leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe — handing out boxes of aid to survivors at elaborate ceremonies.One box bore the name of Lt. Gen. Myint Swe, a rising star in the government hierarchy, in bold letters that overshadowed a smaller label reading: “Aid from the Kingdom of Thailand.”
“We have already seen regional commanders putting their names on the side of aid shipments from Asia, saying this was a gift from them and then distributing it in their region,” said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, which campaigns for human rights and democracy in the country.
“It is not going to areas where it is most in need,” he said in London.
It’s not going there because the junta needed the extra goodies to help them win an obviously rigged election that will help cement their power. They’re using the aid packages that caring people have generously supplied not to save lives but to buy votes.
And so they murder more of their people. Again.
At what point will we decide to do something concrete about this? Obviously, Burma needs help, and a lot of it. That help won’t come so long as the greedy tyrants there maintain control. We need to find some way to get them to relent. Then, when their people are fed and in safety, we need to drop the hammer on the junta, once and for all. The situation over which they lord ought to be intolerable to any decent civilized human being. It has to end.
It shouldn’t be difficult. These guys are not exactly the most competent dictators the world has ever seen. Knocking down their regime should be child’s play, once we find the people ready and willing to help build a new free and fair government.
But we do have to start with the basic resolution that the junta must go. No more freaking tyrants, okay?
Other Posts of Interest:
- The Burmese Tyrants Are Still Killing Their People. Oh, and It’s Not “Myanmar” Around Here, Thanks.
- While Burmese Die, The Tyrants Keep the Aid at Bay
- No, Sir. Liberty is Our Business.
Category: No More Tyrants
[...] I wrote this about the situation in Burma. At what point will we decide to do something concrete about this? [...]