The Unrelenting Misery of the Burma-Myanmar Cyclone Crisis

Reports indicate that a ship carrying relief supplies sunk, taking relief supplies provided by the International Red Cross with it. Those supplies could have provided food and shelter for 1,000 people. Meanwhile, the junta continues to try and ensure that foreigners do not have any ability to provide the aid to the Burmese people directly.

A Red Cross boat carrying rice and drinking water for cyclone victims sank Sunday, while the death toll jumped to more than 28,000 and aid groups warned of a humanitarian catastrophe.

The double-decker boat that sank was carrying supplies for more than 1,000 people and was the first Red Cross shipment to the disaster area, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said. All four relief workers on board were safe, it said.

"This is a great loss for the Myanmar Red Cross and for the people who need aid so urgently," said Aung Kyaw Htut, the distribution team leader of the Myanmar Red Cross.

The sinking was the latest setback for distribution of aid following Cyclone Nargis. Though international aid has started to trickle in, almost all foreign relief workers have been barred entry into the isolated nation. The junta says it wants to hand out all donated supplies on its own.

The official death toll continues climbing, though aid groups suggest that the death toll is several magnitudes higher, and will continue climbing as the junta thwarts international assistance.

Meanwhile, Time posits the idea of saving Burma by invading and toppling the junta. Okay, so it's now okay to consider the invasion of a country for humanitarian purposes? Interesting. Very interesting.

Of course, the analogies proffered by Romesh Ratnesar are faulty as well. He suggests that the situation would be akin to the Black Hawk Down episode in Somalia, but that incident had nothing to do with humanitarian aid, and everything to do with the attempted capture of a Somali warlord. The US could conceivably begin air drops of aid from C-130s and other assets in the region without putting boots on the ground, but the possibility that the aid would be interdicted by the junta's forces on the ground is substantial.

The fact is that the junta has no interest in sending aid to those most in need. It considers much of the country in opposition to the junta's continued power, so the death of so many opposition does not weigh heavily on the junta as it might an otherwise legitimate regime.

Also, the junta continues to press forward with the rubber stamping of its power via an election. That comes even as the junta does nothing about this. That story provides the brutal truth about the situation and contains a photo of the bodies of children floating in still flooded areas of Burma.

For Burma's generals it was a weekend to celebrate as they counted the votes in a constitutional referendum no one but they will take seriously. For the 1.5 million Burmese seeking shelter in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, without clean water or sanitation, the sham referendum was another meaningless charade.

As the generals were photographed parading through neat refugee tentsites with groomed pathways, shocking images of bloated corpses in the Irrawaddy delta have been published by the Democratic Voice of Burma, a dissident website based in Norway. They reinforce the need for urgent action to prevent outbreak of disease.

With cholera, dysentery, dengue and malaria epidemics among survivors a frightening possibility, state-run television played images of young women singing, "Let's go voting" and "Come along for voting".

The junta acknowledges at least 22,000 people died in the May 2 cyclone, with a further 37,000 missing. A US diplomat based in Rangoon claims the figure may be as high as 100,000 dead. The junta trumpeted what it claimed was a "massive turnout" in its constitutional referendum on Saturday, as thousands of tonnes of food, medical supplies and emergency relief specialists waited on tarmacs around the world for permission to enter the country.

The junta can claim all it wants. The photos speak far louder about the devastation and priorities of the Burmese people.

The Wall Street Journal suggests a novel approach - kick Burma out of the UN. Well, the symbolism would be interesting to say the least, but it would not affect the facts on the ground one iota.

And what would China do? They have ties with the junta, but have thus far been unwilling to press home the dire humanitarian need to provide relief. Would China thwart any UN measure to censure the junta, especially on the eve of the Beijing Olympics?

If this situation does anything, it once again reinforces the fact that the UN is thoroughly incapable of dealing with crises around the world because regimes that have no interest in human rights, the lives of its citizens, and democracy, have equal say with those governments that do.