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Heartrending news from Burma, ravaged by cyclone Nargys on May 2, is that the number of the missing and dead now exceeds 100,000, and as many as two million people have been displaced. Coastal towns in southern Burma have been completely swept away by the waters and only sparse vestiges tell of their existence. Dead bodies are floating in the Irrawaddy River, and starved survivors are appeasing their hunger by picking up soggy, rotting rice. Reports say the wrecked buildings and interruption of electricity, telecommunication, and running water are redolent of the Stone Age. While Burma has population of 47 million, a similar figure as South Korea, its GDP is mere US$8.7 billion, only 1/110 of South Korea¡¯s. The country has no capacity to overcome such a disaster on its own. Yet the Burmese military junta, fearing that contact between their isolated people and the outside world would expose its tyrannical rule and threaten it grip on power, is still refusing to allow in UN officials and relief workers from NGOs who come to help the Burmese people from all over the world. Moreover, the junta continues to deceive its people by distributing relief supplies given to them by the international community in the name of the generals in power.
Even though India¡¯s meteorological agency warned of the cyclone 48 hours prior to its landing, the Burmese authorities issued no warning to their people. And when the country had been devastated by the cyclone, all it cared about was how to perpetuate its hold on power, urging people to participate in the referendum on a constitutional amendment that would automatically grant the junta 25 percent of seats in parliament. In the international community there are those who say instead of letting the generals distribute the aid, it is better to drop them off from airplanes so they reach the people directly.
Concerned that the death toll will mount beyond 1 million if epidemics break out, hardliners in the U.S. are beginning to call for military intervention to save the Burmese from the aftermath of natural disaster and from political oppression. Korea has sent aid workers and doctors through NGOs like Korea Food for the Hungry International and Green Doctors to carry out relief work, however limited. Bilateral relations are insignificant, with annual trade between the two countries being a mere $150 million. But we Koreans cannot sit back and watch the Burmese people in their predicament. Korea should take a more active part in the international effort.
In the early 20th century, Burma was the world¡¯s number one rice exporting country, and it was one of the most thriving developing nations after World War II. But the decades of tyranny under the military junta that seized power in 1962 and a blinkered policy of oppression and seclusion have pushed the country to the bottom of the pile. What is going on in Burma shows how important sound national leadership and government are.
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