The same odor must reek at this very moment in Wenchuan County of southwest China's Sichuan Province, the epicenter of Monday's severe earthquake, and among the Irrawady Delta in Burma, the region hit hardest by cyclone Nargys earlier. Reports have it that the final toll, including the buried and missing, is expected to surpass 100,000 in Wenchuan. China launched immediate rescue operations, with the premier rushing to the scene and troops mobilized. More worrisome is Burma, where 100,000 have died. Although two weeks have passed since the disaster, the country's ruling military junta, incapable of managing the aftermath, is blocking the entry of international relief organizations. The Irrawady Delta, the granary of Burma, has turned into "a field of corpses."

I've toured both Wenchuan and the Irrawady Delta. Images of smiling and mischievous Burmese children still flit before my eyes. With the yellow powder called "thanakha" daubed on their faces, the pupils of their eyes looked even darker. Seeing a photograph published in a local daily a few days ago of children waiting for emergency food shipments with thanakha on their faces, I suddenly began shedding tears. Were all those shy but curious children who followed me around all day long washed away? Or have they survived somewhere and are hunting for even rotten rice?

Large-scale relief efforts are needed immediately. Hunger and infections quickly follow a disaster. Sichuan is better off, with the Chinese authorities making public the damage and announcing relief activities. China's mature attitude in initiating prompt emergency operations under the premier's leadership and its willingness to accept support from the international community is unprecedented. But Burma is in real trouble. The world community's warning that if no relief efforts are taken immediately then even the survivors may lose their lives is absolutely not an exaggeration.

Nonetheless, the Burmese junta is reluctant to accept international support and is severely restricting the entry of relief workers, taking only goods and cash. In the wake of the disaster the Burmese government asked three organizations -- World Vision, the Japan International Cooperation Agency and UNICEF -- for aid. World Vision, proclaiming the Burmese disaster as category three, the top level, called up relief cadres from around the world, including me, to head to Burma on a top priority basis, with a target of relieving 500,000 people. Of the 30-odd relief personnel waiting for entry visas, only two have received them.

In emergency relief, the first two weeks are critical. Relief workers try to arrive at the scene within 48 hours after a disaster to get efforts moving. Providing drinking water, food, medicine and shelter on the one hand, they have to prevent a second disaster such a disease epidemic as best they can on the other. They must also look after orphans. I packed my bags for Burma quite a while ago, but I'm still in Korea. I feel like a firefighter who rushed to a burning village aboard a fire truck filled with water, but who is desperately delayed at the village gate.

The serious quake in China and the cyclone that hit Burma are disasters that can occur anytime and anywhere. What we need now are the love and attention that come with taking the disasters as our own and sharing the pain. The news of the earthquake in China stunned me all the more in the fear that the Burmese disaster might be pushed further from world attention. The less attention that's given, the more difficult relief efforts become. Only attention from the international community can save the Burmese victims, including those children with the dark eyes, from a living hell, and open a short cut to getting the Burmese military regime to allow international relief workers in.

This column was contributed by World Vision Korea's Emergency Relief Team leader Han Bi-ya.