United Nations Pursues Burmese Mass Murderers

The UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon came out of his meeting this morning with Burma's top general, Than Shwe, bearing news that the junta is finally prepared - after three fateful weeks of prevaricating - to allow "all" foreign workers into the country, writes Edward Loxton for The First Post.

However, it was not clear whether Than Shwe had agreed to give visas to foreign aid workers or let them into the devastated Irrawaddy delta region to deliver aid. As a result, Ban Ki-moon was only able to say that he "thinks" the general's agreement is a breakthrough. Nor was it clear whether Than Shwe was referring only to relief workers from partner countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

The UN leader's meeting with Than Shwe came after an extraordinary day during which he was given a carefully orchestrated helicopter tour of the delta region by the military government, including a visit to a "show camp" where Burmese made homeless by cyclone Nargis lined up to greet him outside pristine blue tents (pictured above), many of which were empty.

And whatever Than Shwe may have said this morning to pacify Ban Ki-moon, the reports that continue to emerge from the delta region only reinforce the ugly truth: that in denying the enormity of the destruction wrought by Nargis, the four generals who run this country, Than Shwe, Maung Aye, Shwe Mann and Thein Sein, and their accolytes, are nothing less than mass murderers.

One of the worst reports to emerge from the delta since the cyclone hit 21 days ago concerns 70 homeless refugees who attempted to disembark from their four flimsy boats near Bogalay. Local government officials refused them permission to land and told them to return to their ruined villages. "They were caught in a sudden storm, the boats capsized and all drowned," said a witness.

This sort of cold-hearted behaviour, typical of the regime, is not what was being reported to Ban Ki-moon yesterday by his Burmese guides. Indeed, at the "show camp" and elsewhere, it transpires that the survivors of Nargis were instructed to "show discipline" and refrain from any complaints about their plight.

Some local authorities reportedly accused destitute rice farmers and their families of "damaging Burma's image" by begging for food at the roadside. Four Burmese journalists reporting from the region for independent Rangoon publications were arrested, held overnight and told the next day to leave the region.

Before Than Shwe’s change of heart this morning, UN agencies and international relief organisations were saying that aid has so far reached only a quarter of the people who desperately need it. Relief workers travelling in the delta region give harrowing first-hand reports of thousands of starving people lining the roads and living among the ruins of remote, flattened villages, scavenging in the flooded fields for any food they can find.

In an email to friends in Thailand, one Burmese relief worker said around 10,000 people lined the roadside as he drove to Bogalay, one of the worst-hit delta towns. "These people previously lived in the paddy fields on the left and right side of the road. Now their homes were destroyed and the fields were flooded. So they moved to the roadside. Some could build small tents, but others have to sleep on the open ground. Most of them are women and children. I saw six or seven family members sitting tightly together under a roof of plastic sheeting held up by four posts."

The relief worker witnessed government officials driving refugees out of a monastery where they had sought shelter. The abbot angrily challenged the expulsion order but was ignored. Like the 70 trying to land their boats at Bogalay, the refugees were ordered to return to their destroyed villages.

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