Worse, the vast loss of life in other parts of the country
has never seemed to bother the repressive junta, which has to respond far less
to public opinion than the governments of Indonesia,
Pakistan, or Turkey, which
at least have democratic institutions. What’s more, unlike those countries, the
junta receives minimal western investment, and cares little about its public
image, so it won’t care about international outcry if it tosses relief agencies
out of the country in a few weeks.
In the eastern part of the country, where an ongoing civil
war has raged since the mid-1940s, the junta recently has waged a brutal,
scorched earth campaign--burning villages, killing thousands of civilians, and raping
a terrifying number of others. In the construction of petroleum pipelines and
other large infrastructure projects, the junta is reported to have used forced
labor, essentially working average Burmese to death. And as the world saw, when
thousands of Burmese monks, among the most respected figures in this devoutly Buddhist
society, protested in the streets of Yangon last
year, the military had no qualms about attacking even them. Following the
“Saffron Revolution” crackdown, the junta then organized large-scale round-ups
of monks at leading monasteries, round-ups that mostly went unnoticed in the
Western press, which has minimal access to Myanmar--suggesting that after the
cyclone, reporters will not be able to follow up either. This weekend’s tragedy
won’t relieve any of the country’s political problems; it has only made the
suffering of Burmese citizens more acute.