Let's not forget Burma and its generals

Burma has been out of the headlines in recent days but it is important not to forget either the devestation that the cyclone caused or the ptiful response of the generals.

UN secretary General Ban Ki Moon finally got agreement yesterday to allow relief workers into the badly affected areas.As the Guardian reports

Few details of the deal emerged, although UN officials in the two-and-a-quarter hour meeting in the new Burmese capital, Naypidaw, said aid workers would be able to work in the Irrawaddy delta region that most had been barred from.
"I had a good meeting with the senior general, particularly on these aid workers," said Ban, after leaving the modern government complex. "He has agreed to allow all aid workers in regardless of nationalities. He has taken quite a flexible position on this matter."

However let's not forgethow the regime has contributed to the disaster.The First Post describes some of those contributions in graphic detail

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.

adding that

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.