EDITORIAL: Relief for Myanmar

The extent of cyclone damage in Myanmar (Burma) is finally becoming known to the rest of the world. The devastation is beyond imagination. Without immediate help, more people will die from diarrhea and contagious diseases to add to the already horrendous toll.

According to Myanmar's military junta, 32,000 people have died and nearly 30,000 are missing. But the United Nations estimates that as many as 100,000 people are dead, and 2 million have been left homeless or affected in one way or another.

Foreign media, including The Asahi Shimbun, have entered the country and started reporting on the nightmare. Daytime temperatures soar to nearly 40 degrees. Without adequate food and clean water, survivors are living in the direst circumstances.

The junta was initially reluctant to accept international aid. But 10 days after the catastrophe, some supplies finally began to trickle into disaster zones. A U.S. military cargo plane, which had been standing by to airlift supplies, entered Myanmar for the first time on Monday.

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has also started trucking supplies across the Thai border. This and other humanitarian aid activities must be speeded up. But the current aid activities are still nowhere near sufficient to meet the actual needs of survivors. Everything is in short supply, from relief goods to the people and equipment to distribute them and the medical personnel to tend the sick and injured. According to media reports, people in severely damaged areas are fighting over gifts of rice and bread, and the elderly and the physically weak are getting nothing.

Despite the gravity of the situation, the junta still keeps insisting on managing the transportation and distribution of relief supplies by itself, and refuses to throw open the country's doors to U.N. and nongovernmental organization (NGO) aid workers. And even this national disaster did not stop the junta from forcing a constitutional referendum to be held last Saturday.

Myanmar has been isolated from the international community over its record of oppressing the pro-democracy movement, but the Myanmar government itself also has minimized its contact with the rest of the world. Its continued intransigence even in the face of this humanitarian crisis is most galling, but we believe the international community has no choice but to keep trying to talk sense to the junta.

Neighboring Thailand has already dispatched its special envoy to Myanmar, and the European Union (EU) is also set to send its Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is calling an emergency meeting of foreign ministers to discuss relief measures and how best to prevail upon the junta to cooperate.

The Japanese government, too, must act fast. While pledging 1.1 billion yen in aid in response to the United Nation's request, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has sent a letter to Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the leader of the Myanmar junta, asking him to accept Japanese aid workers. But we propose that we go one step further and send Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura and other high-ranking officials to Myanmar and ASEAN to work together on persuading the junta to relent.

The government should also approach China, which exerts strong influence over Myanmar. Chinese President Hu Jintao, who was in Japan last week, agreed with Fukuda that Japan and China should commit themselves firmly to global peace and development. Now is the time for them to act on the strength of their strategically mutually beneficial relationship.

The cyclone was a major catastrophe that struck Asia. We want Japan to assert more leadership while cooperating with international aid organs.

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 13(IHT/Asahi: May 14,2008)