Myanmar’s junta seems to feel nothing for its people…not even pity
Hard not to be moved by a plea for Myanmar’s military junta to take the suffering of its harried, earthquake-devastated people to heart and end the long-running conflict with ordinary citizens.
Bloomberg columnist Ruth Pollard wrote as follows: “There is precedence for a natural disaster helping to end a long-running conflict. The Acehnese national army — the armed wing of the Free Aceh Movement in Indonesia — demobilized and disbanded a year after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami destroyed much of the province, ending a 30-year separatist insurgency. Both Cyclone Nargis and the tsunami have provided us with a roadmap, however imperfect. Myanmar and its backers should use it.”
True.
Unfortunately, Myanmar’s uniformed rulers seem less susceptible to emotion than the Acehnese rebels.
Myanmar’s rebels have already demonstrated their soft hearts. Soon after the powerful March 28 earthquake in Myanmar’s central heartlands, rebel groups fighting the junta said they would suspend their efforts. This was in order for rescue initiatives to get underway.
Not so the military. It waited nearly five days before announcing a pause in its fightback against the rebels.
Even more sneaky was the army’s use of that fallow period to launch brutal attacks on the rebels.
In fact, according to a report from one of the areas affected by the earthquake, rebel fighters said it suffered air strikes soon after and young people, who wanted to help with relief were afraid the army would attack them.
