Word: junta
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...what's Plan B? Some hope that China, whose investment in Burma helps prop up the junta, could pressure the generals to allow in more aid. (After an earthquake struck the central Chinese province of Sichuan on May 12, killing and injuring tens of thousands, China sent out relief teams immediately and said it would accept foreign aid.) But even if China is willing to speak out, it's hard to know just how much influence it would have on Burma's top brass. The extent of the regime's disconnect with reality struck me as I drove the broad...
...junta's disregard for its citizens proved itself again on May 10, when the government decided to continue with a constitutional referendum that international observers say is designed to cement its hold on power. Although the sham plebiscite was postponed for two weeks in some of the worst storm-affected areas, other devastated regions were forced to hold the vote. Thousands of soldiers were mobilized to guard polling stations; hundreds of trucks mounted with loudspeakers fanned the nation, urging citizens to vote. Critics wondered how many lives might have been saved if some of those resources had been redeployed instead...
...Local opposition groups and Burmese in exile are now wondering whether disgust with the junta's disaster response could lead to a coup by younger, reformist officers. One source at the Rangoon airport described how rank-and-file soldiers were exhausted from unloading relief supplies. Officers, he says, are angry at the lack of planning by their superiors. But it's far from certain whether such frustration will turn into a groundswell against the junta. Similar hopes of reform surfaced during pro-democracy demonstrations last September, only to be dashed when soldiers gunned down dozens of innocent protestors. Thousands...
...village that no government representative had yet visited, I met a teacher who could speak a little English. He showed me the rubble of his destroyed schoolhouse. Only two things had been salvaged from the building: a small globe used for geography lessons and a framed photograph of junta leader Than Shwe, which normally hung at the front of the classroom. I asked if the 75-year-old strongman was a good person. The teacher laughed: "No, very bad." So why had he saved the picture? The teacher struggled for the right English word. "Scared," he said. Then he brought...
...disaster in Burma presents the world with its worst humanitarian crisis since the 2004 Asian tsunami. The ruling military junta says that more than 30,000 people are dead; the U.N. estimates the figure at perhaps 100,000. The number of Burmese at risk of starvation and disease could reach nearly 2 million. Unless the victims receive immediate help, the death toll could conceivably approach that of the entire number of civilians killed in the genocide in Darfur...