Burma generals compound horror of the cyclone

Burma's military leadership had a week's warning from their Thai neighbours of the oncoming Cyclone Nargis, reports Edward Loxton in The First Post today.

"Burmese anger is fuelled by assurances from Thailand that its Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre, established after the 2004 tsunami, gave Burma a week's warning of the cyclone. The Burmese regime claims it passed the warning on to the public, but survivors in the Irrawaddy delta dispute that.

"One third of the 300,000 residents of one delta city, Laputta, are reliably reported to have died, caught completely unawares by the tidal wave unleashed by the cyclone before dawn on Saturday. 'If we had known the cyclone was approaching it would have been madness not to seek higher ground,' said one resident. 'The city was taken unawares'."

Loxton also reports how the regime, which has long boasted that its 500,000-strong army could tackle any crisis, has been demanding that citizens of Rangoon clear up after the cyclone, while army units are scarce on the streets of the former capital.

FIRST POSTED MAY 8, 2008