May
29
Beijing Helps Keep Burma’s Military Junta in Power
Filed Under Burma, China, Olympics | Leave a Comment
Weeks after burma was devastated by a cyclone, the generals who run Burma’s military dictatorship have finally begun approving a few visas for foreign aid workers, while at the same time whining that the amazing generosity offered by countries around the world just isn’t enough (or, to read between the lines, not enough to adequately line their own pockets while still pretending to care about their subjects).
From the associated Press:
Myanmar’s ruling junta lashed out Thursday at aid donors who promised millions of dollars for cyclone relief, saying survivors didn’t need “bars of chocolate.”
State-run media criticized donors for only pledging up to $150 million — a far cry from the $11 billion the junta said it needed to rebuild.
The Myanma Ahlin newspaper, a government mouthpiece, said cyclone victims from the hardest-hit areas could get by without foreign handouts.
“People from the Irrawaddy delta can survive on their own, even without bars of chocolate donated by the international community,” it said, adding they can live on “fresh vegetables that grow wild in the fields and on protein-rich fish from the rivers.”
Wow, the Burmese junta is a truly despicable regime. But one dependent on the support of other regimes, especially from Communist China. In a January 2008 report from the Washington, D.C. based Heritage Foundation, Steven Groves notes:
To repress a population of 47 million continually and successfully, the military junta must be well armed, and China is Burma’s primary arms supplier. The junta’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in August 1988 caused international aid and development assistance to all but dry up. With limited revenues, the regime turned to China for the arms and armor that it needs to sustain itself. China, which cracked down on its own pro-democracy rally in Tiananmen Square in June 1989, readily agreed and has given the junta $2 billion to $3 billion in military aid since the early 1990s, helping the regime to expand its army from 180,000 to 450,000 soldiers.
And yes, the regime in Beijing actually gets to host the Olympics. Wonder if the Burmese generals will have box seats at the games?