Burma's disaster: 'Hard to fathom'

by Mark Silva

Call it Burma. Call it Myanmar.

The choice of the name itself is a political decision. But for the U.S. government, which insists on Burma, the refusal of the military regime in Myanmar to accept international aid in the aftermath of a cyclone that has claimed, perhaps, more than 100,000 lives is unfathomable.

"It's hard to fathom,'' Steve Hadley, the president's national security adviser, said this afternoon of Burma's refusal to grant visas to foreign aid forces, including those from the United States, ready to offer the storm-stricken nation assistance.

"The latest estimates are that 100,000 people have probably lost their lives and there are large numbers that are still not accounted for,'' Hadley said today. "This is a humanitarian disaster of enormous proportions. The international community is ready, willing and able to help. It is not just the United States; there are at least a couple dozen countries and NGOs that are ready to go in and help.

"And at this point the junta has not allowed them access, the visas have not been granted, and the green light has not been given for people to go in,'' Hadley said at the White House today. "It's simply going to compound the humanitarian disaster.

The Bush administration is calling on "the whole international community'' to set aside the politics of the Burmese regime's political repression "and say, this is not about politics, this is about helping people in need. And the junta should please open its doors and let the international community provide humanitarian assistance to the people in Burma because they need it desperately.

"It's not just us,'' Hadley said. "It's not just that the United States stay out, it's everybody stay out. And it's hard to understand, given the extent of the commitment -- of the calamity that has befallen the people of Burma..''

Asked about the Burmese military's own motives, he said: "I don't want to politicize this. It is something where it's a humanitarian disaster and the international community should be permitted to help.''