Myanmar’s shame

Myanmar's ruling generals remain in their sequestered and plush domain in the interior capital they built for themselves, while rotting corpses in the cyclone-stricken delta spawn disease that will kill still more of the people whose needs have been ignored for years.
Even U.N. officials used to dealing with recalcitrant governments are frustrated by the generals' refusal to quickly grant entry to emergency teams and relief agencies eager to assess damage and bring food, water and shelter to the estimated 1 million homeless victims of Cyclone Nargis. The iron-fisted knuckleheads in the capital finally began allowing in a trickle of the fountain of aid many nations have pledged. U.S. planes and ships have been denied entry.
Eventually, the awful toll will be known worldwide, and in its wake, the junta's toll on human rights and dignity will be emblazoned in the minds of people everywhere.
The generals, who maintain the largest army in southeast Asia, live in luxury afforded by high prices for natural gas, timber and other resources sold on the world market, with an estimated 40 percent of the profits used for the junta's personal luxury and protection.
The generals have used all the usual tools of despots to crush any meaningful opposition, most recently by beating, torturing and killing Buddhist monks who dared protest the regime's brutality. Only the high profile in the West of Aung San Suu Kyi has kept her alive in her lifelong struggle to break the general's grip, a struggle she continues to wage even under years of house arrest.
The generals ignored early forecasts by India that Nargis was extremely dangerous and would hit Myanmar.
Here's another forecast: Rising storms of international outrage; no letup in sight.