Human Rights Abuses In Burma

Human Rights Abuses In Burma

"For years I have clandestinely interviewed strong and resolute people who have suffered human rights abuses in Burma, mostly documenting the plight of non-Burman ethnic nationalities, which comprise about 40 percent of the population. Cyclone Nargis left an estimated 2.5 million people homeless and dispossessed, and at least 130,000 dead.

The Burmese military junta continues to obstruct emergency relief efforts inthe Irrawaddy Delta in the wake of Cyclone Nargis. Most analysts make sense of the madness by pointing to three interrelated, internal factors: theregime's desire to appear self-sufficient, its xenophobic distrust of foreign intervention, and a desire to keep foreigners out of the country in the lead-up to the May 10 national referendum on a draft constitution (which has come and gone, deeply flawed) intended to secure their grip on power.

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