Burma's Junta Counts Its Fake Votes, Millions In Peril

Mon, 12 May 2008 10:49:23 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: GRAPHIC PHOTO
A US diplomat based in Rangoon claims the figure may be as high as 100,000 dead. The junta trumpeted what it claimed was a "massive turnout" in its constitutional referendum on Saturday, as thousands of tonnes of food, medical supplies and emergency relief specialists waited on tarmacs around the world for permission to enter the country.

"Diarrhoea rates are very high in many of the affected townships; for children under five, diarrhoea is a disaster,
adding, malaria and dengue were endemic to this region.

United Nations agencies are concerned that there are hundreds of thousands of traumatised, injured people and that if they do not get medical treatment, they will die.

Doctors in one hospital were treating up to 5000 outpatients a day, said Unicef's health chief in Rangoon. "They are exhausted. They are working long hours and they really need support. "They are full of patients and they cannot be treated properly due to a lack of human resources and drugs."

Clip Source: www.smh.com.au

For Burma's generals it was a weekend to celebrate as they counted the votes in a constitutional referendum no one but they will take seriously. For the 1.5 million Burmese seeking shelter in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, without clean water or sanitation, the sham referendum was another meaningless charade.

As the generals were photographed parading through neat refugee tentsites with groomed pathways, shocking images of bloated corpses in the Irrawaddy delta have been published by the Democratic Voice of Burma, a dissident website based in Norway. They reinforce the need for urgent action to prevent outbreak of disease.

With cholera, dysentery, dengue and malaria epidemics among survivors a frightening possibility, state-run television played images of young women singing, "Let's go voting" and "Come along for voting".

The junta acknowledges at least 22,000 people died in the May 2 cyclone, with a further 37,000 missing.

Tags: burma, referendum, generals celebrate vote, corpses, disease, cholera, dengue, malaria

Soviet-Style Parade in Red Square

Fri, 09 May 2008 16:01:52 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: I heard the new President spoke for a couple of minutes and Putin spoke for over half an hour. Will the real Russian leader please stand up?

Clip Source: www.breitbart.com

Nuclear missiles and tanks paraded Friday across Red Square for the first time since the Soviet era but new President Dmitry Medvedev warned other nations against "irresponsible ambitions" that he said could start wars.

Marching bands and 8,000 troops goose-stepped across the square, followed by a huge display of heavy weapons including Topol-M ballistic missiles and T-90 tanks, and a fly-by of warplanes.

Reviewing his first parade as commander in chief, Medvedev warned against "irresponsible ambitions" that he said could spark war across entire continents.

Alongside the new president was his mentor and now prime minister, Vladimir Putin,

Earlier Putin said the parade was not "sabre-rattling" but "a demonstration of our growing defence capability."

On Thursday Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said his country and Russia had come close to war "several days ago" after Russia ramped up support for separatists controlling Georgia's Abkhazia region.

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Burma's Junta Counts Its Fake Votes, Millions In Peril

Soviet-Style Parade in Red Square