No need for foreign media to exaggerate Burma crisis

John Arnone's letter in supporting the junta's refusals in allowing international help was sad to read.  Let me try to provide some responses to his questions:

Would I decline help from my arch-enemy for my injured child?  For the sake of my child, I would accept any help offered at that crucial time.  On the contrary, I would laud that enemy for being selfless and not ignoring my plight in a time of need.

Why do we condemn the junta when we do not know enough of the extent of the suffering in Burma? Reports from non-American and independent sources, with a few reporters risking their lives in the Irrawaddy region, and satellite images taken before and after Cyclone Nargis around that delta, give us sufficient knowledge of the havoc. The UN raised its total of those impacted by the cyclone to 2.5 million from last week's figure of 1.5 million. 

Even if there were 250,000 left homeless, I cannot see what the junta has done to mitigate the pain caused. Its inability to deal with the disaster was well reflected in the picture taken at the Rangoon airport of a man-to-man transfer of essentials from a plane to a truck. That was exactly how Angkor Wat was built in the 10th century.

Eyewitnesses told John Arnone that they didn't see the bad situation as portrayed by international media.  How could his foreign friends see bodies and hunger in the Irrawaddy Delta when that area is forbidden to all foreigners?

If the situation is that bad, why haven't the people entered into open rebellion yet?  Even if monks were clobbered, jailed and disappeared, would hungry individuals dare to challenge the junta? The junta's only use for the essentials it receives from outsiders is to use them to keep the people of Burma subservient and to perpetuate its right to govern. The 2.5 million victims are simply their pawns and their chances of survival are not the junta's concern. 

Songdej Praditsmanont

Bangkok

--------------------------------

CNN reporter taking risks to deliver the news

My praise goes to CNN reporter Dan Rivers, who risked his life sneaking into Burma to show the world what is happening there. If caught he may be jailed, tortured or even killed. Here at home, all we see are news reporters hanging around Government House waiting to shove microphones down someone's throat and ask questions they already know the answers to. When they can't get what they want they cry, "The government is harassing the press!"

Sadly, Burma is only an hour away, but the Thai press has to rely on news from European and American agencies.

Somsak Pola

Samut Prakan

--------------------------------

Palestinians responding to years of brutal treatment

Re: "Israeli side of Palestinian conflict ignored in letter", Letters, May 12.

The implication in Dean Barrett's response (Letters, May 12) to my letter in Letters, May 9 ("Sixty years of Palestinian suffering at Israel's hands") is that the Israeli side of the Middle Eastern argument should always be given. Why? Isn't the overwhelming dominance and bias in favour of Israel in the world's media and our societies in general enough? The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) Thailand exists to create awareness in Thailand of the injustices being suffered everyday by the Palestinians and to harness the support of the Thai people to change matters.

I note that Barrett ignores completely the actual points made in my letter. He, like the majority of Israeli apologists, uses instead standard pro-Israel arguments - that Arabs living in Israel have all the democratic rights they don't have in other countries. In theory, this might be seen to be so, but it is not the case in practice. What good does having a vote do when you, as a non-Jew, are effectively restricted as to where you can live and what you can own and all that goes along with that? The Arabs are in an even worse situation than other non-Jews purely because they are Arabs and Palestinians and therefore perceived as a threat from within.

As regards Hamas's policy of not recognising Israel, I would like to offer an argument that I tried to present at an Israeli Embassy-sponsored evening at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand: cause and effect. What do you expect any proud people to do given what has been inflicted upon them? These were among the moot points we attempted to put to the Israeli representative last year, but all debate was stifled by switching off microphones etc. Incidentally, the PSC hadn't been formed then but it certainly accelerated its creation.

Stuart Ward

Bangkok