No Aid for Burma & Monk Murder

Cyclone Nargis, which devastated huge swathes of the low-lying Irrawaddy Delta in early May, has left more than a million Burmese homeless. Many are at great risk from disease, as they have no access to clean water and food. The UN's humanitarian agency said there is a risk of a "second catastrophe" unless a massive operation began. Astoundingly, the junta spurns the world's offers of aid. Politicians such as the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner have proposed the idea of a UN resolution compelling Burma to accept outside aid. Such a move was strongly opposed by China.

This is the second time that Burma has been grievously afflicted in the last eight months. Who can forget the sight last September when the monks appeared on the streets, thousands and thousands of them. In their peaceful way, they were saying that they had had enough of poverty and the cruel dictatorship that had gobbled up Burma. And it wasn't just monks in their maroon and saffron robes who marched. Ordinary people lined the same route as the monks and formed a chain to protect them from the soldiers. But the haunting image was of the monks who moved gracefully and serenely to their fate.

Then the army gunned the monks down, and the world watched with anguish.

Even well into October, politicians still believed that China would rein in the Burmese generals.

China funds the Burmese regime, arms it and protects it from international pressure. China builds Burma's roads and buys its oil, gas and timber, but China won't prod the Burmese government to allow even basic reforms. China uses its veto power to block the UN Security Council from doing anything meaningful for the Burmese people.

The Chinese could easily have urged restraint with a few carefully selected words paired with a little carrot-and-stick diplomacy. They could have persuaded the generals that a monk massacre on prime-time television wasn't good for their image, China's or Burma's.

But the optimists failed to remember an obvious fact -- China is also an authoritarian state.

Ironically, the Olympics' start date, August 8, 2008, marks the 20th anniversary of the massacre of peaceful democracy activists in Burma.

Instead of letting the democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi take power, the generals keep her under house arrest.