On May 13th, when a super Mokha storm is sure to hit Myanmar, after the terrible typhoon Nargis in 15 years ago, Min Aung Hlaing and his accomplices are placing the ornamental on a pagoda in Keng Tung town.
Like customary for dictatorial military generals, placing the ornamental on a pagoda is a sacrifice to prolong the reign of power that the people have not given them. After the installation, they shouted “victory” 3 times, and less than 24 hours later, the terrible Mokha storm hit at a speed of over 130 miles per hour, destroying the lives of the people of Rakhine State and the northwestern region of Myanmar. In the case of Sittwe, 90 percent was destroyed, and it was left in the history of Sittwe before the storm.
The exact number of deaths due to the storm is not yet known, but according to those who took the ground list, there are more than 400 dead even in the Rohingya refugee camps only in Sittwe Township. The SAC which estimates the number of casualties from the Nay Pyi Taw bulletproof glass room, does not accept the list of more than 400. They even threatened to take action against the media that reported it.
The United Nations Organizations estimate that more than 5.4 million people in Myanmar will be affected by Cyclone Mokha, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) announced on May 17th, that 4.5 million people are in need of emergency relief and humanitarian aid this year due to conflict and natural disasters in the country. The money needed for emergency relief is 764 million US dollars, and only 10 percent of that money has been received.
In anyway, the UN Organizations are ready to carry out relief work as soon as the storm ends. WFP has been able to distribute emergency food to about 6,000 people who came to take refuge in storm shelters to Sittwe town, but has not yet been able to provide comprehensive assistance to the storm-affected people. The military generals still blocked the UN and its partners from freely reaching people in need of emergency aid after the storm hit.
After the military coup, the SAC has purchased at least 1,000 million dollars worth of military equipment and killed the people at will, but the SAC announced that it would spend at least 7 billion kyats on Rakhine State that is affected by the Mokha storm. This 7 billion kyats is a small amount than the military budget of the SAC like putting sesame seeds in the mouth of elephant, and according to the military mechanism of the SAC, it is said to be lucky if two-thirds of it reaches to the people.
In other words, the Generals of the SAC are unable to help themselves effectively, but they restrict those who are going to help. Why are they doing that?
The first fact is because the Generals of the SAC are concerned about the international organizations will find out the true situation of the loss of lives due to the lack of effective preparation by the SAC’s military. Especially, the truth fact, that Rohingya refugee loss their lives in storm due to the Rohingya refugee camps had no land to run to, was hidden as much as possible by the military of the SAC.
The second point is the intention to be reasonable the storm as an excuse for political gain. They are trying to squeeze the throat of the international organizations that want to help for people, to receive some kind of recognition for them. In addition, they do not want to accept direct aid from international organizations to the people. They are imagining of giving international aid to the people through them, convincing the public to gain favor from the people through donations, and misusing international aids.
In the dictionary of dictators, the people are only defined as death people if the people are killed anywhere, and they are nothing more than victims. Therefore, it is clear that it is the characteristics of the dictators who do not think and worry about how the people should be killed.
MPA believes that the military Generals are trying only to profit the self- interest, by sitting on the death bodies of those who are killed in the storm and on the lives of many people who are in distress.