WHAT KIND of perverted governance would hand out punishment to volunteers helping bury the dead with dignity in the aftermath of the killer cyclone Nargis? One does not have to look far for an answer – it is the brutal and repressive military regime in Myanmar, which dabbles in such malevolent behaviour with aplomb where the civilized world would even hesitate to ponder on such matters.

The cyclone left over 1,34,000 dead and missing and six weeks after the devastation bloated and disfigured bodies continue to float into the coastline or rot in the ravaged areas. There has been precious little effort by the junta’s administration to cremate or bury the bodies, leave alone show some dignity to the dead.

Now volunteers helping out in burying and cremating the dead are being rounded up and dumped in jails.

In the weekend regime officials arrested the chief editor of the Myanmar Tribune journal, Aung Kyaw San (45) and six of his colleagues. Their crime: they had buried cyclone victims in Bogale township, Irrawaddy division for the stench from the rotting bodies had been permeating the atmosphere, reports in the Myanmar media in exile suggest. Ironic as it may seem the journalists were not arrested for flouting Myanmar Censor Board’s draconian laws but for helping bury the dead.

Those arrested in Myanmar disappear as suddenly as they have been arrested with their family remaining in the dark about their whereabouts. Aung Kyaw San was arrested Bogale and later shifted to Yangon. The family is perplexed and worried for it has no idea where the journalist has been detained. The journalist stopped publishing Myanmar Tribune and had been helping in relief work, media reports said.

In the aftermath of the killer cyclone which devastated the Irrawaddy delta and Yangon division, the journalist made three trips to Bogale, one of the worst affected regions to help in relief operations. He was arrested during his last visit. His colleagues were said to have been released but he continues in detention, the media said.

The arrest of the chief editor has raised the hackles of the media fraternity and invited criticism from literary circles because the junta for no explicable reason whatsoever has been placing obstacles in the way of relief operations by volunteers, harassing them, interrogating them and putting them behind bars, when its own efforts in helping cyclone victims has been pathetic to say the least.

In a more inhuman instance, there have been reports in the Myanmar media in exile of policemen stripping, rotten, disfigured and bloated bodies of jewellery, ostensibly while trying to identify them.

Scores of bodies floated to the coastline of Mon state in southern Myanmar. The junta authorities forced villagers to dig pits, line it with lime and bury the dead. Some were ordered to be cremated. But before villagers were compelled to do that, police personnel went out to sea to check the bodies for valuables, like gold necklaces, rings, bracelets and the rest before allowing residents to dispose off the bodies.It is not surprising that under the ruthless military junta such an attitude towards the dead would be fostered, simply because where the living is not accorded any dignity, how would one expect dignity in death.

Source: www.merinews.com