- Burma's military regime is acting inhumanely by continuing to block foreign aid for cyclone victims and should be held accountable, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in an interview Saturday."This is inhuman," he told BBC World Service radio in his strongest comments since the cyclone hit on May 2-3, leaving at least 133,000 people dead or missing. "We have an intolerable situation, created by natural disaster."It is being made into a man-made catastrophe by negligence, the neglect and the inhuman treatment of the Burmese people by a regime that is failing to act and to allow the international community to do what it wants to do."He added: "The responsibility lies with the Burmese regime and they must be held accountable."Dozens of Asian doctors headed into Burma Saturday to treat survivors but with some 2.5 million people in need, aid agencies say more help is required and soon to prevent disease and provide food, water, shelter and medical care.Brown's comments echo those from senior diplomats across the world but stopped short of those from France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner who said Thursday that the situation was approaching "a crime against humanity".Navy ships from France and the United States, among others, were positioned off the Burmese coast stocked with food and emergency supplies awaiting entry.US lawmakers have asked President George W. Bush to consider "humanitarian intervention" to help those in the stricken Irrawaddy Delta region.The British prime minister said nothing was being ruled out to resolve the situation forced, including forced air-drops, although he accepted that aid agencies believe they could be counter-productive.
British-born singer and actress Jane Birkin will join a protest on the sidelines of the Cannes film festival Monday to highlight the critical ordeal of the two million survivors of Burma's cyclone disaster."We are trying to touch people, we will go to Cannes, we will take to the streets, where important people from around the world are gathered," Birkin told a support rally in Paris on Saturday.Some 50 people including Birkin's daughter the actress Charlotte Gainsbourg and members of the pressure group Info Birmanie gathered at the foot of the Eiffel Tower under banners reading "Solidarity with the Burmese people"."They are dying. We implore the United Nations, the international community to act now. Please support us, please help us," Ashim Sopaka, a monk from Myanmar, told the crowd.Burma's military regime has been heavily criticised for a slow-moving relief effort after Cyclone Nargis, two weeks after the cyclone left nearly 78,000 people dead and 56,000 missing.The junta Saturday allowed in nearly 80 Asian medics to help, one of the first significant movements of foreign aid workers into the disaster zone.The head of this year's Cannes jury, US actor-director Sean Penn, took aim at the junta's response as the festival opened on Thursday."When these things happen, all these governments, and I include mine, their control over people ... their keeping people from getting help when they need it, they've got to be pushed out of the way by people," he told reporters.Info Birmanie said it had contacted several actors and directors at Cannes for them to join Monday's protest.
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