Mary Reid

I haven't written anything about the disaster in Burma - what can I possibly say that isn't trite?

But the report in The Observer today was headlined Burma exports rice as cyclone victims starve.

Yes, this takes callousness and obscene power to even greater depths. Burma is exporting rice to Bangladesh from one port, whilst millions are on the edge of starvation in one of the main rice growing areas within Burma, where crops have been destroyed. Rice exports are controlled entirely by the military regime.

Skilled relief workers must sit in hotels in Thailand waiting for visas, and only a handful of planes carrying emergency supplies are allowed in, with little evidence that the supplies are reaching the survivors.

Meanwhile, in a bizarre effort to fool the rest of the world that the generals have everything under control, they have gone ahead with the planned referendum on a change in the constitution that would give even greater powers to the military.

In God's name, what can we do?