Rohrabacher calls on Burma’s military to allow foreign aid in

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is calling for the Bush Administration to ignore the government of Myanmar, also known as Burma, and start sending in aid following the disastrous cyclone that killed more than 20,000.

The country’s reclusive government has resisted allowing foreign aid into the disaster-torn region.

“The Bush Administration should draw up plans to air drop equipment and food and to work directly with ethnic organizations that are struggling against the regime,” Rohrabacher said in a statement Friday. “The civilized world cannot sit idly by and permit disease and hunger to spread among those who have been devastated by the cyclone and suffer because the Burmese generals only care about themselves.”

Rohrabacher further said the country’s military should commit civil disobedience and allow foreign aid in.

“I call on all patriotic military men of Burma to relieve the suffering of the Burmese people by disobeying the illegal orders of their commanding officers and permit humanitarian assistance to reach the needy,” he said.

— Michael Alexander