Asia-Pacific News

Brown: Myanmar junta "inhuman" in neglecting cyclone victims

May 17, 2008, 9:44 GMT

London - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused the military regime in Myanmar of being 'inhuman' in its refusal to accept international aid for the victims of Cyclone Nargis. 'The responsibility lies with the Burmese regime and they must be held accountable,' Brown told Britain's BBC World Service on Saturday. 'This is inhuman. We have an intolerable situation, created by a natural disaster. 'It is being made into a man-made catastrophe by the 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.' When Brown was asked if the international community should carry out air-lifts without permission from the junta, he said Britain was ruling nothing out. First political pressure should be increased on the junta to make it accept international aid efforts, Brown said. Britain was trying to direct aid to Myanmar through China and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Brown said.