WASHINGTON -- Humanitarian crises encircle the globe. Violent resistance afflicts Iraq. Mass death from starvation and war threatens Sudan. Millions have died in other conflicts across Africa. No one has much time for Myanmar (formerly Burma).
Yet if only the right government officials removed the wrong bureaucratic barriers, 1,000 Myanmar children could be saved. Orphaned by their government's war on its own people, they could be adopted by loving families in other countries.
Myanmar is among the world's poorest countries. The junta called an election in 1990 and then refused to hand over power when it was won by Aung Sang Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy. The government has put Suu Kyi under house arrest, suppressed her party and closed the universities. Despite periodic hope for a more moderate course, the regime always returns to repression.