As of our press deadline, Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is on the brink of a second disaster, potentially larger than the first, but this time self-inflicted by its ruling military junta.

That is an opinion we share with officials from the United States and the United Nations.

More than a week after Cyclone Nargis hit, Myanmar’s government is continuing its refusal to allow more than a trickle of aid into the country. Further, experienced foreign disaster-relief workers continue to be denied visas to help in Myanmar, a move that exponentially increases the chance of disease wiping out more people than the cyclone and the tidal surge that followed it.

As of early this week, the regime said 28,458 people are dead and 33,416 missing, but international agencies put the death toll much higher and the U.N. warned Sunday that it could hit 150,000 if aid doesn’t start flowing soon.

The World Food Program estimates that aid has reached only about one-quarter of the 1.5 to 2 million victims of the cyclone.

Despite the tragedy, Myanmar’s generals added insult to injury by holding a referendum on a new constitution this past Saturday — and on Sunday celebrated what was billed as an “overwhelming turnout.”

The state-controlled news was full of the vote and pictures of the generals who insisted it go forward despite worldwide pleas to postpone it and concentrate on the crisis.

Tragically, in a dictatorship such as Myanmar’s, the sole focus of the leaders is on consolidating and preserving power. From their standpoint, the loss of a million or two million citizens might even help them cut costs and thereby raise profits.

Seldom in recent history has there been such a clear-cut and highly publicized case of government cruelty on a massive scale — and perhaps the worst aspect is that it is being perpetrated on the people, not by some outside force, but a group of generals who are Myanmar natives.