Burma Breakdown
Burma blocks aid for its own country!
By Kevin Ducoff
May 9, 2008
As many know, this week saw a massive natural disaster in Burma (officially Myanmar). Though still unconfirmed, the death toll of the cyclone is at least around 25,000 (according to official reports) and could be as high as quadruple that. Further, the possibility for post-disaster symptoms: starvation, nutritional diseases, diaherea, and numerous others could affect the up to 1.5 million displaced Burmese refugees. So naturally, one would expect that the Burmese government would be doing all in its power, and accepting any help it can get, to bring immediate relief.
Well, unfortunately, you would be very wrong. They might be working to subvert aid based on some reports.
From the New York Times:
“The United Nations suspended relief supplies to Myanmar on Friday after the military government seized the food and equipment it had already sent into the country.”
“Altogether, by one count, 11 chartered planes with relief supplies have landed in Myanmar, a tiny amount for a disaster that the United Nations said has affected 1.5 million people.”
“The frustration caused by what appears to be a paperwork delay is unprecedented in modern humanitarian relief efforts,” said the official, Paul Risley, a spokesman for the United Nations World Food Program, in Bangkok. “It’s astonishing.”
“The situation is profoundly worrying,” said Mr. Holmes, the United Nations official in charge of the relief effort, speaking in unusually candid language for a diplomat. “They have simply not facilitated access in the way we have a right to expect.”
Mr. Holmes’s predecessor in that job, Jan Egeland, said, “children are going to die from diarrhea because of this government’s inaction.”
From the Washington Post:
Regarding foreign assistance teams:
The country “is not in a position to receive rescue and information teams from foreign countries at the moment,” the Burmese Foreign Ministry said in a statement published in the government-controlled press, wire services reported from Rangoon.
There’s no lack of effort from the world community to help:
International leaders have heightened pressure on the country’s secretive military government to fully embrace foreign help, but so far to no avail. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon tried unsuccessfully to telephone Burma’s top general to press the case personally. The prime minister of neighboring Thailand had planned to travel to Burma over the weekend, but cancelled when the Burmese government reemphasized that it did not want foreigners involved in cyclone recovery.
Eric John, the American ambassador to Thailand, expressed chagrin at the continuing stalemate, saying sluggish bureaucracy could be partly to blame. “It is very frustrating, if you look at the people’s suffering,” he said. “You have the tools at your fingertips to alleviate that suffering, and they are just not picking them up.”
At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the U.S. military is poised to “save a lot of lives” in Burma and that the tragedy is being compounded by the junta’s failure to allow American forces to provide assistance.
U.S. Navy ships were unloading helicopters in Thailand that could reach Burma with relief supplies in a matter of hours, and six C-130 transport planes were available to provide emergency aid, Gates said. Three or four ships began a five-day journey to a location off Burma to be available to offer aid.
Gates said the U.S. military could not act without Burmese government permission, but a State Department official said that “anything that might have a positive impact is being looked at and is being discussed,” including unauthorized airdrops. The official, Ky Luu, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, said that because of such logistical challenges as notifying people on the ground, the drops could cause more harm than good. He said the immediate need is for the Burmese government to open up aid channels.
So the immediate question is, why the hell is this happening? The answer is sad, and multi-layered:
- Burma is set this week to vote on a constitutional referendum that would essentially provide legal validity to the current regime in place. At most, they are only willing to delay the vote in the worst hit areas of the country.
- The ruling Junta is notoriously suspicious of any western aid, from the Post article: The junta has long been wary of foreign aid workers, particularly Westerners, whom they suspect of supporting dissidents opposed to military rule. While international nongovernmental organizations have been permitted to operate in Burma for the past decade, some members of the government have sought to subject their workers to ever-tighter controls.
This must end. The Bush Administration and the world community have done their very best to do their part, and it should be no surprise in a country that shot at monks for defying the government, that holds political prisoners in house arrest if they’re lucky and suppresses nearly all democratic norms, that such problems could occur. However, even when disaster has hit nations such as Iran and Pakistan, they let aid in. So, what can the world do to get help to people who desperately need it?
The UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights makes clear of a member states responsibility:
Article 25, Clause 1: Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
Unfortunately, this lacks an enforcement mechanism, at least as far as humanitarian disasters are concerned. However, if we classify this lack of aid rendered to citizens as a human rights violation, then we find many means of enforcement against members of the ruling Junta. Though they aren’t a signatory, they should be indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity for their determination to prevent relief for their populace. Such charges aren’t going to go anywhere, but it will send a signal that the world is going to take care of the people of Burma, even if they won’t do it themselves.
