Published: May 13, 2008 05:27 pm            

MCDONALD: UN needs to step forward

“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

— George Washington

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How many times must we watch while dictators, military regimes or military juntas deprive their people of the most basic of needs? This past week it has been Myanmar. However, just in the past two decades that list includes, but is not limited to, Sudan, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Congo, Kenya and now Myanmar.

In the case of Sudan and Rwanda, genocide took place and is taking place while the world stands by. In the case of Kenya, Zimbabwe and Myanmar, the leadership revels in keeping power and keeping out any person, nation or group that would pose a threat to their keeping power.

In Myanmar, the generals of the military junta that has run the country for years was more concerned about a constitutional referendum taking place on May 10th, then accepting aid and helping their people recover from the cyclone last week.

John Holmes, head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told the Security Council on May 9, 2008: “The sooner humanitarians are allowed in, and the less procedural and other obstacles we encounter, the more lives we can help save. The speed with which we deliver assistance to those in need is becoming more and more critical and the danger of the outbreak of epidemics rises by the hour.”

The member countries of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) should place pressure on the Myanmar generals to accept not only relief supplies but aide workers to effectively distribute the needed materials, fresh water and medical supplies to those so desperately in need.

A bit of background on Myanmar, a British colony known as Burma and ruled as a Democratic Republic from independence from Britain in 1948 until 1962 when a military coup ended democratic rule. A military junta has ruled since then. In t May 1990, the government held free elections for the first time in almost 30 years. The National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, won 392 out of 489 seats, but the election results were annulled by the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), which refused to step down. Since 1992, the military regime has made cease-fire agreements with most ethnic guerrilla groups. In 1997, Burma was admitted into the ASEAN.

In March 2006, the military junta, which had moved the national capital from Yangon to a site near Pyinmana in November 2005, officially named it Naypyidaw , meaning “city of the kings.” The naming of the city should give an indication as to the concern of the ruling junta.

The United Nations is nearly 60 years old, and in my estimation, has failed in earlier examples to deal with thugs ruling sovereign nations like Myanmar. It failed miserably in Rwanda in 1994; it is failing in Sudan and so far has failed with the Myanmar situation.

It is time that the United Nations Security Council backed a resolution that gives the United Nations the authority and a ready response team to assist aide workers for humanitarian purposes such as Myanmar. Where a natural disaster takes place, and a country is unable to reach and help its people (as in the case of Myanmar), such a force should be able to move quickly to help facilitate deployment of supplies and aide workers from NGOs (non-governmental organizations).

The United States and Great Britain have offered aide but the government will not allow aide workers into the country. Fearful of outside intervention, this is the need for an entity such as the United Nations (with representatives from most all of the world’s countries). However, in the past, even the UN has been constrained. A 1994 U.S. Government Accountability Office report entitled “Assistance Programs Constrained in Burma” outlined the specific efforts of the government to hinder the humanitarian work of international organizations, including restrictions on the free movement of international staff within the country.

The military junta passed guidelines in February 2006, which formalized these restrictive policies. According to the report, the guidelines require that programs run by humanitarian groups “enhance and safeguard the national interest” and that international organizations coordinate with state agents and select their Burmese staff from government-prepared lists of individuals. UN officials have declared these restrictions unacceptable.

As of the writing of this column, the generals of the military junta ruling Myanmar have only allowed a few flights of relief supplies to arrive from neighbor Thailand. Each day that passes, lives are lost and the chance for epidemic disease increases and the innocent men, women and children of Myanmar suffer needlessly.

Tim McDonald can be reached at timothy.mcdonald@agsfaculty.indwes.edu

        

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