Burma Update: UN SG Ban Ki Moon Claims Foreign Aid Allowed

[stinglikeabee]

The Times Online:  Burma's junta leader has agreed to allow access to all foreign aid workers to help with the relief operation after Cyclone Nargis, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has said.

Mr Ban made the announcement after more than two hours of talks with Senior General Than Shwe, the reclusive leader of the country’s military regime, whose refusal to let them in earlier set off international outrage.

About damn time. Remember, the cyclone was on 2-3 May and this belated response has meant several hundreds of thousands were needlessly suffering from lack of support for close to three weeks. The Burmese government do not have the resources -- both in supplies and manpower -- to assist, particularly in the most rural areas. The junta's first moves should be to grant visas for foreign aid workers and allow the ships ladened with aid to dock.

Unfortunately, I'm still a little cynical as to whether the Burmese authorities will not somehow impede the aid workers in providing services. Think diverting aid to certain areas instead of where it may be needed. In this case, ASEAN should be more visible in telling the junta off.

It's a bit disappointing the UN didn't do a forcible humanitarian relief effort. As I've noted before this is extremely unlikely and would wreak havoc in the squabbling International community, but in a perfect world and all that.

In the end (barring the junta going back on its word), this event has shown how successful Ban Ki Moon's diplomatic talks are. I hope this means we might be seeing a Dag Hammarskjöld in the making :) 

Comments

[parlance.livejournal.com]

We just got an Amnesty International call to action this morning specifically for ASEAN leaders to put pressure on the Myanmar government. This is one time I was hesitant to take part because I was pretty sure that's what they were already doing without additional shoulder-tapping.

[stinglikeabee.livejournal.com]

You're right, and there's more. AMNESTY and ASEAN have a beef for decades now, and the extra pressure is not going to help. I know Amnesty means well, but speaking as a person who has seen how ASEAN works from the inside, this will be seen as yet another way the West tries to interfere in Asia.

One of the big reasons why ASEAN is working quietly is to avoid the spotlight falling on them. Not a single country in the group has an open and free democracy (not even Singapore, for all its success). Better to band together to preserve the status quo, that's the motto.

[parlance.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that insight. And I'm glad I refrained.