Sunday, May 18, 2008
Myanmar's mishandling of cyclone disaster deals latest blow to ASEAN
The Associated Press
Published: May 18, 2008
MANILA, Philippines: Myanmar, long a thorn in the side of its Southeast Asian allies, has again made them a target of criticism after its ruling junta shocked the world by blocking most foreign aid for desperate cyclone survivors.
Critics have accused the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a 10-country bloc that includes Myanmar, of doing little to persuade the reclusive country's military-led government to rapidly let in outside help — particularly disaster experts.
European Union nations have warned that the junta could be committing a crime against humanity by blocking aid intended for up to 2.5 million survivors grappling with hunger, loss of their homes and potential outbreaks of deadly diseases.
"More than any international organization, it's ASEAN which can do something, but it has shown no teeth," said Loretta Ann Rosales, a former Filipino legislator who is an adviser to a Southeast Asian lawmakers' group advocating democracy in Myanmar.
"If they cannot take a strong position in this emergency, they can dissolve themselves into irrelevance."
ASEAN did manage to schedule an emergency meeting of its foreign ministers Monday in Singapore, the bloc's current chairman country, to discuss the disaster — but only after getting the junta's nod, a Southeast Asian diplomat in Manila told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the issue.
ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan will give a rundown of the group's efforts to help in the cyclone's aftermath. Myanmar's top diplomat, Nyan Win, will present a "needs assessment" to fellow ministers, said Philippine Assistant Foreign Secretary Marilyn Alarilla.
A proposal for ASEAN to play a role in arranging the entry of aid for Myanmar may be considered, she said, while suggestions that aid be taken in by force were unlikely to gain support.
"ASEAN moves gradually and by consensus," she said. "If Myanmar takes a hard-line position, we won't be effective."
It is the latest storm blamed on Myanmar to batter ASEAN, a Cold War-era bloc of fledgling democracies, authoritarian states, a military dictatorship and a monarchy. It has long been hamstrung by that diversity, along with a bedrock rule of noninterference in each other's affairs and a policy of making decision by consensus.
ASEAN, founded in 1967, takes pride in banding together such diverse countries, creating a platform to resolve conflicts and now integrating their economies as a counterweight to regional powerhouses China and India.
But Myanmar's junta, targeted by the West for its dismal human rights record and misrule, has been the perennial black sheep.
ASEAN has constantly nudged Myanmar to rapidly move toward democracy and free political prisoners, including democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi — a futile call that has often dominated the annual summits of the group's heads of state.
In 2006, Myanmar was forced to give up its turn in ASEAN's rotating chairmanship due to fears of a Western boycott of all of the group's meetings. A year later, the junta violently cracked down on the biggest pro-democracy demonstrations Myanmar had seen in almost two decades, killing at least 31 people according to a U.N. estimate and detaining thousands. ASEAN leaders condemned the crackdown.
In the aftermath of the May 2-3 cyclone, ASEAN's influence on Myanmar has again been put to a test. With its options shackled by its noninterference policy, analysts say it is unlikely to take any stronger steps beyond voicing its concern over problems hampering the flow of aid.
"They can't force the junta to do anything. The only thing they can do is to act as a conduit between Myanmar and the West to facilitate the entry of foreign aid," said James Chin, a political science professor with Malaysia's Monash University. "It's the most practical thing ASEAN can do and the thing most acceptable to the Myanmar leadership."
China, a huge provider of aid and military equipment to Myanmar, has been too hobbled by a devastating earthquake for it to get fully involved in the situation and is likely to stay away from any controversy ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
That leaves ASEAN among the few to deal with Myanmar. Its limited influence is underscored by the inability of most of its aid workers, including a token 15-man Philippine medical contingent, to obtain visas to go in.
____
Associated Press Writer Eileen Ng contributed to this report from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
French relief boat waiting off Myanmar
Sat May 17, 12:06 PM ET.
A French navy ship stocked with 1,000 tonenes of food and emergency supplies is positioned off of the worst-hit region of Myanmar's coast and awaiting permission to deliver its supplies. The vessel is equipped with three helicopters and enough rood to sustain....
As cyclone refugees wait, Myanmar refuses aid
YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's junta kept a French navy ship laden with aid waiting outside its maritime border on Saturday, and showed off neatly laid out state relief camps to diplomats.
The stage-managed tour appeared aimed at countering global criticism of the junta's failure to provide for survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which left at least 134,000 people dead or missing.
The stage-managed tour appeared aimed at countering global criticism of the junta's failure to provide for survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which left at least 134,000 people dead or missing.
Picture: A cyclone survivor salvages items from her damaged house on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar...
The junta flew 60 diplomats and U.N. officials in helicopters to three places in the Irrawaddy delta where camps, aid and survivors were put on display. The diplomats were not swayed.
"It was a show," Shari Villarosa, the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar, told The Associated Press by telephone after returning to Yangon. "That's what they wanted us to see."
The relief group Save the Children UK warned that thousands of children could die of starvation within two or three weeks unless more aid gets into the country quickly.
"With hundreds of thousands of people still not receiving aid many of these children will not survive much longer," the charity said in a statement. "Children may already be dying as a result of a lack of food."
Meanwhile, a French navy ship that arrived Saturday off Myanmar's shores loaded with food, medication and fresh water was given the now familiar red light, a response that France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Maurice Ripert, called "nonsense."
"We have small boats which could allow us to go through the delta to most of the regions where no one has accessed yet," he said a day earlier at U.N. headquarters. "We have small helicopters to drop food, and we have doctors."
The USS Essex, an amphibious assault ship, and its battle group have been waiting to join in the relief effort as well. U.S. Marine flights from their makeshift headquarters in Utapao, Thailand, continued Saturday — bringing the total to 500,000 pounds of aid delivered — but negotiations to allow helicopters to fly directly to the disaster zone were stalled.
Britain's prime minister accused authorities in Myanmar of behaving inhumanely by preventing foreign aid from reaching victims, and said the country's regime cares more about its own survival than the welfare of its people.
"This is inhuman," Gordon Brown told the British Broadcasting Corp. in his strongest criticism yet of Myanmar's authoritarian government.
Brown said a natural disaster "is being made into a man-made catastrophe by the negligence, the neglect and the inhuman treatment of the Burmese people by a regime that is failing to act and to allow the international community to do what it wants to do."
Britain's Ministry of Defense said it had dispatched a Royal Navy frigate to the area "as a contingency." The HMS Westminster broke away from an exercise with the French and Indian navies, a ministry spokesman said, speaking anonymously in line with military policy.
The spokesman said the ship carried a crew of 98 and was equipped with a communications facility, a Merlin helicopter, two sea boats, a doctor and a paramedic. The spokesman added that crew members are all trained in disaster relief.
Myanmar's media, which has repeatedly broadcast footage of generals reassuring refugees calmly sitting in clean tents, announced Friday that the death toll from Cyclone Nargis had nearly doubled to 78,000 with about 56,000 missing.
Aid groups say even those estimates are low.
According to the international Red Cross, the death toll alone is probably about 128,000, with many more deaths possible from disease and starvation unless help gets quickly to some 2.5 million survivors of the disaster.
But seeing that help gets to the victims is not the first priority of Myanmar's rulers. The military, which took power in a 1962 coup, says all aid must be delivered to the government for distribution and has barred foreigners from leaving Yangon, putting up a security cordon around the country's main city.
Myanmar has been slightly more open to aid from its neighbors.
It has accepted Thai and Indian medical teams, which arrived in Yangon on Saturday. The 32-member Thai team was expected to travel to the delta in the coming days, said Dr. Surachet Satitniramai, director of Thailand's National Medical Emergency Services Institute.
The Indian team consists of 50 doctors and paramedics from the Army Medical Corp., said Indian Air Force spokesman Wing Cmdr. Manish Gandhi. He could not immediately say if they will be allowed to go to the delta.
With the monsoon season coming, Myanmar was bracing for a long haul ahead.
Though patches of hot sun broke through Saturday, heavy rains since the cyclone have hampered relief efforts. Despite the overabundance of water in the flooded delta, shortages of water that is fresh enough to drink grew more severe by the day.
Access to regular supplies of safe drinking water and proper sanitation is essential for preventing waterborne diseases like cholera. Malaria and dengue fever outbreaks also will be a major concern in the coming weeks after mosquitoes have time to breed in the stagnant water.
In one town, tired and hungry refugees stood in the baking sun beside flooded rice paddies, demolished monasteries and thatched huts awaiting food and water. With the arrival of each vehicle carrying precious supplies, they jumped with excitement and surged ahead to get a share.
They were among the lucky ones — aid was actually coming.
"The further you go, the worse the situation," said an overwhelmed doctor in the town of Twante, just southwest of the country's largest city, Yangon, helping a locally organized relief effort there.
"Near Yangon, people are getting a lot of help and it's still bad," said the doctor, who refused to give her name for fear of being punished by the regime. "In the remote delta villages, we don't even want to imagine."
"It was a show," Shari Villarosa, the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar, told The Associated Press by telephone after returning to Yangon. "That's what they wanted us to see."
The relief group Save the Children UK warned that thousands of children could die of starvation within two or three weeks unless more aid gets into the country quickly.
"With hundreds of thousands of people still not receiving aid many of these children will not survive much longer," the charity said in a statement. "Children may already be dying as a result of a lack of food."
Meanwhile, a French navy ship that arrived Saturday off Myanmar's shores loaded with food, medication and fresh water was given the now familiar red light, a response that France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Maurice Ripert, called "nonsense."
"We have small boats which could allow us to go through the delta to most of the regions where no one has accessed yet," he said a day earlier at U.N. headquarters. "We have small helicopters to drop food, and we have doctors."
The USS Essex, an amphibious assault ship, and its battle group have been waiting to join in the relief effort as well. U.S. Marine flights from their makeshift headquarters in Utapao, Thailand, continued Saturday — bringing the total to 500,000 pounds of aid delivered — but negotiations to allow helicopters to fly directly to the disaster zone were stalled.
Britain's prime minister accused authorities in Myanmar of behaving inhumanely by preventing foreign aid from reaching victims, and said the country's regime cares more about its own survival than the welfare of its people.
"This is inhuman," Gordon Brown told the British Broadcasting Corp. in his strongest criticism yet of Myanmar's authoritarian government.
Brown said a natural disaster "is being made into a man-made catastrophe by the negligence, the neglect and the inhuman treatment of the Burmese people by a regime that is failing to act and to allow the international community to do what it wants to do."
Britain's Ministry of Defense said it had dispatched a Royal Navy frigate to the area "as a contingency." The HMS Westminster broke away from an exercise with the French and Indian navies, a ministry spokesman said, speaking anonymously in line with military policy.
The spokesman said the ship carried a crew of 98 and was equipped with a communications facility, a Merlin helicopter, two sea boats, a doctor and a paramedic. The spokesman added that crew members are all trained in disaster relief.
Myanmar's media, which has repeatedly broadcast footage of generals reassuring refugees calmly sitting in clean tents, announced Friday that the death toll from Cyclone Nargis had nearly doubled to 78,000 with about 56,000 missing.
Aid groups say even those estimates are low.
According to the international Red Cross, the death toll alone is probably about 128,000, with many more deaths possible from disease and starvation unless help gets quickly to some 2.5 million survivors of the disaster.
But seeing that help gets to the victims is not the first priority of Myanmar's rulers. The military, which took power in a 1962 coup, says all aid must be delivered to the government for distribution and has barred foreigners from leaving Yangon, putting up a security cordon around the country's main city.
Myanmar has been slightly more open to aid from its neighbors.
It has accepted Thai and Indian medical teams, which arrived in Yangon on Saturday. The 32-member Thai team was expected to travel to the delta in the coming days, said Dr. Surachet Satitniramai, director of Thailand's National Medical Emergency Services Institute.
The Indian team consists of 50 doctors and paramedics from the Army Medical Corp., said Indian Air Force spokesman Wing Cmdr. Manish Gandhi. He could not immediately say if they will be allowed to go to the delta.
With the monsoon season coming, Myanmar was bracing for a long haul ahead.
Though patches of hot sun broke through Saturday, heavy rains since the cyclone have hampered relief efforts. Despite the overabundance of water in the flooded delta, shortages of water that is fresh enough to drink grew more severe by the day.
Access to regular supplies of safe drinking water and proper sanitation is essential for preventing waterborne diseases like cholera. Malaria and dengue fever outbreaks also will be a major concern in the coming weeks after mosquitoes have time to breed in the stagnant water.
In one town, tired and hungry refugees stood in the baking sun beside flooded rice paddies, demolished monasteries and thatched huts awaiting food and water. With the arrival of each vehicle carrying precious supplies, they jumped with excitement and surged ahead to get a share.
They were among the lucky ones — aid was actually coming.
"The further you go, the worse the situation," said an overwhelmed doctor in the town of Twante, just southwest of the country's largest city, Yangon, helping a locally organized relief effort there.
"Near Yangon, people are getting a lot of help and it's still bad," said the doctor, who refused to give her name for fear of being punished by the regime. "In the remote delta villages, we don't even want to imagine."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
