Burmese Dying
Thousands die as the UN and the world watches the terror of
the
military junta
Jagmohan Singh
s
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In this Open Letter to the UN Secretary General, the author
challenges the world body, the United Nations to launch an
offensive against the Burmese military rulers as it is its
“responsibility to protect” the life and liberty of the Burmese
people who are being allowed to be killed by disaster and
disease. |
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 Dear
Mr. Ban-ki-Moon
The heartless
and careless military junta of
Burma is
allowing thousands to die in more than one-third of the country
affected by cyclone and disease. The ineffective United Nations is
almost acquiescing with the military junta by not doing anything
effective to stop the tyrants, who are keeping all international aid
beyond the reach of victims of the manmade disaster, surprisingly
called Cyclone Nargis.
Today, it is
estimated that the death toll is likely to increase manifold by 15
times the present number of a hundred thousand, if the isolationist
attitude of the military rulers of Burma continues. Oxfam’s Thailand
regional chief Sarah Ireland has sounded an SOS alert saying that
the death toll will be significantly higher if clean water and
sanitation are not provided immediately.
In any
case, hundreds of people have been dying in Burma inspite of the
cyclone as it has the poorest health care system in the world.
While the populace is dying, the generals are building castles from
moneys garnered from the sale of natural gas to countries like India
and China. The World Health Organisation ranked Burma’s health
system as the world’s worst in a survey in the year 2000 as more
than 90 percent of the population lives on just
$1 a day.
The failure of
the United Nations In Burma is as glaring as in
Zimbabwe,
where
Zimbabweans are dying with the lowest life expectancy in the world.
It is a week
since the powerful cyclone struck
Irrawaddy delta
region and its neighboring areas affecting more than one-third of
the country, but the despots seem more interested in perpetuating
their rule rather than let in the massive international aid that is
knocking the doors of the country on the Burma-Thailand border by
road and other relief by air.
 What
is
bizarre and downright inhuman is that the military has diverted aid
for political purposes and used aid as campaigning material. The
greed of the dictators too has come to light because most of the aid
in the last week has been abrogated by the military and the relief
personnel have been denied visas and entry into the disaster-ridden
country. This is a clear indication of the sick minds of the rulers.
I find it
utterly disgusting and disturbing that in this day and age, aid
agencies, journalists, aid workers, politicians and diplomats are
disallowed and an iron curtain separates
Burma from the
rest of the world. To my mind, this is a different kind of terror
and the world community must launch another “war on terror” in
Burma.
Since the last
fifty years the Burmese dictators are keeping the international
community at bay and they have become so merciless and shameless that while their
population is dying, they are busy conducting a sham and fraudulent
referendum. It is a tribute to the democratic spirit of Daw Aang
San Suu Kyi, that instead of calling for a boycott of the sham polls
and organizing street protests, she has urged people to vote through
the ballot. Knowing fully well that the military can maneuver the
results as it did in 1988, she has kept faith in democracy while
living without electricity and a roof over her head since the
cyclone struck the region near the
University of
Yangon, where she has been incarcerated.
 I fail to
understand the role of the
United States of
America and United Nations in succumbing to the machinations of the
Burmese leadership. Some months ago, there was a ray of hope when
the First Lady of the US, Laura Bush had admonished the Burmese
government. I had felt that it was the precursor of events to come.
I would not
hesitate to say that the United Nations must deploy the UN
Peacekeeping Forces to launch an offensive against
Burma, for I
strongly believe that allowing people to die when they need massive
relief and support is nothing short of the continuance of the
Burmese dictators policy of mercilessly killing dissenters and
political foes.
If the United
Nations cannot force its will on the country’s mad leadership and
force the entry of international aid agencies to protect the life
and liberty of the people, then it is a violation of the UN
Declaration of human rights. The United Nations would be doubly
failing in its commitment –firstly having failed to protect the
people of Burma and the pro-democracy leadership led by Daw Aang San
Suu Kyi and secondly by being unable to save some 1.5 million people
from disaster and disease.
Aid agencies
have pointed out that there is a 10-day window period between
disaster and disease and that period is almost over. Cholera,
typhoid, dysentery is likely to spread through dirty water and
contaminated food. All such deaths that follow disease should be
attributed to the military junta and they should be tried for crimes
against humanity. Shockingly, instead of showing concern for his
people, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the leader of the junta, and his
wife, Daw Kyaing Kyaing’s photograph adorn newspaper cover pages.
I fully endorse
the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner’s
suggestion to the United Nations to invoke the “responsibility to
protect” civilians doctrine, adopted by the United Nations in 2005,
as the basis for a resolution to allow the delivery of international
aid even without the junta’s permission. Surprisingly, the UN under
secretary general for humanitarian affairs, John Holmes, has said
that such an action was perhaps not called for.
At a
recent security council meeting, France has argued that the UN had
the authority to intervene under the 2005 resolution but Britain
objected that the resolution related to “acts of genocide, war
crimes, crimes against humanity and so forth, rather than government
responses to natural disasters". The bottom line is the saving of
lives of people and from that point of view, the British stand is unacceptable. The US and
Britain, who were so quick to forge an alliance to defeat the “axis
of evil” in some other parts of the world, have not proceeded further
from calling the situation in Burma, an "epic" humanitarian
disaster.
The Burmese
opposition leader Sein Win has said that the world community must
pressurize
China to
influence the Burmese leadership. Indeed they should. But the world
community must itself act sooner than later. The United Nations will
do well to listen to the comments of its former human rights envoy
to Burma, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, a Brazilian lawyer, who has rightly
mocked at the draft constitution on which people have been called to
vote and called it, “completely surreal.”
The
Indian government which is hand-in-glove with the Burmese
leadership, has downplayed the disaster and disaster relief and the
Indian media has toed the government line. The coverage of the
Burmese disaster in the Indian media is less than that of a train
accident.
A pro-democracy
monk is reported to have said, “All the birds stopped singing after
the storm. May be they were scared.” The United Nations and the
international community must also overcome fear and enter
Burma without
visas and without need for a signal from the anti-people leadership.
Jagmohan Singh
Jagmohan
Singh is a social and human rights activist and commentator based in
Ludhiana. He may be contacted at
jsbigideas@gmail.com
14
May,
2008
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