Posted on 05/17/2008 10:27:29 AM PDT by blam
Myanmar cyclone: Burma junta may be prosecuted over aid block
By Philip Sherwell in New York
Last Updated: 6:17PM BST 17/05/2008
Burma's ruling generals could be threatened with prosecution for crimes against humanity as a last resort to pressure them to allow an international relief operation to reach desperate cyclone survivors.
A boy looks out onto his devastated village near Yangon, Burma
"The strategy is to raise the bar for the consequences of not allowing humanitarian intervention by introducing the threat of prosecution for crimes against humanity," said a senior US health expert involved in the discussions. "The goal is to save lives in the delta by elevating the threat level against the regime."
In a letter sent to Gordon Brown, President George W.Bush and the French leader, Nicolas Sarkozy, several Nobel Peace Prize laureates also raised the spectre of crimes against humanity and called for the three countries to act unilaterally to deliver aid.
"By refusing aid, the Burmese regime has effectively declared war on its own population and is committing crimes against humanity," wrote Archbishop Desmond Tutu in a letter co-signed by six other Nobel winners.
"The UK, United States, and France have the capacity to respond immediately. Please use your ships, helicopters, and all other tools within your capacity to immediately deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Burma. We must wait no longer for permission from China and Burma's military regime. The time to save 1.5 million lives is now."
International law applied in war crimes tribunals makes "inhumane acts" a crime against humanity and Mr Brown has chosen the word "inhuman" to describe the actions of the junta. Burma has also ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that makes it illegal to restrict health care for "vulnerable" children.
Diplomatic efforts are focused on pushing the junta to accept a combined aid operation conducted by Burma's Asian neighbours and the United Nations.
France's UN ambassador, Jean-Maurice Ripert, criticised Burma's military junta on Friday, saying the government's refusal to allow aid to be delivered to people in need "could lead to a true crime against humanity."
Diplomats witnessed "huge" devastation in the Irrawaddy delta on Saturday and the toll of dead and missing from the cyclone rose above 133,000 people, making it one of the most damaging to hit Asia.
With about 2.5 million people clinging to survival in the delta, and the military government refusing to admit large-scale outside relief, disaster experts say the death toll from Cyclone Nargis which struck on May 2 could rise dramatically.
"It was useful to catch the magnitude of the devastation. It's huge," Bernard Delpuech, head of the European Commission Humanitarian Office in Rangoon said of the trip. "For the recovery you can't expect it to be six months or a year. It will take longer," he said.
Helicopters took some 60 to 70 diplomats split in three groups to different parts of the delta, where Nargis struck with 120 mph (190 kmh) winds and a 12-foot (3.5 metre) wall of water.
The itineraries were arranged by the Burmese government, under fire for refusing to allow significant numbers of foreign aid workers and major international aid operations. The generals running the country say they have things in hand.
"The purpose was to show the situation was under control. Where we were they didn't hide anything but of course they selected the places we visited," Mr Delpuech said.
During the tour diplomats repeatedly told the the accompanying government minister that Burma should allow more access to international aid. Mr Delpuech said the answer was: "Yes, they're willing, but they don't want the people who will create more problems".
Local state television said media reports were inaccurate in suggesting the government was not doing enough.
There have already been tens of millions of dollars spent and extensive aid deliveries and other efforts by the army, navy and air force, state television insisted.
Tutu wants to be relevant. He had his 15 minutes long ago.
I’m not sticking up for the Burmese government, but how are they worse than about 40 or 50 other brutal governments around the world? How are they worse than Zimbabwe, for instance, or Sudan?
The explanation seems to be is that they are not, for some reason, politically correct. Therefore, they are a “junta.” I don’t remember that Fidel Castro was ever a “junta,” although he always wore uniform.
Hypocrites. Desmond Tutu would be more useful turning his attention to the corruption and social ills of South Africa.
Oh, good... so now when there’s a tornado in Oklahoma, and Russia, Iran, and China want to send spies to “aid” us, we’ll be prosecuted in the world courts for refusing them. How nice.
This business of using international courts to prosecute crimes of national leaders is a very dangerous precedent. The U.S. should never support such activity.
that was my first thought as well.
“The strategy is to raise the bar for the consequences of not allowing humanitarian intervention by introducing the threat of prosecution for crimes against humanity.....”
.....except for North Korea, Zimbabwe, Cuba, and all other nations that promise to viciously denounce the USA.
I have a better idea. Let’s bomb the government’s shiny new capital city to smithereens. Today. Nobody lives or works there except the government leaders and their loyal partners in crime. Wipe out their city and those of them that are still alive will be too busy tending their wounded fellow monsters and trying to find food and shelter, to bother trying to block aid workers. Enough with the stupid bureaucratic maneuvers already.
1. I bet the generals are shivering in their boots about the thought that international law will be imposed against them.
2. It sounds like Tutu wants Western nations to invade the sovereign nation of Burma. That nasty little war monger!
3. Maybe the generals don’t want UN aid workers because they think that those workers will steal the supplies and rape the women and children. After all, that’s what they do in Africa.
Yeah.... Right ......... That would be like suing the ChiComs for poisoning our food and medicine. Plus the ChiComs with veto power are the main backers of of these guys.
From what I understand they are communists. For some reason people seem to think “juntas” are right wing. I guess that’s why the MSM tied the name to Burma. Burma is controlled in a large part by communist china, it’s another N Korea in a way.
I don’t know where people ever got the idea facism is a conservative idea. Facism is from the “facies” a group of sticks tied together. That is socialism or communism more than anything.
True conservatism “the right” is limited government and the personal freedom of the individual more than anything.
The only possible explanation for the focus on wrongs by the brown and blindness to the wrongs of blacks - is racial bigotry..
Folks must expect less from Africans than from Malaysians...
They qualifies as bigotry, right?
The other issue that may be playing it's role — is that a LOT of manufacturing/assembly operations supporting American corporations are in Malaysia — I know of very few in Africa...
I agree that hearing Tutu raise hell about this and remain silent for all the crimes, chaos and slaughter in Africa - is more than laughable...
It’s odd, because the press and the UN love most of these Communist regimes, but for some reason they hate the Burma regime.
And, yes, I agree with you. Mussolini was a Communist before he developed Fascism, and Stalin hated Hitler because the two of them were competing for the same political territory.
Somehow the Burmese rulers have gotten a bad rep, like the comfortable delusion that Stalin was basically good—if admittedly a little mean sometimes, since you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs—whereas Hitler was the most evil man in the history of the universe.
It seems to me that they were equally vile.
Forgive me..... I have no idea how I wrongly substituted Malaysia for Myanmar.
Oh, Desmond, why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
I always have trouble remembering which country is Myanmar. Sometimes this postcolonial renaming seems plain enough, and sometimes it just doesn’t seem to stick.
I still use the old names; Saigon, Burma, Celon, Rhodesia, Albion, etc.
This constant name changing does get tiresome. I still use Pangaea. ;^)
Didn’t Tutu say that Rev. Wright was right?
Another one I have trouble with is Mumbai. If they were going to change the name of a city as well known as Bombay, they could have done it 40 or 50 years earlier.
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