Burma abandoned by Asean and UN: what hope for Tibet?

Secretary-General

Pressure Rises
On Asean to Act
In Myanmar
By JAMES HOOKWAY
May 19, 2008
SINGAPORE -- After a tepid response to Myanmar's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests last year, the country's neighbors and trading partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations face mounting pressure to act more decisively to push Myanmar's isolationist military rulers to cooperate with international cyclone-aid efforts.

In the wake of the devastating storm that killed at least 78,000 people and left 56,000 more missing, foreign ministers from the 10-member Southeast Asian grouping -- including Myanmar's foreign minister, Nyan Win -- will meet here Monday in a gathering that could set the stage for a broader international donor conference under United Nations auspices.

Surin Pitsuwan, Asean's secretary-general, said in Washington last week that "there is a consensus emerging that Asean has to take the lead."

Late Sunday, staff of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he will travel to Myanmar this week to talk about aid delivery.

Last Thursday, Mr. Surin met with World Bank President Robert Zoellick to discuss how the bank could by-pass its longstanding, self-imposed ban on doing business with Myanmar's military leaders in order to help with the relief effort. U.N. officials said Friday the World Bank could help broker a financial-aid package involving Asean members.

World Bank officials acknowledged Mr. Zoellick and Mr. Surin discussed relief strategies, but didn't provide further details. Aid experts estimate Myanmar, one of Asia's poorest countries, will need hundreds of millions of dollars -- and possibly billions -- to rebuild.

But Asean may not be able to help much, based on its past performance in crises. Asean comprises a diverse range of countries ranging from democracies such as Indonesia and the Philippines to communist states Vietnam and Laos and countries that have at times employed more authoritarian modes of government, such as Thailand. It also includes Myanmar, ruled by an isolationist military junta since 1962.

To avoid trampling on each other's toes, the Asean nations have long adopted a policy of not interfering in each other's so-called internal affairs. That policy has left the grouping without much diplomatic leverage when crises occur in one member state. Pro-democracy activists inside and outside the grouping complain that it is toothless to deal with Myanmar.

Last September, Myanmar's armed force violently broke up pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks, killing at least 31 people. Asean foreign ministers issued a statement expressing "revulsion" at the killings, but didn't take any strong follow-up action. At Asean's annual summit in November, it canceled a talk the U.N.'s special envoy for Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, was planning to make to the group after Myanmar objected.

Mr. Gambari instead briefed individual Asean leaders on his efforts to build a dialogue between pro-democracy advocates and Myanmar's military regime, which unilaterally rejected the results of a parliamentary election won by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy in 1990.

In Washington last week, Mr. Surin, a former Thai foreign minister, said the disastrous cyclone that struck Myanmar on May 2 and 3 offers a chance for Asean to reassert itself. "It is a defining moment for Asean. But Asean needs encouragement, and needs less criticism, less ridicule," he said.

Thai medical teams have been allowed access to the worst-affected Irrawaddy delta area and the Thai military has helped negotiate U.N. aid convoys to pass over land across the Thai-Myanmar border.

Still, it is unclear whether Asean will be able to exert much additional pressure on Myanmar to open up to more assistance. Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej flew to Myanmar May 14 to lobby the junta to accept more aid, but returned to Bangkok saying the generals told him that they could handle the situation themselves.

Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein was reported on state-run television last week as saying the emergency aid mission was now over. "We have already finished our first phase of emergency relief," Gen. Thein Sein was quoted as saying. "We are going onto the second phase, the rebuilding stage."

The U.N. and other international agencies hotly disagree. And they continue to complain over restrictions placed on their relief efforts by Myanmar's regime. Officials say they are unsure of the full extent of the damage, which may have left up to 2.5 million people in urgent need of assistance. On Saturday, a U.N. report said the ruling junta was preventing foreign agencies using imported communications equipment, requiring them instead to buy mobile phones from the Ministry of Posts and Communications at a cost of $1,500 each.

The U.N.'s top disaster relief official, John Holmes, arrived in Myanmar late Sunday in another bid to persuade Senior General Than Shwe, who has refused to take phone calls from Mr. Ban, the secretary-general, to accept more aid and allow more access to the Irrawaddy delta.

On Saturday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the BBC that 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."

Western officials point out that the U.S. has Navy vessels that are packed with aid just 110 kilometers off Myanmar's coast.

The French navy ship Le Mistral is also anchored offshore, with 1,000 tons of food -- enough to feed 100,000 people for 15 days -- and shelters for 15,000.

Write to James Hookway at james.hookway@awsj.com