ASEAN vows to help Burma

Southeast Asian nations have always been split on how to treat Burma given its reluctance to explicitly embrace democracy.

But now ASEAN nations are being urged to put their differences aside and support Burma's cyclone victims.

Presenter: Linda LoPresti
Speakers: ASEAN's assistant director of disaster management, Adelina Kamal.

KAMAL: ASEAN has this mechanism. We call it the ASEAN agreement on disaster management and emergency response, which was signed by the foreign ministers of ASEAN in July, 2005, and under that agreement we have already established the procedure for communicating for example the request to offer assistance from ASEAN countries is for one of the other ASEAN countries is hit by disasters, just like a cyclone that hit Myanmar a few days ago. So basically the mechanism under the agreement would facilitate ASEAN countries to help one another.

LOPRESTI: The ASEAN agreement on disaster management and emergency response though has not yet been entered into force. Is that correct?

KAMAL: That's correct. It's was signed by all the ASEAN countries in July, 2005, but the agreement requires for all the ASEAN countries to ratify, to make this enter into force.

LOPRESTI: So what's holding up the process, because it's been three years since you've agreed to it, or ASEAN has agreed to it. What's taking so long for it to come into affect?

KAMAL: Well, every country I believe has its own procedure and mechanism to actually get the agreement ratified. So some countries would have to go through the parliament for example and other countries it would be sufficient for them to get their cabinet's approval. So while we are waiting for the other four countries to ratify, we have to find six countries to ratify the agreement.

LOPRESTI: Which four countries have not ratified it?

KAMAL: The other four are Brunei, Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia.

LOPRESTI: So Burma has ratified, has signed?

KAMAL: Myanmar has actually signed, well Myanmar is one of the ASEAN countries who signed the agreement.

LOPRESTI: And so they ratified it, and so have they specifically asked ASEAN for help?

KAMAL: They have not sent a formal request in written through the ASEAN mechanism, through the ASEAN Secretariat. They have not contacted us or sent any formal request in written, but we believe that they are open to assistance from ASEAN in the spirit of the ASEAN agreement on disaster management and emergency response, ASEAN countries are supposed to help one another.

LOPRESTI: What if you don't get Burma's approval, will ASEAN go in anyway?

KAMAL: For sure, because we have to respect the national sovereignty here. We've got to have Myanamar's approval, although that the offer is coming from us, we don't wait for Myanmar to request that we could also channel the offer from the other ASEAN countries. We have to get Myanmar's approval for sure, that's written in the agreement.

As mentioned by our Secretary-General, I don't think that Myanmar would say no to ASEAN's assistance.

LOPRESTI: In December, 2004, following the tsunami, there was agreement that there should be some kind of warning system, an early warning system put in the Indian Ocean and the South East Asian region. Why wasn't there any warning in regard to this cyclone, which was clearly on its way to Burma?

KAMAL: We have the tsunami warning system in place. There is a network, but it's not the same system as the one that would actually monitor the tropical cyclone and so forth. But there is an international cooperation basically where some of the ASEAN countries are part of that, as well as I'm concerned that cooperation would allow member countries to be notified. But in terms of what we are doing to monitor the situation, we would also rely on the information from the countries themselves and at the onset of disaster unfortunately, we didn't receive indication from or report from the Myanmar authorities and mainly because of the communication breakdown I believe.

Radio Australia