R2P through Burma’s looking glass

By Sai Wansai

14 May, 2008 (Shan) - It is heartening to hear that the international community should use all possible means to get aid through to victims of Burma's cyclone despite the reluctance of the military junta, the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Tuesday.

After more than 10 days of deliberation between the Burmese military junta and international donors, notably the UN, US and France the world is nowhere near the full scale relief operation, which is most urgently needed.

If one would compare the speed and efficiency of the tsunami disaster of 2004 that hits the Asian region to Burma's recent natural catastrophe, it is lacking ways behind in every aspect. During the disaster of tsunami, the international, massive humanitarian assistance kicked off in relatively short span of time.

"We are reaching people today but we are reaching too few and too slowly," said Terje Skavdal, the regional representative for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) which has been leading the relief efforts for Burma out of Bangkok.

"Normally, you will within three to four days be up to speed in such a situation like this," Skavdal told a press conference. "The fact that we are at day 10 now shows how delayed we are in the response," he said.

As of Tuesday, the intended massive relief operation is still pending, due to the red tape surrounding visa processing for aids workers and the junta's lack of political will, coupled with its paranoid mistrustfulness of international community and false priority-setting.

On Monday morning the first of three cargo planes with a total of 110 tons of food, tents, medical supplies, drugs, and pumps and generators for water and sanitation systems from Doctors Without Borders arrived in Rangoon.

Also on Monday the US government flew its first shipment of disaster relief into Burma.
"This is a small salve for a much larger wound," US Ambassador to Thailand Eric John said from UTapao, 120 kilometres south-east of Bangkok.

A report, emphasising on the needed volume of assistance shipment on such a major disaster, pointed out that it needed at least 40 planes load of relief aids on daily basis to cope with the situation, while there is barely one plane landing in Rangoon airport after 10 days of cyclone Nargis devastation.

Notwithstanding the junta’s inability to cope with the logistics problem, due to the bulk of its navy ships being destroyed during the recent cyclone in delta area and lack of enough suitable helicopters for such rescue mission, it still rejected the US offers to deliver supplies by helicopter or ship directly to cyclone survivors, as of late Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the disaster hit Irrawaddy delta areas is still widely inaccessible, where about 5,000 sq. km of land remain under water. To top this, the death toll count have risen to 100,000 and between 1.2 million and 1.9 million people were struggling to survive, according to the United Nations.

Parallel to this ongoing tragedy, the international stakeholders are debating whether “Responsibility to Protect” or R2P doctrine, recognised by the UN in 2005, could be applicable in the wake of Cyclone Nargis devastation and the Burmese junta reluctance to let the badly needed massive humanitarian assistance go ahead without delay.

Ironically, in R2P Commission view’s, Paragraph 4.19, military intervention for human protection purposes is justified in two broad sets of circumstances, namely in order to halt or avert:

• large scale loss of life, actual or apprehended, with genocidal intent or not, which is the product either of deliberate state action, or state neglect or inability to act, or a failed state situation; or
• large scale “ethnic cleansing,” actual or apprehended, whether carried out by killing, forced expulsion, acts of terror or rape.

If either or both of these conditions are satisfied, it is our view that the “just cause” component of the decision to intervene is amply satisfied.

As if to buttress the doctrine of military intervention in a similar case recently surrounding Burma, a phrase in Paragraph 4.20, under the heading of “THRESHOLD CRITERIA: JUST CAUSE”, writes:

• overwhelming natural or environmental catastrophes, where the state concerned is either unwilling or unable to cope, or call for assistance, and significant loss of life is occurring or threatened.

While the recent EU posturing to use all possible means to get aid through to victims of Burma's cyclone, despite the reluctance of the military junta, the R2P notion is not likely to be implemented, anytime soon.

With Rwanda, Srebrenica and the likes of failed missions in Uganda, Congo and Sudan as glaring examples of international impotence, the chances of humanitarian intervention is quite remote, given that Burma occupies a relatively low priority level in the West agenda in general, although it has been seen and made use of as an issue, where it could project its "moral high ground" with little or no investment.

A strategy paper, on project to end genocide and crime against humanity, titled “R2P, the ICC, and stopping atrocities in the real world” , by John Prendergast and Lisa Rogoff in concluding note writes, “The adoption of the “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine has the capacity to change the way the United Nations does business. Although sover­eignty still is central, the United Nations has now­with this doctrine ­dedicated itself to protecting people. At least in theory”.

The paper further pointed out that the major challenge is in helping to build the political will and that beyond mass atrocities, R2P must move from mere words to concrete action.

But still, if it is ever going to happen within the Burma context, it will be within the mold of "coalition of the willing", somewhat like Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq and not under the UN or UNSC direction.

Most recently, contacted by AsiaNews, a teacher from Pathein (Bassein) describes the worsening situation, launching an outspoken appeal on behalf of the country, urging the “international community to put pressure to let in aid held back in Thailand because here we are dying like flies.”

Meanwhile, The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that, because of poor sanitary conditions, disease could break out.

Likewise, the United Nations warned that Burma faced a "second catastrophe" after its devastating cyclone, unless the junta immediately allows massive air and sea deliveries of aid.

On Tuesday, spokeswoman for the UN Organization for Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) Elizabeth Byrs said that at least 1.5 million people are severely affected by the disaster, but only about one-third of those are getting aid.

For the moment, it is as if the junta is obstructing the fire-fighters with major vehicles to enter the premises, but letting in a few selected ones with buckets to overcome the towering inferno, which certainly will lead to total destruction.

As it now seems, the world shouldn't be surprised to witness, if the last surviving victim of the cyclone Nargis will die a second death, due to international incompetence, coupled with the Burmese junta's paranoid attitude and wrong priority-setting to handle the situation in a timely and decisive manner.