According to recent reports received by KHRG from residents of the Irrawaddy Delta, the SPDC has not only been restricting aid supplies and access by international humanitarian workers, but has also been doing so on the basis of ethnicity. Increasing reports on the military’s restrictions and misappropriation of aid supplies necessitate immediate international investigation, as all affected residents of the delta regardless of their ethnicity remain in urgent need humanitarian assistance.

“Is the SPDC diverting aid on ethnic grounds?,” KHRG, May 14th 2008.

Perhaps I should just emphasise that readers who come across other commentaries can feel free to post an extract, and a link, here. The more the merrier, in these sad times.

Best wishes to all,

Nich

Yet the generals apparently have a different agenda in their handling and distribution of international aid, which has been widely criticized for not allowing foreign aid workers to assist with distribution. While the first priority was clearly solidifying their rule through the referendum, they are also haunted by an almost pathological fear of a split inside their own ranks… From the junta’s perspective, the group that needs to be fed first is the 400,000 strong military, rather than the desperate civilian survivors of the crisis.

“Why Myanmar’s junta steals foreign aid,” Asia Times Online, May 14th 2008.

If what the generals are now doing, in effectively denying relief to hundreds of thousands of people at real and immediate risk of death, can itself be characterised as a crime against humanity, then the responsibility to protect principle does indeed cut in.

“Facing up to our responsibilities,” Gareth Evans, The Guardian, May 12th 2008.

Surely the best way to resolve the situation whilst maintaining maximum moral integrity from all angles is to engage with the Junta and buy them out with praise, pay them lip service – that they are right, we are horrible bastards and they can have all the face and jewls — like U Po Kyin from Burmese Days — that they can imagine. We can have a ‘faith’ (ooh the -other- F word) that their karma will see them return as the drain pipes for the new Yangon sewage system. I don’t mind being called names, or calling myself names so that people in Burma/Myanmar have a better standard of living- why does the UN? It is a contest of legitimacy from both sides, not a concerted effort to have people drink clean water.