Canada is encouraging donations and boosting government support of cyclone relief efforts in Burma while condemning an extension of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's detention by a year.
Minister of International Cooperation Beverley Oda announced on Monday that the Canadian government will extend its matching funds program from June 6 to June 13 and roll back its start date to May 2 from May 15.
May 2 was the day Cyclone Nargis struck the Irrawaddy Delta in the south of Burma, now called Myannmar by the ruling military junta. The cyclone left an estimated 2.4 million people destitute and 134,000 more missing or dead.
"Many people expect this disaster will lead to political change in Burma," says Tin Maung Htoo, executive director of Canadian Friends of Burma.
However, the regime continues to block the large-scale international relief operation that has been launched and this has drawn the world's attention, adds Maung Htoo.
The military junta has always been "suspicious of foreigners and very, very paranoid," he says. Police impose restrictions and difficulties on foreign aid workers, confiscating relief supplies, detaining donors, and impounding their vehicles.
Only a few aid workers have been allowed to enter Burma and the area they have permission to reach is very limited, says Maung Htoo.
"Aid workers cannot reach some places where people have the hardest difficulties in terms of the cyclone in the villages." Speaking at a security council debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, John McNee, the Canadian ambassador to the UN, said states that block aid should be taken to task, according to a National Post report. "Those who refuse access cannot be allowed to act with impunity," he said. "Enhanced accountability, underscored by a clear demonstration by the council that systematic denial of access will not be tolerated, is more important than ever." In addition, an international outcry erupted this week when the military junta again extended the detention by one year of Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy. The junta refused to recognize Suu Kyi's landslide election victory in 1990 who has since then spent more than 12 years under some form of detention.
In a statement released Wednesday, Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson said "Canada condemns [the] extension of Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest" and called for her immediate release.
Meanwhile, a fire in the visa section of the Burmese embassy in Bangkok, Thailand on Tuesday may have destroyed the passports of hundreds of aid workers applying for visas to enter Burma. News reports stated that the fire was caused by an electrical shortage, but it would not be unreasonable to assume that it was a political tactic to delay the visa process, Maung Htoo alleges.
Yet he noted that the military junta "knows that if they don't allow aid workers to come in to help the people without any food, water, or shelter, it would be a disaster for them in terms of holding onto power."
Burma's senior general Than Shwe last week promised visiting UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the regime would allow all aid workers full access to the delta.
Although Maung Htoo says no progress on the relief efforts have yet been seen, he noted the junta also recognizes that "the international call for the Responsibility to Protect is getting stronger and louder and it could lead to some kind of action by the international community."
Earlier this month French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner suggested that the UN Security Council invoke Responsibility to Protect (R2P), an international security and human rights doctrine conceived by former Canadian foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy in the aftermath of the horrors of Kosovo and Rwanda.
Adopted by the U.N. in 2005, R2P maintains that the international community has a responsibility to protect a population suffering serious harm if a country cannot or will not protect its own people.
While R2P — which addresses genocide, war crimes, ethic cleansing, and crimes against humanity — does not specifically refer to natural disasters, there is support to apply it to help aid to the victims of the Burma cyclone, including from Mr. Axworthy.
Maung Htoo urges Canada to take the lead, along with likeminded countries such as France, the U.S., and the U.K., to push R2P forward.
"Canada's support is quite strong both in the relief effort and on the political front," he says. In addition to the incentive of matching funds to increase individual donations, Canada has committed a $14 million contribution.
And according to a National Post report, Canadian ambassador to the UN John McNee has called on the UN Security Council to punish countries that block humanitarian aid. Calling the crisis in Burma "a matter of life and death," he said that "those who refuse access cannot be allowed to act with impunity."
"This is the opportune time for the international community to step in," says Maung Htoo.
"This relief effort is a priority for all of us," he said, but "at the same time it is a very temporary measure while Burma needs a long-term solution … to have change inside the country politically too."
The humanitarian effort and R2P can pave the way for political change, and currently "it's quite clear… we have some substance with which we can increase our pressure," Maung Htoo says.
"If not now, then when?"
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