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On Myanmar, France's Bluster Met by Skepticism, China Speaks of Aid But Does Not Film Itself

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, May 8 -- With the reported number of deaths in Myanmar rising by the hour, in front of the Security Council Thursday morning China's Deputy Permanent Representative Liu said that his government has direct flights to Yangon and has been delivering aid, including tents and cash. He said, however, that the Security Council was not the place to discuss the "natural disaster" in Myanmar. Inner City Press asked him, what about involving the UN's envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari? "Gambari, his is a different process, a political process," Amb. Liu said, that should be kept separate.

            South Africa's Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo went further, telling the press to check the web site of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "Yesterday there was a huge" disaster in North Korea, he said. "We never met" in the Security Council "on the tsunami," he said. "What this one?"  Panama's Ambassador followed suit, saying "I don' think it's appropriate" to have OCHA's John Holmes brief the Council, as France on May 7 requested. "We have a Secretariat for that," he said, which can "brief the general membership."

Amb. Liu and two UN officials, aid to Myanmar not shown, or covered by CNN or BBC

            In part this is a fight by non-permanent members of the Council to reign in the Council's power. It also involves some countries which fear being the target of humanitarian intervention. France, however, is playing fast and loose with the Responsibility to Protect, as defined in the UN system, which is limited to cases of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing or crimes against humanity?  When Inner City Press on May 7 asked French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert under which of these four he proposed that the Council proceed, Ripert responded, as transcribed by the French mission

"This is procedure. There is a unprecedented drama,  disastrous  situation in Myanmar. The concept of responsibility to protect is known a little by France: we invented it with Bernard Kouchner 20 years ago, in 1988, precisely with a resolution dealing with access to victims. It was the beginning of this. Precisely, we think and we recall: primary responsibility is with the government of Myanmar, but if it fails or if it cannot, we have to do something. If we do not do anything, people will continue to die, epidemics will spread out, and it will be a disaster."

            Whether or not Kouchner "invented" R2P, it was foreseeable that its invocation at the UN Security Council at this time would go nowhere. What, then, to make of the on- and off-the-record outraged expressed by the Western Permanent Members? They claim that OCHA's John Holmes has been informed of their dissatisfaction with his "things are going okay" approach. But to whom does John Holmes answer? And to whom will he speak -- the General Assembly?  Watch this site.

   Inner City Press asked Indonesia's Ambassador what aid his country had given. "A million dollars," he said. "And China has given more." India, it is said, has sent two ships of aid to Myanmar.  But is this seen on CNN and BBC? Indonesia's Ambassador smiled and went into the Council. 

   In terms of the General Assembly being serious on this issue, if it's any indication, Swiss Ambassador Peter Maurer when asked Thursday morning if his country would support France's invocation of the Responsibility to Protect in the case Myanmar shook his head, smiled and declined to comment. At least in the Council, countries have to have an answer. We hope to have more on this.

Footnote: developments this week lead Inner City Press to wonder why China does not develop and publicize its own humanitarian machinery, its own Chinese Bernard Kouchner. It could fly aid into Yangon, and film itself doing it. It could say, "we don't need these Western NGOs, we'll do it ourselves." Supposedly China hired a U.S. public relations firm to burnish its image. Where are they? Then again, the Chinese mission has not done an on-camera stakeout interview outside the Council since October 2007.

  On the other hand, or foot, at the Security Council stakeout after China's Amb. Liu said that China flew into Yangon "tents and money," one wag muttered, "And guns." Still another said that the French oil industry active in Myanmar ought to be delivering aid. We will continue to explore these issues.

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Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

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