MYANMARTYRS

Once again, the rest of the world stands aghast, wringing its hands and doing nothing, while a gigantic, avoidable tragedy unfolds within the borders of a nation led by dictators. Just as Robert Mugabe waits out the slow-motion fixing of the presidential run-off election that, through repression and intimidation, will ensure that he stays in office until his death, so the tin-pot Hitlers who run Myanmar (Burma) turn away the world’s proffered assistance and instead concentrate on a make-believe referendum to fix the nation’s constitution in the junta’s favour.

A week after Cyclone Nargis devastated the Irrawaddy delta, killing tens of thousands of people, tens of thousands more have still not received the most basic aid. Trapped by floodwater full of bloated corpses and by the collapse of the transport infrastructure, these survivors will not remain survivors for much longer. They will swell the casualty numbers, slain by starvation, disease and the hubris of the military.

Emergency rations, clean water and shelter stand by at the country’s borders. The aid workers may not cross the borders because they have not been issued with the ‘necessary’ visas. The office that issues the visas has today closed for a three-day holiday. (What a nice idea: I hear the Bay of Bengal can be lovely at this time of year).

The regime has suggested that it is happy to accept aid from anywhere but in reality is only allowing representatives from China, Russia and India (nations it considers relatively friendly) to convey equipment and supplies. It pretends that parcels of aid handed out by ministers and petty officials in small, thumpingly staged ceremonies demonstrates that the problem is in hand. Just as Mugabe is indifferent to the suffering of his people – may indeed be in clinical denial about it – so the Burmese dictatorship kabal is oblivious to conditions that its members will never see at first hand.

That the UN cannot summon the will to intervene is a scandal. UN forces should simply enter Myanmar as an advance guard to clear the way for the aid workers. Any resistance from the half-million-strong military should be quelled with whatever force is deemed necessary. If the regime tries to turn this compassionate invasion into a war, the junta should be bombed out of their offices and palaces – in a poor country, it is not difficult to identify where the rich live and they all live at the expense of the poor. Any members of the government who are seized can be brought before the international courts of justice in due course. The same action ought to have been taken in Zimbabwe by now.

“Oh, but …” you may cry “… this is a sovereign nation. You can’t just go in and throw your weight about”. Oh, but you can. Iraq is the very useful precedent. However illegal was the invasion of that nation in 2003, no government or statesman has been called to account. The humanitarian motive for invading Myanmar is rather more noble and pressing than the protection of American oil interests that was the true motive for the attack on Baghdad. Let the UN go into both Myanmar and Zimbabwe in the name of humanity and democracy everywhere and bring down these scoundrels and save the people of these nations from, respectively, oppression, poverty and disease and (in the other case) oppression, poverty and disease.