THE WORLD "is witnessing a fundamental abuse in Burma which cannot be condoned or countenanced in any respect", Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin told the Dáil during a deba
A Dáil motion condemned the restrictions on humanitarian access by the Burmese authorities and called on its government to allow full and free access to the disaster area for humanitarian organisations. The Government has committed €1 million in funding disaster relief.
Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma earlier this month, has killed an estimated 100,000 and more than 1½ million are in need of assistance.
Mr Martin said that "the major challenge to an effective response to this crisis is man-made. The challenge is the reluctance of the government of Burma to accept international humanitarian assistance". Some "of our European partners have raised the possibility of invoking the 'responsibility to protect' initiative, agreed at the UN World Summit in 2005 as a means of intervening directly even without the consent of the Burmese government.
"We would support any initiative that would bring aid more effectively to those in need, but at this stage it appears very unlikely that the necessary agreement could be found within the security council to act in this manner."
Fine Gael foreign affairs spokesman Billy Timmins suggested that "we must ask ourselves if in putting down a motion condemning the regime, we are actually prohibiting an opportunity of getting aid in.
"My grandmother used to say that a thimble of honey was worth a bucket of vinegar. Often we must make our views on democracy subservient to pragmatism and try to assist people."
Mr Timmins added that "we must recognise that there are two sides to every story. We in the west have, down through the centuries, plundered and exploited the resources of many of these countries which view us with a certain level of suspicion".
Mr Timmins emphasised the role of the United Nations and said "we must anticipate these disasters and put in place contingency plans to which all countries must sign up".
Labour foreign affairs spokesman Michael D Higgins said of the "honey" versus "vinegar" argument that "we are past that point".
The "action of the Burmese generals in not allowing aid to move from Thailand is literally a savage act visiting death on their own people. It should never be forgotten."
He added that those "of us who call our neutrality 'positive neutrality' must accept that humanitarian protection overrides any extreme version of sovereignty".
He had "said repeatedly that it is an abuse of sovereignty to put up a shield and prevent rights from being vindicated".
