Led by the French, some European Union officials said they were aghast that Burma’s military leaders were delaying or blocking international aid and that China and Indonesia had moved to protect its ally by blocking stronger United Nations action. France said it would take action on its own for the victims of Cyclone Nargis, sending the warship Mistral loading with 1,500 tonnes of goods. “We have decided to act without waiting any further,” French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said.
He had been the first to slam China for interfering in the UN and protecting Burma. “The aid was to be directly distributed to the effected. .., either by the ship’s crew or by French aid organisations,” Kouchner said, adding that “delivering aid directly to (Myanmar’s military) junta doesn’t come into the question.” “This regime is capable of everything - even organising a constitutional referendum in the midst of a natural catastrophe,” the foreign minister said. Kouchner spoke out further for a resolution by the UN Security Council on Myanmar’s responsibilities to its citizens. “There is a responsibility to protect a population in danger,” he said, adding that France would not move from its position, even at the risk of antagonising China, which is close to the government in Myanmar (Burma).
“The survival of millions of people is in question,” Kouchner said. France has recently raised its emergency aid to Burma to two million Euro. Thierry Cornillet, a Member of the European Parliament from France, said the blocking of humanitarian aid by military junta in Burma should result in international condemnation. “The most basic of humanitarian rights is that to receive assistance from the international community, to be aided in reasonable delay and with appropriate means. This right to assistance is coupled with the responsibility to protect one’s population as recognised by the United Nations. The Burmese Junta has effectively made a mockery of it.”
As permanent rapporteur for humanitarian aid in the European Parliament’s Development Committee, Cornillet said he believed the Burmese regime should not go unpunished: “The Burmese leadership must explain to international public opinion, even if they refuse to do so to their own people. It is high time that international humanitarian law, so often rejected or not respected, should be protected by an international Convention and that any failure be clearly punished.” Indonesia’s move to block a resolution in the UN Security Council over Myanmar’s cyclone crisis was “unbelievable and unacceptable,” Sunai Phasuk, a representative of Human Rights Watch said. He said Indonesia has no excuse for its cynical tactics because it received massive lifesaving international help after the tsunami disaster in December 2004, said the New York-based agency’s international representative.