EU ready to support 'any initiative' for Burma

LEIGH PHILLIPS

13.05.2008 @ 20:10 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union opened the door a crack to the invocation of a controversial principle of international relations that would see foreign intervention in Burma to deliver aid to the cyclone-devastated nation without the permission of its rulers.

At an emergency meeting of development ministers from EU member states, the bloc said in a statement that it had agreed "to support any initiative, including in the UN bodies, which would help to meet the humanitarian needs of the Burmese people."

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The ministers called on the Burmese authorities to offer "free and unfettered access to international humanitarian experts and to take urgent action to facilitate the flow of aid."

"We have to use all the means to help those people," European foreign policy chief Javier Solana told reporters ahead of an emergency meeting of EU ministers in Brussels.

"The United Nations charter opens some avenues if things cannot be resolved in order to get the humanitarian aid to arrive," he continued, "in a country that has a catastrophe - as in Myanmar [Burma] where the leaders of the country do not allow the fast and well organised arrival of aid."

Mr Solana was asked whether this meant that other states should force through the delivery of aid without the permission of the Burmese authorities. He replied that the international community should do: "whatever is necessary to help the people who are suffering."

At the same time, EU ministers emphasised that European humanitarian aid was "neutral, impartial and independent," and called on regional powers, particularly, China, India and the ASEAN group of nations, to pressure the Burmese regime to allow aid into the country.

The Burmese generals have appealed for international aid, but have at the same time stalled foreign relief efforts and reluctant to issue visas to aid workers. In the areas worst hit by Cyclone Nargis almost no aid has been delivered.

The stalling by the Burmese junta prompted the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, last week to call on the UN to invoke the "Responsibility to Protect" principle and force through the delivery of aid, without the generals' permission.

Responsibility to protect, or 'R2P' as academics refer to the concept, is a recent development in international relations. Recognised by the UN in 2005, R2P provides a grounding for so-called humanitarian intervention by external forces when a state is unwilling or unable to prevent massive human rights violations.

Following the ministers' meeting, commissioner Michel said: "The situation is very like the dark days of the tsunami in 2004," but emphasised: "Our aim is purely humanitarian. There is no political agenda whatsoever."

"The international community wants nothing more than to help the Burmese people."

He felt that the EU was in an advantageous position to open a dialogue with the military junta, because Europe already had two years of experience through a €19.5 million partnership and cooperation programme in the country.

Speaking to the question of R2P discussions in the meeting, the commissioner said: "I don't think it was a question of responsibility to protect. We all agree with France to bring this principle to life. The question is how to put it to work in practice."

Immediately following the meeting, commissioner Michel was to fly to Bangkok in the hope that he would be able to travel on to Rangoon to meet with the Burmese military junta and urge them to open the country up to foreign aid workers.

Meanwhile, the French minister of state responsible for foreign affairs and human rights, Rama Yade, told reporters that at the ministers' meeting: "We pleaded for the application of the principle of responsibility to protect," adding that France was supported in this by Germany and the UK.

For his part, UK secretary of state for international development Douglas Alexander, emphasised the "unity of view within the EU for full and unfettered access" to the affected regions and said he welcomed the "slight increase in aid flights in the last 24 to 36 hours. We hope to see that continue."

However, Mr Alexander did tell reporters: "The situation risks turning from a natural disaster into a man-made catastrophe," and that "all options" were still under discussion at the EU and UN levels, although there was no consensus within the UN Security Council.

On Monday, the International Crisis Group's director, Gareth Evans, wrote in the UK Guardian newspaper that it may be the time to consider invoking R2P.

"There is at least a prima facie case to answer for their intransigence being a crime against humanity – of a kind which would attract the responsibility to protect principle," he wrote.

John Virgoe, the International Crisis Group's southeast Asia director, told the EUobserver that while his organisation "was not setting out a blueprint for international intervention – we're one step earlier than that – it is getting close to an R2P situation."

International development charity Oxfam meanwhile agrees with the EU ministers that the over-riding priority is for the Union to work with regional groupings to apply pressure on the Burmese regime.

However, the organisation was reluctant to endorse the French position.

"At this crucial stage of the response, the theoretical debate about the application of R2P needs to take a back seat to the overwhelming imperative to get more aid to more people as quickly as possible," said Alexander Woollcombe, a spokesperson for Oxfam.

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