5-15-08, 9:14 am
Original source: The Guardian (Australia)
International aid to the victims of the huge cyclone that hit Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta region more than a week ago is beginning to flow. Aid from China, India and Russia was immediately offered but this has been virtually ignored by the Australian media which has concentrated on the efforts of the UN, the US, Australia and some other countries to get their personnel into the country.
Although Australia’s Prime Minister initially called for politics and the role of Burma’s military junta to be set aside in the emergency, it is obvious that politics were always well and truly the main thing in the anti-Burmese government attitude. A few days after his call to set politics aside, Kevin Rudd made a call to 'smash down the doors' into Burma. One can only speculate on how the doors were to be 'smashed down.'
Somewhat similar statements have emanated from the US administration and some European governments. This, together with the long running campaign of interference in the internal affairs of Burma, is a good reason why the Burmese government is excluding aid personnel coming from these countries. Some, at least, among the aid workers would be political operatives who would agitate against the government in the course of their work. Furthermore, the US aid was associated with the presence of a number of US navy warships standing off the Burmese coast.
The obvious solution to the impasse is for all aid to be channeled through the United Nations and to be distributed by the UN in collaboration with the Burmese authorities even though the UN is also tainted by suspicions of interference in the past in Burma’s internal affairs.
The allocation of aid by the Australian government directly to aid agencies and its insistence that their personnel should be responsible for its distribution on the ground also raises suspicions. The threat of Kevin Rudd to 'smash down the doors' only confirms those fears.
It is obvious that the Australian, US and British governments together with the mass media of these countries are, one after the other, waging hate campaigns against certain governments. Vitriolic campaigns are also underway against the Mugabe government in Zimbabwe, against China over Tibet, against North Korea and Iran over their nuclear programs and against Venezuela because it is implementing socialist economic and social programs.
A number of other countries are in the twilight zone — Russia, Belarus, several Middle Eastern countries, Cuba and most of the countries of Latin America that have thrown out the military fascist regimes imposed in the past by the US. Any country that stands against the policies and interests of the western rulers is going to get similar treatment using one excuse or another.
A recent statement by the Communist Party of Burma made before the cyclone hit, puts the position in perspective.
The Party commits itself to 'carry on the fight against the military dictatorship, military government and military cliques in our country.' Their statement says that 'The main reason for the survival of the military regime of Burma for nearly two decades is not its resilience, but the weaknesses of the opposition. The liberal bourgeois leadership, instead of courageously carrying out movements by relying on the masses of our own nation, has been expecting the external pressure from foreign forces, especially the US government, on the junta [to achieve their objectives].'
The Party calls for a common minimum program [to be adopted by opposition organizations] in order to 'tear down the military dictatorship that has been established for more than four decades.'
The CP of Burma statement also points out: 'The neo-cons from Washington are making use of the Burma issue to meddle between the two most populous nations of the world and the attention of not a few activists of Burma’s opposition are caught in this whirlpool. The world’s sole super-power is stretching out its tentacles to [control] every square inch of the world. It is very important to thwart the ever increasing attempts of the imperialists to create wars of various scales in Asia and in the world.'
The role of the Australian government and media has to be seen and judged on this background as does the confused and inadequate response of the Burmese authorities to the humanitarian crisis created by the cyclone.
From The Guardian (Australia)
