As Myanmar Ends Visas for Cyclone NGOs, UN Looks Away, Blessing Scam Election
UN’s Ban at Burma model village, follow through not shown
UNITED NATIONS, August 23 — In the run up to a November election which will exclude Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy, the military government of Myanmar has moved to curtail the system of entry visas for aid workers instituted after Cyclone Nargis.
While one might expect the UN, whose Secretary General Ban Ki-moon once claimed this post-Nargis access as one of his major accomplishments, to speak out against this re-closing down of Myanmar, that has not been the case.
In recent weeks, Inner City Press has repeatedly asked the UN Spokesman Martin Nesirky and UN officials who appeared only on condition of not being named to list any recent accomplishment on Myanmar of the UN’s Good Offices role. On August 20, Inner City Press specifically asked if the UN or its envoy on Myanmar Vijay Nambiar, Ban’s chief of staff, had any comment on the visa crackdown. Here is the UN’s response in Inner City Press:
Subject: Your question on the TCG
From: UN Spokesperson – Do Not Reply <unspokesperson-donotreply [at] un.org>
To: Matthew Lee [at] innercitypress.com
Date: Fri, Aug 20, 2010 at 3:25 PM
At the 43rd ASEAN annual meeting Hanoi on 19–20 July 2010, the ASEAN Foreign agreed to officially to end the Tripartite Core Group (TCG) and the ASEAN Humanitarian Task Force (AHTF) by 31 July 2010 and to transfer the coordination role to the Government.
In light of the Government’s announcement that Nargis related work will be taken up by the relevant line ministries, the UNCT is engaging closely with the authorities to ensure that needed assistance in not interrupted.
There are today 15 UN agencies, 50 international organizations and a similar number of local NGOs operating inside the country and are working not only in the Ayeyarwaddy delta, but in all regions of Myanmar. Looking forward, the United Nations and the Government of Myanmar have reached agreement for collaborating on a two-year Joint Humanitarian Initiative (2010-2011) for Northern Rakhine State, a border area whose population faces a particularly difficult combination of socio-economic and humanitarian factors.
So will the UN’s current push for Pakistan end with a similar whimper?
http://www.innercitypress.com/un2elmyan082310.html
