Comments on: U.N. Chief Convinces Myanmar To Accept Aid

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Emerges From Meeting With Junta Boss, Apparently Victorious

[nyeinc]

Part IV: After Inviting the International Aid Workers In
The presence of U. S., French and British warships, including an American aircraft carrier, near the Burmese territory encourage the regime opponents.

The regime opponents want to encourage its activists and their sympathizers with a dim prospect that, if the Burmese government crack down the protests as it did last year, that %u2018Americans are coming!!! Americans are coming!!!%u2019, coincidentally timing with the U.S, France, Britain navy warships. Gordon Lubold reports that in Mae Saout, Thailand, %u201Cthousands of Burmese exiles and refugees were excited when they saw a US helicopter flying above them on Saturday%u2026%u201D (Gordon Lubold, U.S. helicopters cause stir in Thai town on Burma border, Yahoo News, Washington, D.C, May 12, 2008, 4:00 a.m.; Christopher Johnson, Mae Sot, Thailand Christian Science Monitor, U.S. helicopters cause stir in Thai town on Burma border: In Mae Sot, home to many Burmese exiles and refugees, two helicopters stopped unannounced during a survey of the area, via ABC News)

The regime opponents know very well that a Burmese government has been overthrown with rumors. One of Burma%u2019s earlier dynasties collapsed due to rumors that its enemy troops Sagaw Karens were marching to the capital.)

[nyeinc]

Part III: After Inviting the International Aid Workers In

U.S Charge d%u2019affairs Shari Villarosa, a seemingly veteran expert of those revolutions, whose career assignments, found in the public-accessible CV, coincide with the occurrence of people%u2019s power revolutions, the most recent being in Indonesia in 1997-8, spread the words that %u201Cthe military leaders%u2019 reluctance to admit more foreign aid and aid workers exasperated ordinary people, whose discontent over sharp inflation and political repression erupted last September in an uprising led by Buddhist monks. %u201CAnger is still there,%u201D Ms. Villarosa said in an interview on Sunday. %u201CDiscontent is still there. And now there is a growing discontent that there is international assistance out there that can be brought in, so why aren%u2019t we getting it?%u201D (A New York Times Correspondent in Yangon, Myanmar, Burmese Leader Visits Refugees, The New York Times, May 19, 2008)

[nyeinc]

Part II: After Inviting the International Aid Workers In

An AP report DOES confirm the existence of a concern from the part of Burmese government that the presence of international aid workers might create trouble and embolden their dissidents who have been trying a people%u2019s power revolution. During the Saturday tour diplomats tried at every chance to tell the accompanying Myanmar minister that the government should provide more international aid access, [Bernard] Delpuech, [head of the European Commission Humanitarian Office in Yangon] said. He said the answer was: "Yes, they''re willing, but they don''t want the people who will create more problems." (Aung Hla Tun, Reuters, May 17, 2008, 8:15 a.m. New York Time, via Washington Post Website) In fact, the regime opponents took their first step by spreading the news that the public is angry at the military government and maligning the latter by accusing it of slow response.

[nyeinc]

Part I: After Inviting the International Aid Workers In

What should we be aware of the local terrain in Burma now that the Burmese military government has accepted the international aid workers even if it did NOT accept the aid delivery from U.S., French and British warships.

We must take notice of the local political context first. Burma has held a constitutional referendum on May 10 and 24. The Burmese military government wants the draft constitution ratified and it has been ratified. Its opponents want the draft rejected. U.S, France and Western countries support the regime opponents. U.S House of Representatives went so far as taking jurisdiction over the draft constitution of another country and passing a concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 317), calling the Administration and UN to reject the referendum (process) and draft constitution (outcome).

[wardoglrs]

People dont have any idea what your saying. By allowing so called help to the needy is nothing more than a weapon from the Americans. The Americans never hear what goes on behind the curtain. They will bring more despair along with rape and murder to these people. They have had enough. Time for you to wake up
to how the goverment never helps. THINK KATRINA. The american people are truly a ignorant bunch

[minnick8-2009]

The aid workers should be let in without Visas. It''s not like any of them are going to try to sneak in and stay indefinately.

[minnick8-2009]

So Myanmar''s Junta should get a new medal to pin on his uniform for his great humanitarianism.

[jboxton]

Just bomb the country and let them start over

[nyeinc]

I hope that although the visa application process of INGOs staff cannot be waived, it could be expedited. (Except for those in Thailand, INGO staff cannot leave the home base in one day anyway.)

If the visa application process take only one day, and some INGOs still insist on visa waiver %u2013 right before the referendum on May 10 %u2013 some might begin to wonder why those INGOs are insisting on visa waiver.

The ongoing problem is NOT that the international aid teams %u201Care bogged down by a bureaucracy still reluctant to open its borders to foreigners.%u201D The Burmese Embassies around the world are willing to expedite the visa process (within a day) but the INGOs didn%u2019t screen their aid workers. Some journalists, political activists and referendum monitors MAY be camouflaging as aid workers. INGOs should screen them out.

[nyeinc]

The following is what can be done to expedite the visa process without scrapping it all together. First, the Burmese Embassies around the world will make the visa application of the INGO staff the first priority. Keep the consulate open even for the holidays and weekends. (The delay caused by the holiday closure of Burmese Embassy in Thailand in occasion of a Thai Holiday should and would not be repeated.)

Second, the INGOs should screen their own staff, and have their staff signed the customary pledge form. Their mission into Burma is relief and humanitarian assistance for the Cyclone victims, not for political purposes and not for people%u2019s power revolution.

Thirdly, since some INGOs are better than others in getting their staff disengaged from politics in Burma, the visa application for the staff of the INGOs with better track records should take less time and, if possible, be done within a single day.