Editorial
Imperialist Politics in the Name of
Disaster Assistance
On May 3 a massive cyclone hit Myanmar
killing tens of thousands and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless. Almost
immediately, the western media began condemning the ruling military junta for
allegedly refusing to allow foreign aid workers unrestricted access to the
country. Various countries, including the U.S., Britain and France have been clamouring non-stop for the UN to authorize an intervention
(up to and including military) into Myanmar under its policy of “Responsibility
to Protect”.
At the same time that they were
advocating an invasion, political spokespersons from various western nations
and much of the international news media were expressing dismay that the
Myanmar generals would refuse to open their borders to foreigners. Several days
after the disaster, a groups of American officials held a press conference to
announce that the Myanmar government had rejected a U.S. offer of $250,000 in
“aid” (the UN has estimated that at least $187 million is required) to be
delivered by U.S. marines. “It’s not as if we’re trying to overthrow the
government,” one U.S. official declared. However, that is precisely what the
U.S. has been trying to do for the past 20 years or more, with the most recent
attempt being just last fall.
The Myanmar government agreed almost
immediately to allow aid workers from the International Red Cross, as well as
aid workers from India, China and Thailand, to enter the country and distribute
supplies to victims of the cyclone. If the U.S., Britain and France were
seriously concerned about the suffering of the people of Myanmar it would have been
a simple task to funnel aid through those countries’ agencies. The American
offer, which was more of an insult than a serious offer of aid, was such a
pittance that it could probably even be delivered by the Myanmar postal
service. India, Thailand and China, the latter facing its own earthquake
catastrophe, have sent tens of millions of dollars worth of aid to the stricken
region. Even the Canadian government, despite bellicose rhetoric similar to
that of the U.S. Bush administration, committed $2 million in aid to be
distributed through the Red Cross. Yet the richest country in the world refused
to send a dime unless the Myanmar government allowed the landing of hostile
troops on its shores.
Given the experience of New Orleans in
2005 where it took U.S. relief workers almost a week to arrive on the scene and
where the first priority of the military (including Blackwater
mercenaries) was to “shoot to kill” looters, one wonders what possible role
U.S. marines would play in Myanmar other than organizing the overthrow of the
government. The Myanmar army, which numbers 400,000, is much more capable of distributing
relief materials to refugees than foreign troops would be.
The ruling military junta in Myanmar may
very well deserve criticism for its indifference to the fate of tens of
thousands of people. At the same time, as was shown by the example of New
Orleans, sometimes even wealthy, industrialized countries can fail to respond
appropriately in the face of massive natural disasters, including refusing offers
of international aid. (The Bush administration vetoed a Cuban offer to send
hundreds of specially trained doctors to New Orleans, although the mayor of New
Orleans welcomed the offer.) Surely the appropriate response to such disasters
is for peoples and nations everywhere to offer assistance with no strings
attached and leave the criticisms and recriminations for when all of the facts
are known. If the Myanmar government fails its people in terms of organizing
disaster relief, it is up to those people to settle accounts with their
government, just as it is up to the people of New Orleans to settle accounts
with their government for its failure to provide them with adequate assistance.
Threatening to invade Myanmar accomplishes nothing,
just as threatening to invade the U.S. in 2005 would have been
counter-productive.
From the perspective of the U.S.
imperialists, the real crime of the Myanmar generals is not their callous
disregard for the welfare of their own people, for we have witnessed numerous
examples of the U.S. pouring money and arms into similar brutal military
dictatorships during the past 60 years. No, the real concern of the U.S. is
that the Myanmar generals have refused to accept the dictate of U.S.
imperialism and have entered an alliance with China, instead.
There have been suggestions that the
refusal of the Myanmar military junta to accept foreign troops and aid workers
on its soil could constitute a crime against humanity. If it is proved that the
junta is actually blocking assistance from reaching the stricken areas, as some
claim, they may very well be guilty of such crimes and should be held
accountable. However, the attempts by the U.S., British, French and other
imperialists to exploit the disaster in order to advance their own imperialist
interests in Myanmar is certainly a crime against humanity and they should be
held to account for their crimes.