Archivo etiqueta «Ayuda humanitaria»
By Aung Zaw, an exiled Burmese political activist and editor of the Irrawaddy news magazine, an independent monthly based in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand (THE GUARDIAN, 12/05/08):
It is over a week since Cyclone Nargis brought devastation to Burma, and its people are in mourning – although there has been no official condolence from the ruling junta. Now, everyone is pointing the finger at Senior General Than Shwe, his ministers and army leaders – first, for failing to issue advanced warning of the cyclone to those living in the Irrawaddy delta region, and second, for responding so slowly to the… Seguir leyendo
By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 12/05/08):
Burma’s intensifying agony is confronting the “international community” with further uncomfortable evidence of its own impotence in the face of man-made humanitarian disaster. As if Rwanda, Darfur and Zimbabwe were not shaming enough, the lethal blocking by Burma’s generals of most external aid for the victims of Cyclone Nargis is another chastening reminder of the limitations imposed by status-quo politics and national self-interest.
Burma’s internal opposition, outside pressure groups and individuals, desperate to prevent a crisis becoming an epic catastrophe, are turning to revolutionary answers. Echoing Vladimir Lenin, they ask: “What is to be… Seguir leyendo
By Fred Hiatt (THE WASHINGTON POST, 12/05/08):
When a parent abuses or neglects a child, government steps in to offer protection. But who steps in when government abuses or neglects its people?
Nearly three years ago, the United Nations announced an answer to that question: It would. At a summit celebrating the organization’s 60th birthday, 171 nations agreed that they would intervene, forcefully if necessary, if a state failed to protect its own people. The action was seen as both a sign of remorse for the failure to stop genocide in Rwanda and a rebuke to the United States and… Seguir leyendo
By Rosemary Righter (THE TIMES, 12/05/08):
The soothsayers surrounding Than Shwe, the paranoid general at the apex of Burma’s monstrous military regime, are in high favour. Their prophecies of civil unrest followed by a great natural disaster swayed his decision three years ago to move the capital north to Naypyidaw (“abode of kings”), an isolated eyrie remote from storm-blasted Rangoon and the fetid sea of devastated or obliterated townships, bloated corpses and destitute survivors that the fertile Irrawaddy delta has become.
Naypyidaw was untouched by Cyclone Nargis. The only “damage” was to the telephone, on which Than Shwe was said… Seguir leyendo
By Roby Alampay, an Asia Society fellowand the executive director of the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 10/05/08):
Exactly four years ago this month, a cyclone, the strongest in 30 years, hit Myanmar. A journalist, writing one month later in The Irrawaddy (a news magazine published by Burmese exiles), wondered how the country’s state-controlled news media could fail to make any mention of a typhoon that the United Nations said killed at least 140 people, sunk vessels and made an estimated 18,000 people homeless.
The journalist, Dominic Faulder, wrote that “a town of 100,000 could burn to… Seguir leyendo
By Conor Foley, a humanitarian aid worker and a research fellow, Human Rights Law Centre at the University of Nottingham (THE GUARDIAN, 07/05/08):
Even before the devastating cyclone hit Burma at the weekend, the country was in desperate need of help. The government now says 22,000 people have died and 41,000 are missing, figures far higher than it originally admitted. The biggest problem will be obtaining access to affected areas. Burma’s government has long been suspicious of international aid agencies, and although it has accepted help from UN agencies already working there, their activities are tightly controlled.
Burma only receives… Seguir leyendo
By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 06/05/08):
Last September the Burmese people were on the streets, fighting for their political rights. Now they are on their knees, fighting for their very lives. In both cases, the main obstacle they face is the military junta that has ruled the country with merciless brutality since the 1988 coup.
Just as the pro-democracy protests last autumn were bloodily and thoughtlessly crushed, so does the regime’s paranoia, ignorance and hapless incompetence threaten to undermine or even derail international relief efforts in the wake of Cyclone Nargis. As one aid official warned today, the aftermath could… Seguir leyendo
HRH The Princess Royal (THE TIMES, 28/12/07):
The efforts made by the global community to help the continent of Africa to manage its way out of its difficulties have doubled and redoubled over the past 20 years.
The world has certainly not forgotten Africa. In the field of health alone, numerous bodies from the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria to the various United Nations agencies have committed many billions to Africa — so much so that the continent sometimes seems awash with well-heeled concern. Perhaps all this money and compassion have emerged so dramatically because of the… Seguir leyendo
By Conor Foley, a humanitarian aid worker (THE GUARDIAN, 15/08/07):
One of the problems with discussing humanitarian intervention is that the term itself means different things to different people. For legal scholars it describes military intervention to come to the aid of people facing acute danger, for humanitarian aid workers it is the impartial distribution of emergency relief.During the 1990s the two activities became increasingly intertwined as military convoys were used to open “humanitarian corridors” to civilians trapped in conflict zones. Aid workers also felt increasingly compelled to speak out about the atrocities that they witnessed. “One cannot stop a… Seguir leyendo