Burma - Cyclone Nargis

Burma – Joint press briefing given by M. Bernard Kouchner, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, and M. Jean-Pierre Jouyet, Minister of State responsible for European Affairs (excerpts)

Paris, 13 May 2008

(…)

Q. – Apparently, Mr Cameron has said he was in favour of airdropping aid in Burma. Would France also be in favour of this (…)?

M. KOUCHNER – The Americans talked about an airdrop if the Burmese authorities delayed opening up the country, if we couldn’t get access to the victims. It’s a concern which is not just legitimate but has taken international law a step further and which, after being called the duty to intervene, then the right to intervene, is known as the "responsibility to protect" and was formulated and accepted, virtually unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly. You can’t have a more robust text, which moreover the Security Council very frequently refers to.

This time, France has tried not to propose a resolution – this hasn’t yet been done – but to work for a meeting where information could be exchanged, as was the case at the time of the incidents and shooting when the monks were demonstrating in the streets of Rangoon. There was at that time, under French presidency, a presidential statement by the United Nations Security Council. This time too we have called for a presidential statement by the Security Council but we haven’t yet managed to get one. We have simply got agreement for there to be a statement by Mr John Holmes, who heads OCHA, i.e. is the UN humanitarian chief, telling us where we are at the moment.

Everyone is upset – but I remind you that in respect of Burma, there has been a statement by Mr Ban Ki-moon – about not having access to the airport except for the handful of planes which are landing. We don’t know where or how the food and shelter needed for at least a 1.5 million people are being distributed. We don’t know the number of victims; it’s very probably between 100,000 and 300,000.

I think indeed that when it comes to the responsibility to protect it is for the international community, through the United Nations – not an individual country – to do the utmost to help the victims. Apparently, things are starting to move a little bit. As you know we’ve got a French ship, "le Mistral", which is sailing towards the Irrawaddy delta with 1,500 tonnes of humanitarian freight.

Who will distribute it? We’re hoping we’ll be able to do it with the French Red Cross, Médecins du Monde, Doctors without Borders, etc., organizations everyone is familiar with. Nevertheless, the relief will arrive a fortnight after the cyclone, can you believe it? A fortnight. It’s intolerable. Of course, we can’t do anything for the dead, but there are still injured people – we don’t know where they are – but above all there are victims of the famine who are out in the rain, with no protection and nothing to eat. (…)./.

Burma – Communiqué issued by the Ministry of Defence

Paris, 7 May 2008

Hervé Morin, Minister of Defence, has ordered a French naval vessel to stand ready to deliver the essential humanitarian assistance to relieve the Burmese people hit by Cyclone Nargis.

The mission of the amphibious landing ship [LHD or BPC (bâtiment de projection et de commandement as they are known in French)] “Le Mistral”, on exercise in the Red Sea with the Indian navy, has been modified to make her humanitarian freight available to the disaster victims.

The humanitarian aid is being assembled in Chennai. It consists of a two-week supply of emergency rations for 60,000 people: 400 tonnes of rice, 10,000 20-30 litre jerry cans of water, 400,000 water purification tablets, 20,000 protective tarpaulins, 10,000 mosquito nets, 10,000 sets of cooking utensils and €60,000 of emergency medicines (analgesics, antibiotics and antiseptics, etc.).

“Le Mistral” will be loaded in the next few days in the port of Chennai. When this has been completed, she will set sail for the Burmese coast.

The conditions for offloading and delivering the humanitarian assistance are still being decided in cooperation with the Burmese authorities and humanitarian organizations./.

- Ministry of Défence website

Joint article by Mr David Miliband, British Foreign Secretary, and M. Bernard Kouchner, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, in the “Times"

9 May 2008

"Burma: aid before politics, please"

Now is not the time to be thinking about a referendum. The humanitarian crisis comes first

The Cyclone Nargis disaster is doubly tragic for the people of Burma. Already suffering from the lowest living standards in Asia and years of misrule and mismanagement, they have now been struck by this terrible natural catastrophe.

Our differences with the Burmese regime are well known, but our most urgent task now is humanitarian. The latest figures report more than 22,000 dead. The fear is that this death toll will rise even higher since the cyclone hit the Irrawaddy delta, one of the country’s most densely populated regions, particularly hard. More than 40,000 people are reported missing. According to the UN, hundreds of thousands and very probably millions are without shelter. The needs already appear huge: shelter, medicines, water purification tablets, food and electricity generators.

Our two countries immediately mobilised significant funding to come to the aid of the disaster victims. Once the UN has conducted a review of the most urgent needs, larger sums will be allocated.

However, even in the face of this emergency, even in the face of the horror, we have to take into account the Burmese authorities, upon whom we depend to facilitate international action. The priority is to ensure that the aid actually reaches all the people affected by the cyclone: we look to the regime to lift any restrictions on the distribution of this aid. All efforts must now focus on bringing relief to the people in the region, including measures to prevent further calamities, particularly epidemics. We call on the Burmese authorities to expedite the work of the UN agencies and NGOs.

We will get down to the job. We will not let our longstanding and deep concerns over democracy and human rights hold back the lifesaving work at hand. The regime in Naypyidaw has announced it will go ahead with the referendum on its constitution tomorrow, a process that excludes Aung San Suu Kyi and representatives of ethnic groups. It is clear, however, that the conditions on the ground make the free and fair process demanded by the UN Security Council all the more difficult. We believe the priority should be the humanitarian crisis. Now is not the time to be making decisions about the country’s political future.

It is our shared hope that the united response to the tragedy will help this notoriously isolationist military regime to place trust in the international community. Even though this political objective is still of utmost importance, our immediate priority is to save any lives that can still be saved and to ensure that the political tragedy suffered by the Burmese does not degenerate into deeper humanitarian tragedy.

Burma – Communiqué issued by M. Bernard Kouchner, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs (excerpts)

Paris, 8 May 2008

From day one of the disaster which hit Burma on a scale comparable to that of the tsunami, very probably killing over a hundred thousand people and displacing more than a million, I asked the Foreign and European Affairs Ministry to mobilize all the necessary resources to provide assistance to the Burmese people (…).

Our embassy in Rangoon, which was immediately mobilized, is currently increasing its staff. The embassy’s services had been able to warn the members of the French community about the cyclone’s imminent arrival. It is undoubtedly thanks to these warnings that our community in Burma has, to date, suffered no losses. (…)

In Paris we have activated a crisis unit, headed by the Foreign and European Affairs Ministry and including representatives of the Ministry of Defence and Interior Ministry (Sécurité civile [emergency services]), which is meeting daily to assess the situation and coordinate France’s action. (…)

Main areas of French action:

-  release of an initial €200,000, which we have now increased to €2 million, to go principally to the French NGOs already in the country, depending on how the aid would be distributed. (…)

-  support for the NGOs’ demarches to the Burmese authorities to facilitate their access to the victims, both as regards the issue of visas and possibility of getting absolutely essential resources to the victims;

-  preparation of French-chartered planes to be sent not only from France but also from airports near Burma, with humanitarian supplies on board. A first French plane carrying in particular equipment provided by the French Red Cross (water purification units) and by Action Against Hunger (AAH) could leave very soon, once the Burmese authorities have given it permission to land and provided the necessary guarantees vis-à-vis the taking delivery and impartial distribution of this aid.
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-  in cooperation with the Defence Ministry, offer of assignment of French Naval vessels, present in the area because of a scheduled joint exercise with the Indian and British armed forces, and particularly "Le Mistral". This amphibious landing ship [LHD or BPC (bâtiment de projection et de commandement as they are known in France)] currently awaiting loading in Chennai (Madras) can transport around 1,500 tonnes of equipment and emergency medical supplies (medical team and on-board hospital). Our Rangoon embassy and French fire and rescue service will coordinate the loading of the humanitarian freight, and World Food Programme teams already in Burma could take delivery of it.

I again solemnly appeal to the Burmese authorities to lift all restrictions on the distribution of the aid by the most efficient channels. The specialized United Nations agencies and NGOs must immediately be able to have access to the victims. To address human suffering, wherever it may be, is precisely what is meant by the "responsibility to protect" accepted by the international community and initiated by France. This is what we wanted to remind the United Nations Security Council. (…)./.

Interview given by M. Bernard Kouchner, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, to “France Inter” (excerpts)

Paris, 7 May 2008

BURMA/CYCLONE NARGIS

Q. – The provisional toll of Cyclone Nargis in Burma: 22,000 dead, 40,000 missing, millions without shelter, according to the non-governmental organizations. It’s a humanitarian disaster on a huge scale, in one of the world’s most closed dictatorships. Is France trying to send aid over there?

THE MINISTER – Of course. A crisis unit has been set up at the Quai d’Orsay with the help of the Sécurité civile [emergency services] and interior and defence ministries.

Everyone’s ready, particularly the Sécurité civile’s disaster-hardened teams. But we can’t send equipment, troops or volunteers: Rangoon airport is closed.

So far the Burmese authorities’ very hardline stance has been: “yes to money, but we’re distributing it ourselves”; so there’s no trust. These same authorities, a military dictatorship for 44 years, didn’t warn the people. The Indian authorities, our Indian friends, warned the Burmese and the Burmese didn’t warn the people, whilst in the Bay of Bengal it’s very easy, there are a lot of typhoons of this type, there are a lot of disasters looming, countries warn each other. (…)

France has offered and given €200,000. It’s little, it seems, it’s wholly comparable to what the United States, Japan, Thailand, etc. are giving. The problem is who to give the money to? We, we’re lucky – if I dare say that – at any rate the Burmese are lucky to have at their side four French organizations, four NGOs: Médecins du Monde, Aide médicale internationale, Action against Hunger and the French Red Cross. I think we’ll have to get the aid in through them, as fast as possible. We’re ready and, if you like, I’ll give you the phone number of the emergency unit: 0033 1 43 17 86 86.

Q. – Are you asking the Burmese authorities to open up the country to international aid?

THE MINISTER – The whole world is asking them to. We’re asking them: our visa applications have been submitted to the Burmese Embassy in Paris, but, alas, in vain for the moment. I hope they will change their attitude.

Q. – And you haven’t got any means of exerting pressure, through any channel at all?

THE MINISTER – We’ve got our ships with helicopters on board, opposite Irrawaddy, with British and Indian ships – since a naval manoeuvre was scheduled – and these are available to them. We could go there in the next few hours. I talked to the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Miliband, again yesterday evening. We deplore this and (…) are demanding access to the victims, but, regrettably, in vain for the moment. (…)./.

Burma – Cyclone Nargis – Communiqué issued by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs

Paris, 6 May 2008

In the face of the scale of the disaster which has just hit Burma, we are putting in place the means to help the Burmese people and respond to the requests made by the country’s authorities.

For delivery of this aid we will be liaising with the Red Cross and the French NGOs on the ground: Médecins du Monde and Action Against Hunger. Initial emergency aid of €200,000 has been made available.

The Minister of Foreign and European Affairs is ready to go immediately to Burma to personally demonstrate France’s solidarity with the Burmese people in this ordeal./.