April 04, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 15, 1428

WASHINGTON: International policies aimed at opening up Myanmar’s military regime are failing even as they overlook a continuing major tragedy. In January the situation in Myanmar could not even win serious attention in the UN Security Council. The world needs an approach that focuses not on fostering democratic governance but on the critical health and education needs of Myanmar’s long-suffering people.

Western economic sanctions, international diplomatic pressure and “engagement” with the ruling junta by its Asian neighbours have produced scant progress. Given the military’s deep stake in the economy, it is unlikely to relinquish power. Rebellion is improbable, and regime change by outside forces is not an option. As long as India and China maintain strong trade, development assistance and military ties with the regime, and Myanmar produces more natural gas, efforts to end or reduce five decades of military control will be ineffective.

Meanwhile, Myanmar’s 52 million people endure increasingly appalling conditions. About one-third live in poverty; male life expectancy is only 56 years. More than 30 per cent of children under age five suffer malnutrition, and nearly half of all children never attend school. Tuberculosis and malaria are endemic in some areas, and the country’s mortality rates are among the highest in Asia. At least 37,000 people died of HIV-AIDS in 2005, and more than 600,000 others are infected with HIV.The junta’s brutal conflicts with ethnic minorities have resulted in tens of thousands of citizens killed and thousands of villages destroyed. More than half a million people have been internally displaced, and some 150,000 Myanmar’s minorities live in camps along the Thai- Myanmar border. Reports persist of forced labour, human trafficking and vast numbers of forcibly recruited child soldiers.

Myanmar’s deprivation also fuels instability across Southeast Asia. Drug trafficking emanating from Myanmar is extensive, and more than a million people have fled ethnic conflicts and poverty, taking with them high rates of HIV-AIDS and other infectious diseases.

The military leadership bears responsibility for the degradation of the people. Beyond negligence, the junta increases the people’s suffering through mismanagement of the economy, vast under-funding of key social services (despite rising oil and gas revenue), and restriction of personal freedoms and political development. The internationally accepted principle of the “responsibility to protect” apparently does not apply for Myanmar’s people. Moral indignation is the practical extent of Western responses to these atrocities.

Concerned countries will continue their efforts to free Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratically elected Myanmar leader who remains under house arrest, and to get the military to embrace meaningful political change. These efforts, however important, are an insufficient response to Myanmar’s worsening situation. The focus must shift from Myanmar’s generals to its people. Imagining that a massive and sustained increase in humanitarian aid can produce political change in Myanmar over the long term may be a triumph of hope over reality. A programme cannot be justified on that score. But if we can improve the lives of millions and avert further human disaster, it is incumbent upon us to try.—Dawn/The Washington Post News Service