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COMMENTARY
Doing Something about Black Friday
By Donald M Seekins Friday, September 19, 2003


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Western or Japanese companies that are complicit in human rights violations must be prosecuted in their home country’s courts, as with the case of Unocal’s participation in the Yadana pipeline project and the US proceedings it spurred. The export of weapons and military-applicable technology, such as Russia’s sale of MiG-29s, must be halted, or at least exposed and sharply criticized. Burma must not be allowed to fall off the world’s radar screen. At the same time, it’s clear that a huge inflow of humanitarian aid is necessary. Robertson claims that it is strange that the "… anti-sanctions camp … believe that providing smatterings of humanitarian assistance will somehow result in a change of heart and policy in the SPDC." But the purpose of humanitarian aid is not to change the political system. It is to alleviate suffering. Birth control seminars and clean hypodermic needles will not get the junta to recognize the results of the 1990 election, but they may halt, or slow down, the spread of AIDS. No doubt some of this assistance will be misused. Tough monitoring is required, but even if only a little gets through to ordinary people, it’s better than nothing. In fact, I would go as far as saying that Burma needs a "humanitarian Marshall Plan" to stave off AIDS, drug abuse, malnutrition and other calamities. Sanctions as a blunt instrument are doing more harm than good. Those who support them seem to combine moral indignation with a large amount of wishful thinking, assuming that things will turn out the way they want, provided they continue to do what they already want to do. The situation in Burma is complex and tragic, and we need fresh thinking on how to handle a regime that on May 30 again showed its determination to shed blood in defense of its privileges. Donald M Seekins is a professor of Southeast Asian history and politics at Meio University in Okinawa, Japan.


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