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Question on Calls for "Humanitarian



Subject: Question on Calls for "Humanitarian Aid"


>> Tony Albrecht of the US-ASEAN Business Council wrote the following:

> >      Re HR situation - I think I have made clear that the Council
> > believes  that economic engagement rather than sanctions and isolation
> > is more likely to improve the deplorable human rights situation. We also
> > support  greater humanitarian aid to alleviate the suffering of the
> > people.

I wonder if he would be so kind as to respond to the query his post
generated:

> 
> Before this discussion can become useful, we need to agree on our subject.
> When the US-ASEAN Business Council speaks of "the deplorable human rights
> situation," does it feel able to identify the causes of this situation?
> Or does it feel unable to pinpoint the causes of the "deplorable human
> rights situation?"  
> 
> For example, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma wrote that
> his office "is deeply concerned about the serious human rights violations
> that continue to be committed by the armed forces in the ethnic minority
> areas. The violations include extrajudicial and arbitrary executions (not
> sparing women and children), rape, torture, inhuman treatment, forced
> labour and denial of freedom of movement. These violations have been so
> numerous and consistent over the past years as to suggest that they are
> not simply isolated or the acts of individual misbehaviour by middle- and
> lower-rank officers but are rather the result of policy at the highest
> level, entailing political and legal responsibility."
> 
> Does the US-ASEAN Business Council agree that the "highest level" of the
> junta holds "political and legal responsibility" for "numerous" and
> "consistent" crimes such as the arbitrary executions of children?  How
> can "humantatrian aid" be effective with the involvement of those
> "politically and legally responsibe" for "numerous and constistent"
> human rights violations?
>
> I appreciate your willingness to participate in this discussion.
> 

> LD
> 
> 
> 
>