Burma: enough's enough

I've been outspoken in my criticism of the Burmese junta that has abused, maligned, imprisoned and attacked its own people for far too long.

The evidence exposed on Wednesday by the BBC that the military regime is actively stopping aid reaching those suffering from the ravages of the hurricane almost two weeks after the tragedy struck is despicable.

On Tuesday I was elected Vice President of Putney United Nations Association (UNA). The UN has a clause within its Charter that allows it to intervene when a regime fails to protect its own people. If that clause was written to apply anywhere and at any time it is in Burma, now.

The UN Security Council is set up so that any one of the permanent members: the UK, US, Russia, China and France has a veto on action, and at least one of these five has an interest in (or alliance with) pretty much all of the non-permanent members.

The permanent member associated with Burma is China and we could normally expect strong opposition from them to any UN active intervention in this country. There are two reasons why China may not intervene in this case.

The first is that they're preoccupied with the response (and doing far more, far better) to their own earthquake disaster. The second is that the worldwide outrage that will be provoked by the actions of the Burmese Junta will - I hope - make it almost impossible for the Chinese government to block international action, especially as it would be doing so just weeks before the start of the Olympic Games in Beijing.

What does intervention mean? Well, at the very least, it is now time to commence humanitarian aid drops. We may need to go further, depending on how the junta reacts to UN intervention. But the only point of action now is humanitarian relief. And let's be clear: the UN struggled to deliver anything substantive when the junta attacked its people and jailed its monks last Autumn. Its argument then, that greater intervention was beyone its mandate, does not and should not apply today given the humanitarian crisis that is engulfing the people of Burma.

The world, through the UN, must act Burma. Now.