The death toll approaches 100,000 after the cyclone in Burma. A man-made disaster, as it turns out.
- Meteorologists in India say they warned Burmese officials at least 48 hours before the cyclone slammed into the country. Yet state-run media failed to issue timely warnings to villagers in the storm's path.
- As thousands of tons of relief assistance sat idly along its border, the government dithered over whether to issue visas allowing relief organizations into the country.
- A U.S. offer to divert three Naval ships in the Gulf of Thailand to assist relief efforts was rebuffed.
- Earlier this week, many aid workers were still being denied visas.
To say nothing of the
UN's sins of omission. RTWT. Seems to be precisely the sort of situation the
Pope was discussing with the General Assembly last week.
Every State has the primary duty to protect its own population from grave and sustained violations of human rights, as well as from the consequences of humanitarian crises, whether natural or man-made. If States are unable to guarantee such protection, the international community must intervene with the juridical means provided in the United Nations Charter and in other international instruments. The action of the international community and its institutions, provided that it respects the principles undergirding the international order, should never be interpreted as an unwarranted imposition or a limitation of sovereignty. On the contrary, it is indifference or failure to intervene that do the real damage.
