Testimony
of Scot Marciel
Ambassador
to ASEAN and
Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State
Bureau of
East Asian and Pacific Affairs
U.S. Department of State
Before the
Subcommittee
on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global
Environment
House Foreign
Affairs Committee
May 20, 2008
Burma in the Aftermath of Cyclone Nargis:
Death, Displacement, and Humanitarian Aid
Mr.
Chairman, Ranking Member Manzullo, and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you
for inviting me here today to testify about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Burma and our
efforts to assist the victims of Tropical Cyclone Nargis.
On May
2-3, Tropical Cyclone Nargis struck Burma with 130 mile per hour winds
and torrential rain. More than 95
percent of structures in some communities in the Irrawaddy Delta, the region
hit hardest by the cyclone, were demolished in the storm. Twelve foot storm surges inundated countless
villages. Downed trees and power lines
and washed-out roads and bridges complicated transportation and communication
in Rangoon and
beyond. The storm left 2.4 million in
urgent need of assistance. The UN
estimates cyclone-related deaths at between 78,000 and 125,000. The suffering of the victims of this natural
disaster has been compounded by continuing bad weather and heavy rains.
After
Cyclone Nargis struck Burma,
the United States
responded rapidly to offer its assistance to the people affected by the
storm. My colleague from USAID will
speak in detail to this issue, but I will note that to date USAID has made
available more than $17.5 million in humanitarian assistance, over $16 million
of which has gone directly to United Nations programs and trusted
non-governmental organizations. We have
also offered a Disaster Assistance Response Team and military assets to augment
the Burmese regime’s limited capacity to provide disaster relief. Defense has provided additional commodities. On May 12, Director for Foreign Assistance
Henrietta Fore, the Commander of U.S. Pacific Command, Admiral Timothy Keating,
and I accompanied the first C-130 carrying U.S.
relief supplies into Burma. Meeting with a senior Burmese military
delegation, we explained our offer of technical and logistical assistance and
conveyed our desire to help avoid needless loss of life in the wake of this
natural disaster.
The United States is
not alone in offering assistance. The
international community has responded by offering over $100 million in
assistance to Burma. Many nations have offered to send doctors and
disaster relief teams. Non-governmental
organizations and the private sector also have responded generously with cash
and in-kind assistance.
Sadly,
the Burmese regime’s response to this disaster has fallen far short of what was
required. Frankly, it has been
appalling. Rather than dedicating its
full attention to the humanitarian disaster inflicted by Cyclone Nargis, the
Burmese regime gave priority to conducting a deeply flawed referendum on its
draft constitution on May 10 in all states and divisions outside of those
declared disaster areas in the wake of the storm. The fact that the regime proceeded with the
referendum in the midst of a humanitarian disaster speaks volumes to its
indifference to the welfare of the Burmese people.
Even
more disturbing has been the regime’s refusal to date to accept offers of
outside expertise and its insistence that it is capable of managing the
logistics of the aid distribution operation.
It clearly is not. Critical
shortages abound – helicopters and helicopter pilots to ferry supplies to
inaccessible areas; doctors to treat the sick and prevent infection; and public
health experts to provide sanitation facilities. We and the international community remain
ready to provide this kind of help, as we did after the 2004 tsunami and as we
are doing now for China
in the aftermath of its devastating earthquake last week.
We have
seen some positive news in recent days, such as an increase in the flow of relief
goods into the Delta region. The regime
has also apparently agreed to grant visas to health workers from neighboring
countries and some additional UN and European aid personnel have gotten
in. International NGOs and UN relief
agencies seem to be expanding their footprint in the affected areas. The regime
said it would grant blanket flight clearances for relief flights, and transport
networks are improving slowly, with the bulk of supplies being transported by
truck and boat to the affected area.
Still, the
situation is increasingly desperate, and the regime’s failure to provide
greater access for the international community to the affected area is putting
hundreds of thousands of lives at risk. More
than two weeks after the cyclone hit, the UN estimates that, at best, only one
in four people have been reached. The
door must be opened far wider – and rapidly -- to prevent a second
catastrophe. Let me be clear: if assistance is not allowed in, and
thousands of Burmese perish, the responsibility for this catastrophe will fall
squarely on the shoulders of Senior General Than Shwe and other Burmese
leaders. We call on those leaders to
work with their neighbors and the broader international community to help save lives by accepting the offers of logistical
support and technical expertise, and by allowing full, unfettered access to the
affected areas.
The United
States Government has engaged in intensive diplomatic efforts over the past two
weeks to convince the regime to accept the outside assistance that the people
of Burma
desperately need. President Bush spoke
with Chinese President Hu on May 13, and Secretary Rice has reached out to her
counterparts, including in China and India.
Deputy Secretary Negroponte raised this issue during his recent travel
to South Korea, Japan, and China. Secretary
of Health and Human Services Leavitt discussed Burma with his counterpart in China
and other senior government officials during his trip to Beijing last week, and
has held two conversations on the matter in recent days with the Director-General
of the World Health Organization. Our Chargé
in Rangoon,
Shari Villarosa, has engaged directly with senior representatives of the regime
as well. I was in the region when the
storm struck and took advantage of my meetings there, including at the ASEAN
Regional Forum Senior Officials Meeting and the U.S.-ASEAN Dialogue to reiterate
our call for urgent access for humanitarian aid experts. Our ambassadors throughout the region and
beyond echoed this message in conversations with senior government officials.
Others
have pressed a similar message. China, India and the ASEAN countries have
responded, some helpfully sharing their own experiences with humanitarian
disaster relief. ASEAN Member States,
including Burma, convened in Singapore on Monday to discuss disaster relief
efforts and the establishment of a possible UN-ASEAN coordination
mechanism.
We are
also actively engaging in the UN. Secretary-General
Ban and Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes have
spoken out strongly on this issue. Burmese
authorities over the weekend invited UN Secretary General Ban to Burma and he
has accepted. We hope this is the
beginning of a new approach by the regime.
Separately, France has suggested that the UN Security Council invoke the
“responsibility to protect” principle, to authorize international humanitarian
assistance efforts if the Burmese regime continues its refusal to grant
access. We will continue to exhaust all
diplomatic channels and opportunities to persuade the regime to grant access to
the experts and assets that can expedite the flow of humanitarian assistance to
those in need.
The UN
and ASEAN have announced plans to host a pledging conference in Rangoon on May 25, which
UN Secretary-General Ban will attend. We
are now reviewing possible U.S. participation in this conference. However, we still believe that the key to
saving more lives is to increase access urgently to the disaster areas for
international relief teams who can provide the expertise and logistical
resources that the Burmese regime lacks.
Without an adequate and independent assessment of the situation and
current needs, as well as a commitment by the regime to provide the necessary
access, a pledging conference is unlikely to produce the results we seek.
Given
the regime’s resistance to grant access for international relief teams to the
affected areas of the Delta, our initial contributions of relief supplies were
handed over to Burmese authorities for transportation to the disaster
areas. Recognizing that this is a
calculated risk, and given the regime’s track record, we have made every
possible effort to monitor the disposition of those supplies. U.S. Embassy staff are stationed at the
airport in Rangoon
to monitor the offloading of relief supplies.
The Embassy is in frequent contact with UN and non-governmental partners
operating in the disaster areas and also monitors markets in Rangoon and outside the city for indications
that relief supplies are being diverted and sold. So far, we have been unable to confirm any
such reports. Since May 16, we have been
able to consign the contents of two relief flights daily directly to
international NGOs, and hope we will be able to increasingly operate that way
in the future. Our UN and NGO partners
indicate that relief supplies are increasingly getting through to the disaster
areas, although much more is still needed.
While
the United States
is focused at the moment on preventing further needless loss of life, our
fundamental policy toward the Burmese regime and its self-described “roadmap to
democracy” has not changed. We continue to
maintain that the regime’s referendum has not been free, fair, or credible. The regime’s claims that 99 percent of
eligible voters turned out on May 10, and that 92 percent of voters supported
the draft constitution, lack any credibility. These results obviously cannot be considered
representative of the will of the Burmese people.
The United States, along with many in the
international community, remains convinced that the only hope for a peaceful
transition to a genuinely democratic government in Burma is through a substantive,
time-bound dialogue between the Burmese regime and Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratic
and ethnic minority leaders. Promoting
such a dialogue and transition to democratic rule remains our primary,
over-arching foreign policy objective in Burma.
At this
moment, however, we are focused on the humanitarian disaster and doing whatever
we can to minimize the needless loss of life in the wake of this terrible
tragedy, while recognizing that the best hope for a successful intervention
lies in a decision by the Burmese regime to permit the international community
to provide the help that is so desperately needed.
Thank
you for extending this opportunity to me to testify today on these most serious
issues in Burma. I welcome your questions.