Statement of Hon. Thomas H. Andrews

House Committee on Foreign Affairs

Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment

May 20, 2008

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee,

Thank you for holding this public hearing on the horrifying human tragedy that continues in the cyclone ravaged nation of Burma and thank you for the opportunity to join you today.

My name is Thomas Andrews, I am former member of the House of Representatives (D-ME) and president of New Economy Communications, a not-for-profit organization that provides consultation, strategic planning and communication services to human rights, labor rights and democracy promotion organizations in the United States and abroad.

I am also a Senior Advisor to the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and provide assistance to the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, led by Prime Minister-in-Exile, Dr. Sein Win, who is here today, as well as an international network of organizations who advocate for a free and democratic Burma.

Even more horrifying than the ravages of the cyclone that hit Burma more than two weeks ago, is the cruel and devastating catastrophe that continues to claim the lives of many tens of thousands of victims at the hands of the brutal military dictatorship of Burma. It is estimated that 2.5 million are in dire need of shelter, clean water, food and medical treatment. The refusal of the military government of Burma to allow life-saving relief into the country, while confiscating and reportedly selling at least a portion of the trickle of aid that has been allowed in, is nothing short of criminal. For growing numbers of citizens of Burma, many of whom are children, the reprehensible actions of the military junta of Burma constitute a death sentence. These acts are clearly a crime against humanity.

While horrifying and reprehensible, the actions of the military junta of Burma following Cyclone Nargis come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the regime. Since the regime violently crushed a mass uprising in Burma in 1988, it has brutalized its people. Since 1962, the military run government of Burma has decimated its once promising economy, looted its vast natural resources and destroyed vital service sectors such as health care. Today Burma’s health sector ranks 190 out of 191 nations. Health care receives three percent of the regime’s annual budget, compared with the 40% dedicated to the military.

International organizations, including the United Nations, have documented, year after year, the atrocities of this regime from the forced labor of its workers, to the destruction of entire villages to the systematic rape of thousands of women and girls. The brutalization of the people of Burma has been particularly egregious in Eastern Burma where a scorched earth campaign has destroyed or forced the abandonment of more than 3,000 villages. To put this in context, this is twice as many villages as have been destroyed in Darfur.

Then, as now, the international community has sought to take action to defend the defenseless victims in Burma largely through the United Nations. Then, as now, the regime has resisted. When governments felt compelled to respond to the despicable and inexcusable acts of the military government, the regime would announce a new policy. But, time and again, it became very clear that these new policies were designed only to give the appearance of reform so as to reduce international pressure. The regimes so-called “disciplined democracy” with the sham elections we have witnessed are a good example. These so-called elections were part of a process that was initiated after the international outcry over the brutal suppression of the democracy movement in Burma, including the incarceration of Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, duly elected members of parliament and democracy activists.

While the public announcement that the military junta has agreed to an ASEAN-led task force for redistributing foreign aid might sound like a breakthrough, there is every reason to fear that it will be the latest manifestation of the regime’s systematic use of manipulation and deception to ease mounting pressure from the international community.

The early signs are not good as they follow a clear pattern: it appears now that while it has been announced that the generals ruling Burma have agreed to accept an ASEAN Emergency Rapid Assessment Team, they are in no hurry to allow critically needed humanitarian experts to enter the country. In the very same AP story announcing the breakthrough, the Foreign Minister of Singapore, which convened the emergency ASEAN meeting, said that the junta had not agreed to allow any aid experts to arrive “immediately”. “Immediately”, of course, is exactly what is desperately needed to save tens of thousands of lives. Even more distressing is the fact that many of the aid workers who have been allowed into Burma, have not been allowed to do their job. An official of an ASEAN country told me that emergency response team members that have been allowed into Burma from his country have spent precious days sitting in Rangoon waiting for permission to get to work.

With any agreement with the ruling generals of Burma, the devil is in the details. In fact, I cannot think of a situation in which that phrase is more appropriate. It is imperative that aid workers with critical experience in dealing with these types of natural disasters, including those who coordinated and delivered aid to tsunami victims in 2004, be allowed into Burma immediately and given unfettered access to the Irrawaddy delta region. It is imperative that the aid and equipment sitting offshore on American, French and British ships be deployed immediately. And, it is crucial that all aid entering the country be monitored closely so that it goes to the people of Burma who are desperately in need. Unfortunately, none of these desperately needed steps are part of this agreement and the international aid conference for Burma that has been announced will not even begin until next week.

It is encouraging that the Secretary General of the United Nations is willing to travel to Burma and is being allowed into the country. It has taken weeks for his phone calls to be answered. But the Secretary General needs the full support of the international community, including the United States, to assure that what emerges from these negotiations is a desperately needed breakthrough that will save lives and not a ploy that merely gives the appearance of change while taking the pressure off.

Then, as now, the regime has sought and has found relief from international pressure from countries who, in the name of “national sovereignty” become enablers and accomplices to the regime’s brutality. No nation has played a more powerful role in this regard than China.

China continues to serve as the military regime’s number one supplier of weapons and military equipment, enabling the regime to amass one of the largest armies in the world, now exceeding 400,000 troops – 70,000 of whom are children. These were the weapons that were used last fall to violently crush the peaceful demonstrations of Burmese monks. China has consistently protected the regime from international pressure, casting or threatening to cast vetoes in the United Nations Security Council that would bring pressure to bear on the military government. In exchange, the generals supply China with deeply discounted supplies of natural gas and other natural resources (often, as documented by the International Labor Organization, extracted and transported with the use of forced labor). China is Burma’s number one supplier of imports with trade revenue in the billions of dollars. It invests heavily in a large number of companies owned and controlled by the junta.

Then, as now, China led opposition to any kind of international action. It has opposed even the consideration of United Nations Security Council action to confront the overwhelming evidence that we are watching what amounts to the mass murder of untold numbers of innocent people living in the Irrawaddy delta.

There are some important lessons that the international community needs to be drawn from bitter experience with the military regime of Burma:

First, the ruling regime in Burma is a ruthless and treacherous regime that will do anything to maintain its iron grip on power. Even before it was hit by a massive cyclone, untold numbers of people in Burma have lost their lives at the hands of the military regime’s brutality.

Second, the regime is susceptible to international pressure, but, facing such pressure; it will employ deception and manipulation to give the appearance of change designed not to bring reform to Burma, but relief to the ruling generals.

Third, the regime’s greatest protector and enabler is China. From supplying vast amounts of military weapons, equipment and training, to its investments in junta owned enterprises, to its vetoes on the UNSC, China can be counted on as an accomplice to the general’s treachery. Yes, the ruling generals have been able to rely on their ASEAN neighbors to go along with its deceptions and hide behind the banner of “national sovereignty”, but there is no greater enabler of the ruling military junta of Burma – and therefore no greater source of influence - than China.

I believe that the United States government needs to make the crises in Burma a much higher priority. A high ranking U.S. official must be appointed and empowered to take the lead in this crises, working tirelessly within the diplomatic community to muster the necessary support for action. Secretary of State Powell played a key leading role when the tsunami hit Southeast Asia in 2004, travelling and communicating directly and often with his counterparts from nations around the world and leading a robust and multi-faceted approach. A President’s Special Coordinator for International Disaster Assistance was established to streamline and coordinate the efforts of US government aid and assistance. We did that to confront one major disaster – the tsunami. With Burma we are confronting two disasters – the devastation wrought by a powerful cyclone and the devastation wrought by a murderous regime willing to sacrifice the lives of many tens of thousands of its citizens in order to keep those who survive under its brutal thumb. In order to be able to deliver a coordinated aid effort to save thousands, the United States must pursue an aggressive and relentless campaign to build international pressure on the regime and those regimes that protect it.

The single most important target of that pressure must be China. While China has joined the international chorus calling on Burma to allow aid into the country, it is hardly enough. It is hard for me to believe that if China were to put serious and sustained pressure on the military regime of Burma, change would follow and tens of thousands of lives would be saved. After all, in so many ways, the regime owes its very existence to its patrons in the Chinese government.

Relentless international pressure is needed to save the hundreds of thousands whose lives are hanging in the balance at this very moment.

We know what to do. An air bridge of relief that sent aircraft filled with supplies and experts into Aceh every hour during the 2004 tsunami was set up within 72 hours of that disaster.

But first there must be the international will to act.

Thank you.