Asean treaty law could be used to force aid in Burma

If Rangoon has given the green light for the Asean Emergency Assessment Team to fly to Burma to prepare a report to be considered during the special foreign ministerial meeting in Singapore today, additional and immediate diplomatic efforts are needed for a robust Asean involvement in providing appropriate humanitarian assistance to the victims of Cyclone Nargis.

There is a meaningful legal basis for this. Indeed, on July 26, 2005, in Vientiane, all 10 Asean member states signed the Asean Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (Aadmer). If this important and comprehensive legal instrument (36 articles and a long annex) does not come into force and is not put into effect without delay in its totality, Asean faces a very dramatic test. Southeast Asia is one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world, and it is imperative that existing legal mechanisms be used to properly coordinate and cooperate disaster-relief efforts. Therefore, implementing Aadmer should be a vital objective for all parties.

Its main purpose is to achieve a substantial reduction of disaster losses in lives and in the social, economic and environmental assets of the parties, and to jointly respond to disaster emergencies through concerted national efforts and intensified regional and international cooperation.

If parties fail to live up to their obligations under the agreement, such conduct would flagrantly violate one of the fundamental rules in treaty law "Pacta sunt servanda". This means that once a treaty is in force, it is binding on all countries that are party to it and must be carried out in good faith. A party may not invoke its internal laws to justify failing to live up to treaty obligations.

Governments should recognise the importance of early and crystal-clear "legal preparedness" for providing immediate humanitarian assistance.

There are solid reasons to hope that the Asean diplomatic meeting in Singapore will agree that, beyond the devastating Cyclone Nargis in Burma, the unusually high frequency of major natural disasters demands a realistic and responsible evaluation of the effectiveness of existing legal regimes in this field. Promoting regional and global diplomacy for a safer world is not meaningless rhetoric, but a cardinal requirement of the day.

Ioan Voicu

Bangkok

Self-interest keeping some some quiet on disaster

When are Asean leaders and regional investors going to show some moral fortitude and pressure the Burmese leaders into helping their people?

We all know who has investments in Burma and in order to do so have cuddled up to the junta. It seems that the Asean principle of non-interference in a member country's internal affairs has gone beyond sense and moral fortitude.

It would not take much of an effort by key players to deal with the generals, if there were some courage involved and less focus on financial gain.

Asean political leaders need to take some of the moral blame for Burma's current disastrous state.

Shame on Asean!

George D

Bangkok

FCCT lecture on Israel

interrupted by hecklers

Re: "Palestinians responding to years of brutal treatment", Letters, May 16.

Stuart Ward gives a very misleading and distorted view of what actually occurred at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand meeting when an Israeli professor attempted to speak. Ward says, "These were among the moot points we attempted to put to the Israeli representative last year, but all debate was stifled by switching off microphones..."

 The microphones were switched off because people refused to allow the speaker to discuss the subject he came to discuss and rudely demanded he listen to their speeches about Palestine, which was not the speaker's subject at all.

But I do not always disagree with Ward. The Israelis should be warned that if they nail so much as one more board in the West Bank, the billions of dollars in US aid will be terminated.

The Palestinians should be warned that if one more missile lands in Israel they can forget about statehood. Tough love is the only way to go in the Middle East.

Dean Barrett

Bangkok