Locke Keith: General Debate 
Locke Keith: General Debate 
[Volume:647;Page:16149] 
KEITH LOCKE (Green) 
: 
 The hearts of people around the world have gone out to the families of tens of thousands who have died in two recent major disasters. These are the typhoon in Burma and the earthquake in Sichuan China. Last week Parliament unanimously backed a resolution that I moved extending our heartfelt sympathy to the Chinese Government and people. This resolution also acknowledged the efforts of the Chinese authorities in mobilising people for the rescue effort which is continuing. To their credit the Chinese leaders are also allowing foreign aid teams to assist. 
By contrast the world has watched in anguish as the Burmese junta has let thousands of people die rather than relax its grip on every aspect of Burmese life. Firstly the junta did not tell the people in the Irrawaddy Delta that a major cyclone was coming. This cyclone was very much in the international media. I remember watching TV myself day after day as the typhoon approached Burma. Then the junta pretended that there was not much damage and it largely sat on its hands using helicopters mainly for sending bigwigs in and out for photo opportunities in an attempt to show the Burmese TV audience how compassionate the ruling generals are. 
For some time foreign relief teams were shut out of the country their presence being seen by the junta as a threat to its rule. The generals have also spurned assistance from US French and British warships that sit 100 kilometres off the coast with helicopters and plentiful supplies. Even now 18 days after Cyclone Nargis overseas relief bodies do not have access to many of those people in need. Foreign aid workers still find it hard to get visas. The rulers of Burma by allowing thousands of people to die of exposure starvation and disease when they could have been saved have committed a major crime against humanity. It has demonstrated to the whole world the ruthless nature of the generals’ rule which has been 46 years of misery for the Burmese people. Hopefully this latest callous betrayal of the Burmese people will tip many of its remaining supporters—middle-ranking civil servants for example—right over the edge and into outright opposition. Any Government that so disregards the people’s welfare deserves to go and go quickly. 
Let us discuss what New Zealand’s response should be. The first thing which we have done is to offer emergency aid for the post-cyclone relief effort mainly through respected international aid bodies. Our Government has advanced around $1.5 million for this purpose. The second thing is to be active on the diplomatic front to twist the junta’s arm to allow aid in. Our country is a dialogue partner with ASEAN of which Burma is a member. More pressure needs to be exerted on ASEAN not only to help get aid in but in the longer term to help the Burmese people get the junta off their backs. The ASEAN Secretary-General Dr Surin Pitsuwan admitted yesterday that ASEAN has been too slow in taking action post the typhoon. 
We should also be pushing for political action by the United Nations which would help to counter the efforts of Russia Viet Nam South Africa and China to stop this from happening. China has been the Burmese junta’s main backer for several years providing it with arms and supplies of all kinds. We must continue to expose the Beijing Government’s bad role in supporting dictators in Burma the Sudan Zimbabwe and elsewhere particularly in the lead-up to the Olympics when the Chinese Government is so desperate for good press. Hopefully the Chinese rulers will see that being a bit more open and supporting ordinary people taking their own initiatives as has happened in the Sichuan earthquake relief effort actually wins international plaudits. 
Thirdly we should put a greater squeeze on the Burmese junta. We should go beyond the present travel ban on junta members and freeze any assets they have in New Zealand as other countries like the United States have already done. 
The two big disasters in Burma and China also remind us of our responsibilities as a good global citizen. We probably could have been a bit more generous if our overall aid budget had been larger. From July our aid will be 0.32 percent of gross national income. That is an increase but it still leaves us less than halfway towards the international target of 0.7 percent by 2015 with only another six Budgets to make up the difference. We can do better.