Boonmee

Sure is, GM. I didn't even know where to start in responding to it. Thought it better just to ignore it.

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zehner

The UN today suspended aid flights to Burma after emergency supplies for survivors of cyclone Nargis were impounded by the military government.

A spokesman for the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said its food aid and equipment had been confiscated and flights could not resume until the situation was resolved.

"We're going to have to shut down our very small airlift operation until we get guarantees from the authorities," Tony Banbury, a WFP regional director, said.

The impounded food aid, totalling 38 tonnes of high-energy biscuits, was enough to feed 95,000 people.

"It should be on trucks headed to the victims. You've seen the conditions they are in. That food is now sitting on tarmac, doing no good," Banbury added.

The impounding of the food aid came after the announcement of a ban on foreign aid workers entering Burma.

Burmese foreign ministry officials said the country would accept supplies from overseas but would control their distribution.

"Myanmar [Burma] is giving priority to receiving relief aid and distributing them to the storm-hit regions with its own resources," the government-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

"Myanmar is not in a position to receive rescue and information teams from
foreign countries at the moment."

Frustration is mounting over Burma's response to one of the worst disasters in its history.

A UN spokesman said the restrictions on foreign workers were "unprecedented" in the history of humanitarian work.

UN suspends Burma aid flights | World news | guardian.co.uk

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Guy Mandude

This is such sad news for the people of Burma.

Boonmee

It just highlights what utter shits the Junta is composed of. If I was being cynical, I'd say it's almost as if the Junta is seizing upon an opportunity to weaken the population physically (and numerically). Fewer people = smaller protests = easier to quash = easier to maintain power.

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Guy Mandude

Agreed. But will the survivors starve quietly?

re_fuse

Fuck them no difference between the macro and the micro if it were a parent the rest of the community would do something..


Invade I say

shrapnel has no friends

Boonmee

"Illegal", international law says.

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re_fuse

I think you would find the charter says Acquisition of sovereign land by force is illegal...


I haven't got a copy with me So I might be wrong


..But in legal; speak these distintions are important




Acquisition of sovereign land by force is illegal USA Afgan . Iraq , ect

Boonmee

I'm pretty sure that it's illegal to breach another country's sovereignty, unless it is directly threatening the potential invader.

That's not the case with Burma.

But then, it could be argued that the UN Charter is now rather outdated.

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re_fuse

If that was the case then O'l Georgie and friends et al baby would be eating porridge and the rest of the world would be at war with Israel


The UN is a usless coffee club




In 1947 the United Nations hoped to settle the conflict between the Palestinian people and the Zionists by dividing the land between them. Unfortunately, they chose a plan which the Palestinians did not agree with, and implemented it anyways. The plan, described in UN Resolution, divided the land of Palestine into two sections awarding the Zionists more than 1/2 of the land (55%) even though their current holdings totalled only about 6%, and their population was only about 16% of all the people in Palestine. Plus the plan gave the most fertile farmlands to the Zionists. The plan was clearly unfair, and the Palestinians and their Arab neighbors rebelled against the plan, and war broke out.

The Zionists won the fighting, and during the course of the fighting took additional lands bringing their total holdings to about 75% of the lands of Palestine, which they kept. Even though this additional land was thus illegally gained in violation of both the Hague Regulations (1907) and UN Charter (1945) which both included the basic legal principle that it is illegal to acquire territory by force, these new boundaries soon became the accepted boundaries of the new State of Israel in the various peace agreements Israel signed with its neighbors.

Boonmee

Many people say that's exactly what they should be doing

And yup, that Israel/Palestine issue is a very fucked-up one.

Of course, almost all of Israel's neighbours have been at war with it at some point.

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re_fuse

I see an unjust Government ,or King ,the same as a parent beating up on their kids ...If the rest of the community does nothing about it then they too are to blame .


I would love to see a world where , when a tyrant raises his ugly head , the rest of the world steps in to fix the problem.

The USA has attempted to do this ... unfortuntely the perception is of one of Oil grabbing... A case of the poor O'l USA being dammed if do and dammed if don't ..would be better if it was a powerful UN but that aint never going to happen.

Guy Mandude

The smarter ones stopped fighting with Israel.

The UN is a useless matchbox on the East River.

re_fuse

I have seen tits on a bull more useful