This report previews the announcement of the 3D Fund.
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U.N. Offers Aid Incentives to Burma
More Assistance Tied to Taking Steps Toward Democracy, Freeing Dissidents
By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 26, 2006; A18
UNITED NATIONS, May 25 -- Senior U.N. officials have told Burma's military rulers that they could receive a major increase in international assistance if they take steps toward democracy and release key opposition leaders, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, whose latest six-month term of house detention will expire Saturday.
The message was delivered by Ibrahim Gambari, U.N. undersecretary general for political affairs, and Charles Petrie, the United Nations' top development official in Burma, during the first high-level political talks with the country's government in more than two years.
"I did tell them if there is progress on the political front, then it's possible to envisage a far broader response to the issues affecting the people of Myanmar," Petrie said in a telephone interview Thursday, using the name preferred by the Rangoon government.
U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton said he expects Gambari to provide a formal briefing to the 15-nation Security Council on his visit to Burma. U.S. officials hope that a briefing would be a prelude to a U.N. Security Council resolution calling on Burma to permit greater political freedom and expand access to aid workers.
"We will be working closely with our colleagues in the Security Council to find a way to back up Undersecretary General Gambari's efforts to press for the release of political detainees, including Aung San Suu Kyi," Bolton said.
The U.S. initiative is expected to face resistance from China, which has opposed any role for the Security Council in pressuring Burma to reform. A senior U.N. official said Gambari also is concerned that a formal briefing to the council could undercut efforts to quietly urge Burma to embrace political reforms.
Human rights advocates expressed concern that Gambari may be playing into Burma's hands.
"No reasonable person opposes the use of carrots," said Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director of the New York-based group Human Rights Watch. "We're all desperately hopeful that something good comes of this, but we've learned the very hard lesson from past Burmese intransigence."
Burma receives a little more than $100 million in international aid each year, about $2 per person in a country of about 50 million. Assistance programs for other poor countries in the region, including Cambodia and Laos, contribute $47 to $63 in aid per person.
Petrie also assured the Burmese government that Britain and five other European donors are prepared to provide about $100 million to combat infectious diseases, including HIV-AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, if it improves cooperation with U.N. and other international relief agencies. The European commitment comes less than 10 months after the U.N. Global Fund announced plans to terminate a $98.4 million grant to fight AIDS and other infectious diseases in Burma, citing government restrictions on access.
More than 2 percent of Burma's pregnant women are infected with the virus that causes AIDS. The nation also has one of the world's worst rates of tuberculosis, with more than 97,000 new case detected each year.
European and U.N. humanitarian relief officials, who believe Burma's repressive policies should not lead to a freeze in assistance, have been pitted against pro-democracy groups, which believe that the government should be required to guarantee access to aid to those who need it.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501939_pf.html
