EU lawmakers urge world to force aid on Myanmar
STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - The world should force aid on the military government of cyclone-hit Myanmar, European Union lawmakers said on Wednesday, accusing the junta of crimes against humanity for being reluctant to allow aid in.
The European Parliament, which has no legal power over the bloc's foreign policies but can help shape opinion in the bloc, will on Thursday vote on a resolution urging the U.N. Security Council to consider whether such aid shipments were possible.
"The Burmese authorities are responsible for a crime against humanity," Polish EU lawmaker Urszula Gacek said, referring to the government of the former Burma.
"We cannot sit by passively and allow them to continue on this crime," she said during a debate in the EU assembly.
Gacek was one of a string of lawmakers who urged the U.N. Security Council to decide immediate air drops of aid, without waiting for any green light from Yangon.
"The Burmese government can hardly cope with the situation. We are going to have to force them to accept help," Dutch lawmaker Jan Marinus Wiersma said.
A draft of the European Parliament resolution calls on the U.N. Security Council to examine whether aid shipments to Myanmar "can be authorized even without the consent of the Burmese military junta". It was prepared by the assembly's main groups.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has said relief workers had so far been able to reach only a quarter of those in need among an estimated 2.4 million people made destitute by the May 2 storm and sea surge that left nearly 134,000 dead or missing.
EU Aid Commissioner Louis Michel was more circumspect about forced aid shipments. He criticized the lack of access for aid workers in Myanmar as "unacceptable and inhumane" but urged support for diplomatic efforts and a planned donors' conference rather than discussion about the use of force.
"Expressing threats in very tough language here and now may be premature. Now is not the time yet," he told lawmakers.
Criticism from the European Parliament comes as the military government in Myanmar has given approval for foreign helicopters to distribute aid in what has been interpreted as a small opening by one of the world's most closed countries.
(Reporting by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Mark John)
