Foreign Minister Stubb says Myanmar is on the verge of committing crimes against humanity

Alexander Stubb

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Speaking on the Lauantaiseura programme of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) on Saturday, Finland’s Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Stubb criticised the actions of Myanmar’s military junta.
      The minister said that Myanmar’s refusal to allow aid to be delivered to help the victims of Cyclone Nargis is approaching a crime against humanity.
     
”If foreign aid is prevented from reaching the cyclone victims and the attempts by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to establish contact with the Myanmar military government continue to be unsuccessful, the leadership of Myanmar is clearly on the verge of crimes against humanity”, Stubb argued.
      Jean-Maurice Ripert, the French Ambassador to the UN, used similar language overnight between Friday and Saturday, charging that the situation in Myanmar is changing from a humanitarian catastrophe to ”a situation that is near a crime against humanity”.
     
A crime against humanity is an act of large scale atrocities against human beings. For example the leaders of Nazi Germany, the former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, and the former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein were all accused of committing crimes against humanity.
      Under the terms of the Finnish penal code, a crime against humanity takes place when ”somebody impairs the survival of a national, ethnic, religious, or other comparable group”.
     
According to Stubb, the foreign ministers of the European Union have already discussed whether or not it would be possible to deliver international aid to the survivors without the permission of the military junta.
      The Minister for Foreign Affairs noted further that deploying the NATO response force to ensure the deliveries of foreign aid to Myanmar is not an option.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Aid organisations content with donations for Myanmar (14.5.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat