HUMAN RIGHTS NGOs SHARE BLAME FOR NEGLECT OF BURMA
The conflict and human rights crisis in Burma (also known as Myanmar) has suddenly exploded, and, very belatedly, the discredited UN human rights mechanisms and the army of associated NGOs are calling for international action. But a large part of this tragedy results from the fact that, as in the case of the mass killings in Darfur, members of the self-proclaimed international human rights network have devoted very few of their resources to the junta’s abuses.
The military regime which seized power in 1988 turned Burma into one of the most isolated and repressive nations in the world, with frequent violent attacks and murder of opponents and critics.
However, the record shows that powerful groups such as Human Rights Watch (with an annual budget of over $40 million) and Amnesty International have issued only a handful press releases and letters focusing on Burma. For over two years (since June 2005) no serious reports have been published by HRW regarding Burma, and no press conferences have been held to highlight the human rights abuses. In HRW’s annual report, the section on Burma is slightly over 4 pages long.
Instead, these NGOs, like the UN Human Rights Council, have devoted an absurdly disproportionate portion of their resources to attacking democracies, where the level of human rights is incomparably better than in places such as Burma, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan. In the HRW annual report, more than 20 pages are devoted to an essay claiming to document attacks on free speech in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.
In particular, this network has become a major part of the obsessive attacks on Israel, joining and aiding the well financed Arab and Islamic lobby in implementing the Durban strategy. In early September 2007, Human Rights Watch issued two more massive reports (totaling over 400 pages, and with the same holes in their evidence) revisiting the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, in addition to over 30 previous statements, reports, opeds, etc. published during the 6 week war (far more than the few statements on Burma during the entire year.) HRW leader Ken Roth even came to Jerusalem to condemn Israel again (although the quality of evidence, or rather lack of such, had not changed since the war). Similarly, on International Human Rights Day in 2006, Amnesty International’s leader Irene Khan made a highly publicized pilgrimage to the Israeli security barrier (the “wall”) to issue yet another unjustified but politically correct condemnation against Israel’s legitimate anti-terror measures.
Had these resources been devoted to the areas of real human rights abuses in the world, including Burma, Sudan, North Korea, Iran, Libya, and Syria, for example, this might have made a difference. Concerted campaigns by the NGOs with an alternative agenda that did not focus on false allegations against Israel and the US might have embarrassed the UN officials, including Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour into taking their moral obligations seriously, instead of simply exploiting the rhetoric.
Before they blame others and issue more pious statements on Burma, Darfur and elsewhere, NGO officials would do well to examine their own contribution to the disastrous state of human rights in the world.
Gerald Steinberg
Executive Director, NGO Monitor
An expanded and revised version of this was published in the Washington Times, October 2, 2007
http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20071002/EDITORIAL/110020008/1013
