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SENATE
Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. is moving to expel
Burma from the United Nations in protest over the
Myanmar
ruling junta generals’ continued refusal to allow
foreign-aid agency volunteers to distribute food,
medicine and other assistance needed by Burmese victims
of the killer cyclone that hit the country recently.
“We are
asking the UN Security Council to come into the picture
so that much-needed assistance could reach the Burmese
people at their hour of need,” Pimentel told the
BusinessMirror, adding that “the UN should take action
because the junta is inflicting more suffering on the
Burmese people.”
“Now,
more than ever, we are determined to [also] block the
Asean Charter because of the intransigence of the junta
generals in depriving aid to their people,” he added.
According to Pimentel, “This incident clearly manifests
the lack of respect of the Burmese ruling junta for its
own people…which is incompatible with the Asean
Charter’s provision on upholding human rights.”
In the
meantime, Pimentel suggested that in order to break the
impasse with the junta generals, the international aid
agencies could tap nearby Thailand and Indonesia for
volunteers to help distribute aid to
Burma.
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