Burma warned over forced labour
The International Labour Organisation has warned Burma that it is running out of time to prove its commitment to ending forced labour…
Running out of time, you say? What’s next then, invasion? Air strikes on the presidential palace? Sanctions? Alas no:
In effect, the ILO has called on individual member states to reconsider whether they should impose sanctions on Burma. But there was no overall consensus at the Geneva meeting.
In similarly amusing news, the UN has decided to send no fewer than 10,000 troop to Sudan. Except that it will take them a few months to get there. Meanwhile, sanctions on Sudan were opposed by China, Russia, and Algeria. To quote one fellow blogger: I say we move them out of that shiny sky-scraper in NYC and move the UN headquarters to Darfur. Maybe that will give them a sense of urgency.
About Curzon
Lord George Nathaniel Curzon (1859 - 1925) entered the British House of Commons as a Conservative MP in 1886, where he served as undersecretary of India and Foreign Affairs. He was appointed Viceroy of India at the turn of the 20th century where he delineated the North West Frontier Province,
ordered a military expedition to Tibet, and unsuccessfully tried to partition the province of Bengal during his six-year tenure. Curzon served as Leader of the House of Lords in Prime Minister Lloyd George's War Cabinet and became Foreign Secretary in January 1919, where his most famous act was
the drawing of the Curzon Line between a new Polish state and Russia. His publications include
Russia in Central Asia (1889) and
Persia and the Persian Question (1892).
In real life, "Curzon" is a US citizen from the East Coast who has been a financial analyst, freelance translator, and university professor; he is currently on assignment in Tokyo.
(By the way, the post title is quoted from Hans Blix in “Team America: World Police”)
“Ohhh! Hans Brix! How you like that Hans Brix!?”
Perhaps if the United States leaned harder on China and Russia, they would have more reluctant to oppose sanctions. If we are going to move the UN to Darfur, we might as well move the White House and the Capitol along with it.
China and Russia (and Canada!) have oil and business interests in Sudan. We can lean all we want, it won’t change anything except make them self-righteous and piss them off.
I will agree with your point that direct American pressure on China and Russia might not have any effect, but I feel that suggests that the UN’s slowness in dealing with Darfur is not due to any institutional reluctance, but because of the interference of countries that have interests in the region. If that is the case, then moving the “shiny skyscraper” to the dusty confines of Darfur would have no effect.
Perhaps the US should do an end-run around the UN (a la Kosovo), and work directly with regional alliances, like the African Union.
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