David Norris (Independent)

I join with my colleagues in welcoming my former comrade on the Joint Committee on Transport, the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Power, to the House. I congratulate him on his elevation and also Deputy Micheál Martin on his assignation to the Department of Foreign Affairs, which is a plum job in Government, even though one must sometimes confront difficult and tragic situations such as this.

This is one of the situations where we are all united. I listened with great interest to the thoughtful contribution of Senator Cummins and also to the considered view of Senator Ann Ormonde. I compliment her on continuing to speak when she had some difficulty, which she courageously managed to overcome. It is welcome that she put her views on the record because it makes it clear that from the Minister down we are all singing from the same hymn sheet.

This was a natural catastrophe. A series of elements must be considered because this was predicted. Two, three and four years ago people talked about the places that would be most vulnerable in the world in terms of global warming and the change in weather systems. A low-lying delta region, the Irrawaddy Delta, was obviously one that would be focussed on. This has happened before and General Than Shwe ran away from the place where he created the capital, Yangon. He would not face his people in the moment of tragedy.

I am often harshly critical of the Chinese Government and its approach but what a contrast there is in the way the Chinese leadership rolled up its sleeves and showed solidarity with its people when it was confronted by a parallel disaster. That disaster has repercussions for this situation because Chinese attention is understandably and inevitably diverted from its neighbour to coping with its own situation. China will be less able to co-operate with the rest of the world in exerting pressure but it is part of the key. It has given massive military aid to the Burmese Government, which I deplore and regret, and is involved in trade in oil and gas. China is a key player, so this is a double tragedy.

The existing situation was awful. Thanks to the regime there has been accelerating poverty — an impoverishment of its people — ever since it got into power. It continues to persecute all the democratic elements, the best known of which is the heroic woman Aung San Suu Kyi, of whom, I am sorry to say, we have heard little during the recent crisis. I sincerely hope her well-being is protected and that we ensure this through our diplomatic agencies.

Before this cyclone occurred, 75% of the people lived below the poverty line and one third of Burmese children were at least moderately malnourished. The army had the largest forcibly conscripted child soldier element in the world. They cared little for their own people but managed to stagger on because of resources and links with surrounding countries. Thailand has the highest trade balance with the Burmese, principally because of the Thai Government's purchase of natural gas, which is considerable. Thailand is the principal country propping up of the Burmese regime. In 2005, the Burmese Government imposed a massive increase in the domestic price of the essential supplies of oil and gas.

Last autumn, we discussed the riots that took place when a peaceful demonstration led by Buddhist monks was savagely attacked and repressed by the Burmese Government. I drew a contrast between the behaviour of the Chinese Government and the Burmese Government but there is also an internal contrast to be drawn between the ruthless efficiency in the way they galvanised military resources to repress their people and their impotence in confronting this disaster and coming positively to the aid of their people. It is an obscenity that they leave planeloads of aid, food and medical supplies stranded on the tarmac in surrounding countries, that they inhibit the issuing of visas and that they continue their profligate lifestyles despite the fact that the Burmese people are suffering.

There is a role of dishonour, a role of international shame that does not stop with members of the Burmese junta. After the repression and violence visited on the Burmese people, India, China, Malaysia and Thailand continued to negotiate financial arrangements with the Burmese junta. Perhaps they thought this was "constructive engagement", a phrase I first heard in the context of dealings with the military regime in Burma but, does it work? When Burma joined the Association of South East Asian Nations, ASEAN, in 1997 there were 210,000 Burmese refugees in neighbouring countries. Before the cyclone hit and, following this "constructive engagement" by the ASEAN countries, this figure had almost tripled to 750,000.

I referred earlier to the issue of oil. The situation in this regard is instructive and interesting and goes back as far 1871 when the British, who do not have a particularly good record either, were in control and the Rangoon Oil Company was established. During the closing decades of the last century natural gas was discovered. Various groups were involved including the British, French and the Americans. The American companies involved, Texaco and Unocal, behaved in a brutal manner and collaborated with the military junta in the exploitation of the natural resources. This is important because it calls into question the words of President Bush and his wife. Correct though they were, the source of those words actually pollutes them because they have no moral status whatever.

I will provide another contrast for the House, namely, that between President Bush's fine words in chiding the Burmese authorities and his record with regard to Hurricane Katrina. The manner in which he abandoned his own racially inferior groups, as no doubt they were seen in some sections following the hurricane, is a mirror image of what happened in Burma. Let us consider further Unocal, the oil company to which I referred earlier.

In 1996, a human rights suit was filed against Unocal by local villagers whose men were conscripted, forcibly dislodged from their land and whose women were raped, with their children taken away as soldiers. This was to facilitate the construction of a $1.2 billion gas pipeline to take natural gas into Thailand. The suit was settled by Unocal in 2004, which means it admitted a degree of liability, as a result of the unearthing of the situation by international agencies. One woman gave personal testimony of how the soldiers came to her home, shot her husband and killed her baby. Others said their neighbours had been executed in front of them because they refused to leave the area Unocal wanted and so on.

In 1995, the United Nations put out warnings about serious human rights abuses following which Texaco left Burma but Unocal remained and continues to retain a 28% share in the pipeline. Members may wonder where this is leading; it is leading directly to the Bush Administration. The US State Department acknowledged that slave labour was being used and defended Unocal against the suit taken by the local villagers because it believed it was inimical to United States foreign policy and, in particular, to the so-called war on terror.

There are lessons for us all. The international community needs to get involved in the way we have. I was interested to hear the outrage expressed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Martin, whom I have known for many years and who is usually moderate and diplomatic, in the final paragraph of his speech when he excoriated the regime in Burma. I pay tribute to the local people about whom we have heard very little. They have had to struggle through mud and wreckage. We have all heard the descriptions of forests pelted by the cyclone to such an extent the trees were like groups of stalks and of the stench of death coming from the corpses. The scale of the disaster is such that approximately 130,000, possibly 200,000 or 250,000 people have been affected.

One phrase seems to sum up the scale of the devastation. Even the efforts now being weakly consented to by the Burmese authorities were described by a local Burmese man as, "Like throwing sesame seeds at a hungry elephant". That is the scale of this disaster. It is welcome that we are all united in our support for the tragic situation in which the Burmese people find themselves and in condemnation of the regime there. I hope to God that tragic as is the situation, it may at last put the skids under that lousy government.