The US faces an uphill battle in its plan to pursue a UN Security Council resolution on Burma. Powerful opposition to putting the issue before the UNSC comes from China and Russia, two permanent members with veto power on the council, and even current member Japan.

The three say Burma does not constitute an international or even regional threat-a requirement for being put on the UNSC agenda. But how much hardship and misery under the military regime, and how many refugees fleeing for their own safety does it take to qualify for UNSC action?

Burmese people have suffered for too long for any further security council quibbling and hesitation to delay what inevitably has to be inclusion on its agenda. How long must we wait?

The US announced its plan during a discussion on Wednesday after a closed-door briefing to the council by UN Under Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari on his recent visit to Burma. But both Russia and Japan were quick to say it would be inappropriate to put Burma on the agenda.

Russia and Japan said Burma was not a threat to international peace and security, and therefore should not be on the agenda. China simply said the military-ruled country could solve its own problem.

“The security council is a body that is primarily responsible for threats to international peace and security,” Japan’s UN Ambassador Kenzo Oshima said. “I don’t consider the situation in Myanmar [Burma] as a situation that poses a threat to international peace and security.”

Last weekend, the military government extended the detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi by one year, despite high expectations after she was allowed to meet Gambari. She has been detained for more than 10 of the last 17 years.
True, Burma technically might not be an international threat, as there are much more serious issues in other countries. But the question remains whether the situation in Burma has to grow into a full-grown crisis in order to be listed as an international threat.

In fact, Burma’s 50 million people have already suffered long enough. The military regime has kept cracking down on the political opposition movement since its coup in 1988, incarcerating about 1,200 political prisoners in its notorious jails.

The country’s internal problems have also over-spilled into neighbors. For instance, more than 130,000 Burmese refugees currently live in camps along the Thai-Burmese border.

Over the past few weeks, some 16,000 ethnic Karen people have been forced to flee their homes in eastern Burma because of attacks by government troops on the pretext that they are fighting rebels of the Karen National Union. Many refugees from the fighting are pouring over the Thai border.

While a political stalemate continues between the regime and the opposition, Burma’s economic and social hardships have piled up, making it one of the world’s poorest countries.

Refugee International, an international advocacy group, said in a report issued on Thursday that thousands in Burma were in desperate need of aid since they suffered from disease, malnutrition, poverty and abuse by the military regime. This presumably referred to the thousands of internally displaced persons in the country, contributing to what the report described as one of the world’s most neglected crises.

After 18 long years of oppression, with no end in sight, and life becoming more intolerable, the Burmese must now wonder what it will take for their plight to be officially discussed by one of the world’s most powerful forums.