Burma Shuts Red Cross Field Offices

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 27 -- Burma's military rulers have forced the International Committee of the Red Cross to shut down its five rural field offices, crippling the agency's ability to distribute aid to thousands of needy Burmese civilians, according to U.N. and Red Cross officials.

The move dealt a blow to U.N. diplomatic efforts to persuade Burma, also known as Myanmar, to extend relief to the country's ethnic minorities. It comes as the United Nations' top political adviser, Ibrahim Gambari, warned the 15-nation Security Council on Monday that Burma is facing "accelerating impoverishment," with 30 percent of the population living well below the poverty line and malnutrition striking more than 30 percent of children under the age of 5.

John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said he would press for a resolution in the next several days demanding that Burma move toward democracy or face greater international isolation. He said that the flight of more than 1 million Burmese refugees is threatening peace and stability in the region.

"The policies the government has been pursuing . . . continue to contribute to instability in the region and therefore in our view constitute a threat to international peace and security," Bolton told reporters after Gambari briefed the council about a four-day visit to Burma this month.

Chinese and Russian officials said they oppose a U.N. resolution on Burma, contending that the crisis is essentially domestic and does not pose a threat to other countries in the region. They also said it would undercut U.N. efforts to resolve the situation through diplomatic means.

"In our view that does not help the secretary general," said a Chinese diplomat who spoke on the condition that he not be named because of the sensitivity of diplomatic efforts.

The United Nations has been engaged in a sporadic 12-year-long diplomatic effort to mediate a political settlement between Burma's military government, more than a dozen ethnic minority groups and the National League for Democracy, led by 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the most prominent of Burma's 1,100 political prisoners. Suu Kyi's party won a landslide electoral victory in 1990 that the military leadership refused to accept. She has been held under house arrest much of the time since.

After a three-year boycott, Burma hosted visits by Gambari, the U.N. undersecretary general for political affairs, in May and earlier this month. He met with Suu Kyi and Burma's military ruler, Gen. Than Shwe, but was unable to meet with representatives of a youth movement known as the 88 Student Generation. The student group did provide Gambari with a petition containing 500,000 signatures calling for the release of political prisoners. In September, five members of the group were detained.

Gambari told the council Monday in closed session that he had pressed Burma's leaders to release Suu Kyi, five activists from the student group and a "significant number" of other political prisoners. But he was "disappointed" that Burma had made no "clear or immediate commitments" during his most recent trip to address international concerns about its failure to improve its human rights record, end forced labor and provide greater democratic freedom.

He also said that Burma's decision to close the Red Cross's field offices would effectively make "it impossible for the organization to carry out most of its assistance and protection work."

Still, Gambari said he thinks that Burma's rulers and Suu Kyi are serious about exploring the United Nations' diplomatic process and that he needs "time and further discussion" to determine whether the government is committed to reform.