SOLO-International Op-Ed: Quintana—Wimpy, Ineffectual, Pompous and Stupid

Philip Duck
August 19, 2008

Tomas Ojea Quintana has been appointed the new UN human rights rapporteur for Burma. Recently, after making his inaugural visit to that country, he announced that not only has he told the Burmese dictators that he "intended to draw up a detailed plan on how human rights issues should be treated and that I expected them to implement them,” but also that he is “certain that the Burmese regime is ready to cooperate with him.”

Joyous news. If it were true.

So what does he base this optimism upon, after his “I wanted the government to see where I was coming from” trip?

Well, the optimism can’t have sprung from speaking with the upper-echelons of the dictatorship: they all turned down his attempts at a meet. It can’t have come from any expected increase in open-dialogue either: he hasn't been invited back until February 2009.

And it can’t have come from his call on Aung San Suu Kyi, who is approaching her sixth year under house arrest: he didn’t even try to arrange a visit because of the ‘sensitivity’ of the issue. Although he did declare that he doesn’t understand the circumstances of her detention but “plans to study her case.” You moron, Quintana —anyone with a passing interest in Burma knows the reasons for her detention.

Perhaps, his optimism wells from the proposed implementation of the new constitution. “It’s a most important time,” he blithely says. That, Tomas, would be the constitution that ensures the Junta maintains its control and that Aung San Suu Kyi is unable to run for any office.

Maybe, his optimism is because he doesn’t think conditions for the more than 2,000 political prisoners are unreasonable. “Prison conditions are not so bad,” he said after making his grand tour and visiting a total of exactly five political prisoners. This, Quintana, you despicable prick, not only helps paint the demonstrably cruel generals in some sort of reasonable light, it is also simply untrue. Just ask some of the ex- detainees or your predecessor who described conditions as “appalling.”

I don’t know the answer to the problems of Burma—although the Burmese look towards Laura Bush, rather than the UN for help—but I sure as hell know the solution isn’t to be found within a shady, shambolic and totally ineffectual UN: a UN that cruelly promises the people of Burma assistance and delivers Quintana. Quintana is a simple demonstration to me of everything that is wrong with the UN—he’s wimpy, ineffectual, pompous and stupid.

I don’t share Quintana's optimism that the totally corrupt, barbaric, Burmese generals have the intention of cooperating in any way. In fact I am sure they will be rubbing their grubby, bloodstained paws in glee at the prospect of giving this naïve, hopeless, dullard the run-around. Still, maybe he will surprise us all, as he is, he proudly tells us, off back to the UN, “to write a report.”

Philip Duck thonburi-1@hotmail.com

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