No matter what you think of (now former) U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton, he was a leading voice for addressing Burma at the United Nations. Now that he has resigned where does the Burma issue stand and how long will it take to be addressed again?
I have been following the issue here at Freedom Bloc. After finally getting Burma on the UNSC agenda, Bolton was the most outspoken advocate on the part of the U.S.
Though I am tempted to agree with Lee Feinstein of the Council on Foriegn Relations who spoke generally about Bolton this morning on Washington Journal, saying that Bolton was "more about critique than implementation", that was better than nothing.
I have waited patiently for Bolton who said he was awaiting the UN envoy trip to Burma, lead by Gambari, to see how things developed before deciding on what our next step should be. Now that he has resigned all progress, whether it be fruitful or paper tiger diplomacy, has stopped dead in it's tracks. We also have the transition of the new UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, though it is expected to be a smooth transition. Ban Ki-Moon will reportedly be picking up where Annan left off. Whether that is a good thing or not depends on how much faith you put in the UN to begin with.
The waiting game will continue. We can only hope that the new U.S. Ambassador to the UN will be at least as equally aggressive as Bolton and hopefully more fulfilling on bringing democratic reform and human rights to Burma. Unfortunately, my realistic side tells me not to expect too much. But with the current state of the UN, practically any progress is good progress.
