John Watson

The term "humanitarian aid" tells its own story. That when disasters happen it is a basic, and inherently human, response to rush to the aid of the victims.

Cyclone Nargis killed tens of thousands of people, and displaced around a million more, when it hit the delta of the Irrawaddy river last weekend. Yet as we catch increasing glimpses of the devastation it left behind there is one group who seem willing to stand apart while the Burmese people suffer. Indeed, their efforts seem more directed towards preventing others from arriving to help.

The unelected military leaders who rule Burma (or Myanmar, as they renamed the country some years ago) are stalling on issuing visas to humanitarian relief staff and refusing to allow planes carrying emergency supplies to land.

After a natural disaster the roads into the affected area are usually choked by the relief effort, yet the BBC is reporting that those into the Irrawaddy delta are empty. The UN Food Programme has announced that concern about the military siphoning off emergency supplies is also holding back the relief effort - with donors refused access to the area but unwilling simply to hand over goods to the security forces.

How could this government act with such disregard for the wellbeing of its people?

The Burmese army took power in a military coup in 1962 and has ruled ever since. The human rights situation in the country is appalling, with more than 1850 known political prisoners. Torture is rife and freedom of expression is severely curtailed. In March, three people were imprisoned for giving water to monks on the street.

The main opposition group, the National League for Democracy (NLD), under the leadership of the iconic Aung San Suu Kyi, won the 1988 elections held in the country, with a massive 70% of the vote. The regime simply refused to recognise the result and carried on as before.

The people of Burma were due to go to the polls tomorrow to vote on a new constitution. To an untrained eye this would look like a giant leap forward, but Amnesty International has grave concerns.

The proposed constitution ensures a decisive role for the military in Burma's political future. But forget for a moment about the actual detail of the constitution; the process to get to this point has been fundamentally flawed.

The constitution has been 20 years in the making, but for the past 14 years the NLD has been barred from discussions. It is simply incomprehensible that a constitution could represent the whole country when the biggest political grouping in the country has had no say in the process.

Then there is the issue of the actual campaigning around the referendum. Amnesty International has received numerous reports that large numbers of people campaigning for a no vote or a boycott have been harassed, intimidated or in some cases detained by the Burmese authorities. Hardly the route to a free and fair election.

Sadly, this behaviour is of little surprise to us at Amnesty International. This, after all, is a regime which brutally crushed last September's so-called Saffron Revolution. Back then peaceful protests led by thousands of monks, were brutally put down. Dozens were killed and hundreds detained.

The United Nations and the European Union were up in arms at the time, and they even forced a promise out of the military junta.

It promised that it would fully cooperate with the United Nations and stop its politically-motivated arrests and trials.

For a brief moment progess seemed to be on the cards. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, visited Burma back in November. His recommendations were adopted by the UN Human Rights Council a month later. And then nothing.

Arrests linked to the Saffron Revolution continue to this day. Reports continue to flood in to Amnesty International of people involved in the protests being physically attacked by the authorities late at night and out of sight of witnesses.

To make a difference, the global community needs to resurrect the memories of last autumn and put the heat back on to the Burmese military junta.

It might seem as if the current turmoil supersedes our concerns over what might seem more abstract human rights. Yet human rights are more important at times of crisis, not less.

It is the human right to freedom of expression that enables people to stand up against abusive regimes. It is the human right to food, clothing and shelter that provides the moral and legal framework that underpins a humanitarian aid effort. And it is the human right to take part in the government of one's country that has the potential to make even the most despotic of regimes take heed of the needs of its people.

John Watson is programme director, Scotland, for Amnesty International.