Fire @ Burma’s Embassy! What A Lucky Coincidence

What a coincidence: How many embassies are there around the world? Thousands I guess. And how often does a fire break out in an embassy? Once every few years? And how often is the visa section destroyed in one of those very rare fires? Sabotage?! Is the regime moonlighting as arsonists?

What a coincidence that of all things the building with the consular section of Burma’s embassy in Bangkok was caught by a not too small fire early Monday, May 26th. The same embassy that – after three weeks of stubbornness – should hand out hart-to-get visas for aid workers desperately trying to travel to Burma since cyclone Nargis ravaged the Irrawaddy Delta early May.

What a coincidence that the fire ravaged that part of the embassy where those visas should have been issued. And what a coincidence, finally, that the fire broke out only an hour or so before normal operation hours of the embassy’s consular section.

Only three days earlier United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon was given assurances by Burma’s junta leader Senior General Than Shwe that all foreign aid workers will be allowed into the country, regardless of their nationalities.

That’s at least how Ban quoted the dictator.

Monday morning would have been showtime to prove the regime’s words.

Still stranded aid workers from all around the world who were held hostage by the Burmese regime since three weeks were getting ready to queue up at the embassy to finally get their papers. But what must happen. What a coincidence. A fire broke out.




When visa seekers arrived at the embassy, the visa section was closed.

Not that we blame the Burmese authorities to have moonlighted as arsonists. But while Than Shwe’s promise made us smile in disbelief, the fire at the embassy made us laugh in utter amazement.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to add 1 and 1.

And you can’t be more ruthless than burning down your own embassy to avoid giving out visas, can you.

Hopefully we’re wrong and the calculus of probabilities is supporting Burma’s ambassador and the Thai police who claim that “it was an accident,” as Thai Police Major Thanyaboon Thonjalatwong was quoted by The Nation. “We’ve ruled out sabotage.”

As … as murder is always quickly ruled out when another farang jumps/falls to his death from a high rise.

What a welcome disruption that fire proves for the Burmese authorities. No need to answer questions anymore. Just close those embattled gates.

We understand the regime is at least responding to all U.N. visa requests. Leastwise no need anymore to shoo away journalists pretending to be naive tourists.

A fire. Just now, of all times.

What a fortunate coincidence.

(To be fair, the consular section seemed to have reopened the very same afternoon of the fire, as Paul Risley told us, spokesman of WFP in Bangkok. The U.N. is meanwhile getting its requested visas issued. For for others though visas remain “a major challenge,” Risley says.)




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May 26, 2008 | Filed Under Seriously, Not ..., Society 

Comments

2 Responses to “Fire @ Burma’s Embassy! What A Lucky Coincidence”

  1. Global Voices Online » Fire at Myanmar embassy in Thailand on May 27th, 2008 10.29 am

    [...] in Thailand. Because of the fire, aid workers were not able to secure visas. Absolutely Bangkok comments: “What a coincidence that the fire ravaged that part of the embassy where those visas should have [...]

  2. The catastrophic cyclone « fifty viss on May 27th, 2008 6.51 pm

    [...] Yet, yesterday, the visa department at the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, burst into flames (link). How convenient, considering Thailand is UN’s transit center for aid into the [...]

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