Page 2 of 2 Doubting donors withhold Myanmar aid
By Brian McCartan
donations could be "more effectively" distributed if given to government
organizations had been largely ignored.
Many fear the government's attempts to limit how money and donations are
distributed will discourage many from continuing to donate. Local donors note
that, since the WFP is providing only rice, villagers have relied on them to
provide other staples such as salt, vegetables, meat and oil. If local donors
are forced to channel their assistance through government organizations, it is
widely feared that much of the food aid would be in the direct control of the
junta, which has already caused international aid shipments to disappear into
government warehouses from where their contents have reappeared in local
markets at inflated prices.
Indeed, where the junta sees the potential for making money, it
has adopted a more conciliatory approach. In a move hailed by the concerned
agencies and organizations as a sign of increased cooperation, 250 experts from
the UN, Myanmar government and ASEAN last week began a village-by-village
survey to determine how much food, water and shelter was still needed.
The projected cost of reconstructing houses and schools and rehabilitating the
agricultural sector is also being evaluated by the joint assessment team. That
broad assessment will be completed on June 24 and released to the public the
following week. It will also be used by the junta as a quasi-independent figure
to present to the international donors who rejected their initial $11.7 billion
appeal.
Well-worn tactics
Big donors like the US, Australia and European countries, including the
Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden, which had previously said their
donations were contingent on greater access, have yet to indicate to what
extent they are satisfied or otherwise by the junta's recent actions. The US
Senate on June 12 renewed its import restrictions on goods produced in Myanmar,
after previously committing $35 million in relief and the use of US military
aircraft for aid delivery to Yangon airport.
The New Light of Myanmar carried a scathing editorial on June 13 that many
observers believe targeted the US, claiming, "The goodwill of a big Western
nation that wants to help Myanmar with its warships was not genuine." Myanmar's
state media had voiced fears in the past that the US could use humanitarian
assistance as a pretense to invade the country George W Bush administration
officials have frequently referred to as an "outpost of tyranny" due to the
junta's abysmal rights record
In perhaps the clearest display that the generals have no intention of changing
their repressive ways was the regime's decision, two days after the
international donor conference, to extend the house arrest of Nobel Peace Prize
winner and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi for a sixth consecutive year. The
continued detention of the democratic opposition leader was apparently not open
to discussion during Ban's meetings with top Myanmar officials. Ban said that
while he regretted the junta's decision, he had been in Myanmar on "purely
humanitarian grounds".
Critics suggest that the regime is employing the same tactics it has used in
the past to deflect intense international criticism. They contend the generals
used a similar routine after their crackdown last year on Buddhist monk-led
protests garnered worldwide media attention. After the junta agreed to meet
with UN special envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari, the generals showed signs of
conciliation but continued to round up and detain protest leaders once
international attention focused elsewhere.
Many Myanmar watchers and exiled opposition groups say that the UN has fallen
into the same trap through its diplomatic overtures in the wake of the cyclone.
As global media interest in the cyclone's aftermath wanes, the junta is fast
returning to its oppressive ways and continues to treat the disaster more as a
national security threat than a humanitarian mission.
The same critics say that ASEAN is also allowing itself to be used by the junta
for its own cynical political purposes. Rather than leveraging its influence on
Myanmar to respond more humanely to the crisis, the regional grouping has
functioned more as a pressure valve for the junta to escape international
condemnation.
The ASEAN secretary general was upbeat after the donor conference telling
journalists, "We have been able to establish a space, a humanitarian space,
however small to engage with the Myanmar authorities," Surin said. "That
humanitarian space needs to be sustained through political decisions, through
political flexibility."
During a more recent one-day ASEAN Leadership Forum, Surin told the attendees
that a "new ASEAN" has emerged from its response to the disaster in Myanmar. He
stated his belief that ASEAN has shown the world that the grouping was up to
the responsibility placed on it, saying, "It just so happened that we are being
baptized by the Cyclone Nargis. That is the test of our new ASEAN."
Myanmar was allowed to join ASEAN in 1997, amid strong international protests,
after providing assurances that it would take steps to move towards more
openness and democracy. Despite this and repeated criticisms of ASEAN for not
pressuring Myanmar more, the grouping has stood by its member nation in the
interest of regional solidarity and its long-held policy of non-interference in
the domestic affairs of members.
Countries in the region, some say, would also stand to profit from
reconstruction and rehabilitation contracts, assuming the international
community is willing to foot the bill. Despite the fact a million Burmese
citizens are still in desperate need of aid and assistance, two Thai medical
teams that had been working under an ASEAN banner in the Irrawaddy Delta area
recently returned to Thailand after Myanmar officials told them that their
assistance was no longer required and that local doctors had the situation
under control.
The removal of the Thai medical teams stands in stark contradiction to the
assessment of most foreign aid workers, who now say the bolstered relief and
assistance program will have to be sustained at the very least until the end of
the year, while local groups and residents say the international effort will
take much longer to achieve stability. Whether the military regime's patience
with a foreign presence will last that long, particularly if the billions of
dollars in reconstruction aid it has requested are not forthcoming, remains a
crucial humanitarian question.
Brian McCartan is a Chiang Mai-based freelance journalist. He may be
reached at brianpm@comcast.net. Asia Times Online Southeast Asia Editor Shawn
W Crispin contributed reporting from Bangkok.
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