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The military regime has insisted that it is handling the crisis itself. It is painfully clear to the rest of the world that the disaster is of such magnitude that no single institution could possibly claim that it can cope alone. Much of the huge flood of aid that has been sent by the international community is currently languishing at Rangoon airport, in ships off the coast of Burma, and in depots all over the world, just waiting to be deployed.
While obstructing the much-needed influx of aid and expertise, the leaders of the regime have staged ostentatious ceremonies to hand out minimal amounts of aid to a fraction of those who so desperately need it. Some reports suggest that ethnic Karen are being denied aid in favor of ethnic Burmans. There have been concerns over the misappropriation of aid, with reports suggesting that materials and food sent as aid have been sold on the black market in Rangoon. The Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement has announced in state-run media that complaints regarding the misappropriation of aid are to be filed with it, and that those found guilty will be charged.
Refugees have been forced out of their shelters and threatened with forcible relocation. The situation is desperate and the Burmese authorities clearly cannot be relied upon to deal with it effectively. Democratic Voice of Burma cites one refugee as saying, “We get no international aid, we only hear about it. We have nowhere to stay and are living on the streets, and the children are suffering from dysentery.”
In some areas in Rangoon and the delta authorities tried to get people to vote “yes” in the May 24 referendum in exchange for aid. On May 14, authorities told people in Shwe-pyi-thar satellite town on the outskirts of Rangoon to cast “yes” votes on May 24, as they distributed rice soup to the people. On May 15th, the authorities came with a cooking oil vender to sell oil at discount rates, and told customers to cast “yes” votes on May 24.
Monks, Burmese film stars and civilians have been driving down to the Irrawaddy Delta with whatever supplies and monetary donations they can gather, and they have been able to reach most vulnerable groups in remote areas of the cyclone-hit delta that international aid teams are not yet able to reach.
However, in many cases they have encountered authorities who prevented them from helping the victims, reasoning that all aid must be channeled through local officials. The government’s suspicion of monks, who played a pivotal role in last year’s uprising, has meant that they are being subjected to threats and intimidation for their efforts to help.
Members of Myanmar Medical Services, the association of private doctors in Burma, have organized and mobilized themselves. These doctors have gone to the affected areas of their own volition and on a voluntary basis, ignoring government edicts. The enormity of the crisis is impossible for them to tackle without international aid and expertise -- which is waiting so close by.
On May 16, the United Nations stated that, although there had been some positive developments in the days before, a “substantive shift from the government” was still needed. It stressed that the size of the disaster was such that the humanitarian aid mission required absolute cooperation.
The regime's stance of non-cooperation has extended so far as to refuse to speak to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon -- a stance that may cost the lives of thousands. Aid is now beginning to trickle through, but the fact remains that critical needs are simply not being met at the level required.
The United Nations further reported that the damage wreaked by the storm was worse than that caused by the 2004 tsunami, and that rehabilitation costs are estimated to be US$243 million. The 82,000 square kilometers that were affected -- an area the size of Austria -- constitute the “rice bowl” of Burma, and the whole country's food security has been seriously jeopardized.
Rice must be planted within the next 40 days in order to yield the next harvest, but paddies are currently swamped with seawater and polluted with the corpses of humans and animals. The region needs farmers, machinery, livestock and 900 tons of salt-resistant rice seed.
The government’s reaction to the cyclone has meant that U.N. agencies and international non-governmental organizations have had to be creative in their approach to getting aid and expertise into the country. The role of the private sector has proved invaluable, for instance. International companies have used their infrastructure to deliver free products and aid. Many of their local staff have been sent to the delta, but they are hugely overworked and without the training or experience to deal with such a traumatic situation.
Pre-cyclone relationships between the xenophobic regime and international organizations seem to be affecting their levels of cooperation. The United Nations has been very frustrated by the delays in allowing its agencies access, whereas Save the Children, which has been operating in Burma for some time, has had relatively little difficulty, and now reports that it has a functioning logistics team in place.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has called the situation “overwhelming.” The priority is to get more aid into the remote areas of the delta, and that means getting in foreign aid and expertise. The group claims to have 27,000 local volunteers on the ground, but without suitable logistics and infrastructure this significant manpower is still unable to reach much of the affected area and the thousands of people who have yet to receive any assistance.
The international community has reacted strongly to what British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has termed the military regime's “malign neglect.” French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner proposed that there should be a U.N. resolution compelling Burma to accept outside aid. This was strongly opposed by Russia and China, as well as several other countries. Kouchner invoked the notion of the Responsibility to Protect -- the doctrine recognized by the United Nations in 2005, that the international community has a duty to intervene if a government fails to uphold its responsibility toward its own citizens.
The Responsibility to Protect is supposed to apply to cases of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. There were calls for this principle to be applied with regard to Burma even before the cyclone crisis. Debate now rages over whether forcing a country to accept a vast humanitarian aid effort is a misapplication of the doctrine. For it to be applied, the legal case must be made for the ruling regime's neglect to constitute a “crime against humanity” -- and it must be made fast.
The United States, United Kingdom and France have all hinted at the possibility of forcing aid delivery unilaterally. May 17th was proclaimed a Global Day of Action, with activists around the world calling for decisive action to be taken to get aid to those in need, with or without the approval of the Burmese military regime. There has also been debate over the possibility of a military intervention, although the possible ramifications of this would need to be scrutinized. Diplomatic efforts are currently concentrated on the issue of access to the more remote areas of the delta.
Analysts have claimed to see shifts in the normal political dynamics in Burma as a result of the cyclone. Ministers sent to the delta from the capital Naypyidaw have a more immediate understanding of the extent of the problem, and are said to be ignoring some commands “from the top.” According to some, this decentralized decision making has granted an element of uncertainty to what has hitherto been regarded as a system of immutable rigidity.
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(Khin Ohmar is coordinator of the Asia Pacific Peoples' Partnership on Burma, based in Thailand. She can be contacted at appartnership@gmail.com. Her blog may be found at http://apppb.blogspot.com.)
