Myanmar Still Beset by Ethics Woes Related to Delivery of Aid
Jun 23rd, 2008 • Posted in: NewsReports include a shortfall of funding, gaps in delivery of aid by insular junta, and money being diverted
YANGON, Myanmar, and BANGKOK
The situation in Myanmar continues to be unstable as ethical and political issues related to providing aid continue to plague that isolated nation.
According to a report from the Associated Press, the United Nations warned last week that it might not be able to continue helicopter deliveries to cyclone survivors unless the international community provides more funding.
The helicopters were the centerpiece of a conflict between the outside world and the secretive Myanmar government, which refused to allow them into the ravaged nation for two weeks after the early-May cyclone, eventually relenting under withering international criticism.
As the Washington Post reports, the haphazard relief efforts by the Myanmar government have spawned a new type of social activism: citizen groups that, while not overtly political, have defied government travel bans to visit many parts of the devastated Irrawaddy Delta, delivering food and water and returning with photos that “contradict claims in the state media that life is returning to normal,” the Post says.
That stance by the government was behind a recent order to start drawing down the number of medics in the disaster area — a decision that Christian Science Monitor correspondent Simon Montlake describes as “another entry, perhaps, in the ledger of international outrage against a junta whose deep suspicion of foreign influence has slowed aid efforts.”
At last count, according to an article carried by Reuters AlertNet, the international community has invested about $85 million into Myanmar, but human rights groups increasingly are contending that the nation’s reclusive junta is misusing and manipulating the funding. A spokesman for Amnesty International is quoted as saying there have been reports where aid delivered by the junta was conditioned on victims’ willingness to vote in the May constitutional referendum or to join the military. According to the AlertNet article, Amnesty International said it confirmed 40 reports of soldiers or local government officials confiscating or diverting aid.
Sources: AP, June 21 — Washington Post, June 21 — Reuters AlertNet, June 20 — Christian Science Monitor, June 19.
For more information, see: Related Newsline story, June 2 — Related Newsline story, May 12 — Related Newsline story, Dec. 10, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Nov. 19, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Nov. 5, 2007.
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