I have to say, when I first heard of Global Fund pulling out, my immediate reaction was that it is a good thing. Ultimately, though, I am not from Burma, and my opinion on such issues isn’t nearly as important as the opinions of those who are. But my own friends, who are, did express their agreement with my own feelings; it would be impossible to run such a well-funded and extensive operation without corruption funneling a huge chunk of that money right into the generals’ pockets.
But this also raises the overall issue of how to bring aid to Burma. The country is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis that is one of the worst in the world. I hesitate to be one of those people who says we shouldn’t provide humanitarian aid because it would legitimize and support the regime, even though people are dying. Its heartbreaking to have to choose between politics and helping people. But at the same time, one has to consider how much good aid would do, under the circumstances. We can’t ignore the political situation and the restraints it would impose.
Recently, Min Ko Naing, a former student leader who was arrested for his involvement in the 8/8/88 uprising, has called on the international community to provide humanitarian aid to Burma, and for the Junta to cooperate in improving the situation. To quothe the Irrawaddy:
“As one of the least developed Asian countries, Burma obviously needs aid from the international community—especially in the areas of health and education,” said Min Ko Naing. He added that the situation in remote areas of the country is “unmanageable.”
The activist group also called for the junta and opposition groups to work together to meet Burma’s humanitarian needs and urged Rangoon to provide a suitable and effective environment for social workers, highlighting the need for an “impartial, open, transparent and accurate process.”
There’s certianly no reason to doubt his sincerity, truely, the only way the situation will improve is if those in power - the junta, the international community, and the cease-fire groups, cooperate. This sentiment, however, which has been expressed by others as well, ignores the very real fact that the junta is itself responsible for the ‘humanitarian crisis’. It didn’t sneak up them, its not because they are a poor country without the capacity to implement health care, its because the junta simply refuses to spend on health care. Of course if they cooperated to help people they could fix the situation, but telling the junta to ‘get its act together’ and help people is a bit like telling a lion to stop eating gazelle. Repression is their modus opperandi.
“Impartial, open, transparent” and military dictatorship simply don’t, and will never, go together. It seems most commentators on this situation have overlooked that little fact, as if the humanitarian crisis and the military dictatorship are two separate issues, and that the latter must simply be worked around to fix the former. But how are you supposed to help people if the latter is the cause of the former?
Especially when they pull shit like this:
Overseas donated mosquito nets sold by Burmese authority in Arakan State.
....The school teacher continued, "Last year, the nets were distributed for 700 (kyats) a piece by Dr. Kyaw Myint, the township medical doctor. Not every household got one. This year is another round for those who missed out last year. Dr. Kyaw Myint is gone, but the chairman of the Township Peace and Development Council has organized the collection."
The nets were generally given away to those who got on well with the local authority, or those who had money to pay. Many poor families were not able to get nets. [Narinjara.com]
The government is actually selling nets which had been donated by UNICEF. The junta is never going to allow international aid agencies the freedom to actually help people, because they don’t want people to be helped. They confiscate people’s land and steal their villages, they force them to work for the army for nothing, they provide no education, no healthcare, no power, nothing. The junta gives nothing to those people who don’t support its cause - that is, it gives nothing to the ethnic minorities, the poor, or the sick. When it sells mosquito nets donated by UNICEF, the government accomplishes two things, one, it earns a profit, and two, it ensures that the poorest people are more likely to catch malaria and die. Which fits perfectly into its plan to rid the country of anyone who is poor, non-burman, intelligent, or democratiically leaning. It can easily arrest political dissidents, it’s destroyed the education system, and now the poor and ethnic groups will either die from starvation and disease, or flee the country. The government wins either way.
After the Global Fund pulled out, the governement called on the agency to return and to “reconsider in light of its moral obligations to people everywhere who are suffering from illness.” The junta calling on anyone to consider their ‘moral obligations’ is patently ridiculous, and the international community should be insulted that the junta could even believe we’d swallow that tripe. They make it impossible to operate there, then when the agencies pull out they paint them the bad guys, and call on the Burmese people to request help - they pawn off responsibility for what they’ve done to the country onto the heartless international community. Then, if any aid is forthcoming, the junta takes the credit for providing help, all the while skimming off the top and making sure help only goes to those they’ve chosen. They’re manipulating the words of sincere people like Min Ko Maing, and our own sense of compassion, all the while rubbing their grubby hands together and laughing ‘bwa ha haa!’ like the evil dictators they are. (Probably counting the days until they can dissappear into their secret underground palaces).
Of course, this doesn’t negate the fact that it’s the people who are caught up in the mess. How are we supposed to provide aid in this situation? I wish I knew the answer, really. Most of us know what the junta is doing, and yet governments and international agencies seem obligated by politics to pussy-foot around the bastards as if they weren’t the cause of nearly all the problems there. The best way to solve a problem is to get rid of its cause - not treat the symptoms. But that doesn’t seem to be a consideration the international community is willing to broach. Perhaps the UN should stop being pansies and consider funneling aid through opposition groups, which are operating within Burma, but without government sanction. It might limit the geographic scope of their reach - but without inadvertantly supporting the junta, the overall good acheived could ultimately be much greater.