Burma is again in crisis this week after Cyclone Nargis swept through the former capital, Rangoon, and surrounding coastal areas on 2 May. The miliary junta’s latest estimates place the death toll at more than 22,000, with a further 40,000 people missing. These figures are likely to prove conservative, with some agencies estimating that the final death toll may be as high as 100,000. Millions more have been left without shelter, food and water.
The junta’s response has proved criminally negligent. Given prior warning of the storm by the Indian authorities, it failed to act. When the unprecendented scale of the disaster became apparent, the Burmese authorities did officially request bilateral assistance from the international community, but to date it has not issued entry visas for international aid agencies—even those with existing programmes in Burma. In these critical first few days, with hundreds of thousands in need of basic humanitarian relief, agencies are left waiting in Bangkok with no idea if or when they will be allowed into Burma. Furthermore, the junta has continued with human rights violations, such as the shooting of 36 prisoners in the infamous Insein prison, which was damaged in the storm, and the subsequent torture and deaths of a further four inmates.
VSO Thailand/Burma does not operate inside Burma, and our local partners have been largely unaffected, since their focus is the east of the country on the Thai-Burma border. Storm force winds have caused damage in Tak province in Thailand, including the destruction of two schools set up for the children of migrants from Burma. These schools are supported by the Burmese Migrant Workers’ Education Committee, (BMWEC) a VSO local partner organisation. VSO Thailand/Burma will be working with BMWEC and its other partners to see what support it can offer.
VSO Thailand/Burma does not have any plans to intervene directly in Burma at this time, even if the Burmese authorities were to allow access. We do urge people to support the appeals of reputable international aid agencies such as Save the Children UK and UNICEF, which have existing operations in Burma and are best placed to respond.
The priority for the international community now is to respond to the humanitarian need as quickly as possible. Nonetheless, we should be mindful of the fact that while the cyclone is a natural disaster, the military junta is partly responsible for its devastating impact. In the next few days, the junta is planning to hold a referendum on a new constitution. This process has been widely condemned as a sham, with the ultimate goal of legitimising and consolidating the control of the military regime for years to come. A recent poll (see below) suggests most people in Burma have received no information about the new constitution, and that most would reject it in a free-and-fair process. The vote, however, will take place in a climate of fear and intimidation, and now in the wake of the worst natural disaster Burma has ever faced.
As well as responding to humanitarian appeals, therefore, we also urge people to ask their elected representatives to put pressure on the military regime in Burma (1) to accept international aid unconditionally (2) to postpone the referendum and concentrate on the humanitarian disaster (3) to start a tripartite dialogue with opposition groups and ethnic minority groups with a view to engaging in a genuinely democratic process of change in Burma.
Patrick Proctor
VSO Country Director
