ND Burma
ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.
Recent Posts
- On International Women’s Day, the Network for Human RightsDocumentation – Burma Calls for the Recognition of Women’s Contributions to the Pro-Democracy Movement
- INTERVIEW: Why an Argentine court filed a warrant for Aung San Suu Kyi’s arrest
- Myanmar junta bombs rebel wedding, at least 10 killed
- Press Statement: Argentine Court’s arrest warrants are welcome progress towards justice
- OPEN LETTER: UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL MUST TAKE CONCRETE ACTION TO SUPPORT THE MYANMAR PEOPLE’S EFFORTS TO BUILD A RIGHTS-PROTECTING FUTURE
Spring Revolution Daily News for 16th August 2021
/in NewsU Win Thaw, the vice-chair of Central Bank, said that they would not make any other banks go bankrupt or close them. It was just a rumour that 5000 Kyats notes and 10000 Kyats notes would be withdrawn.
He also said that the online banking system and cash withdrawal from ATMs would go normally during the extended period of public holidays.
The junta newspaper on Sunday announced the list of selected members for the junta media council.
The military junta announced that priority had been given to the imports of medicines and other items related to prevention, treatment and control of COVID-19 every day.
The military junta said that they and other well-wishers had been donating oxygen cylinders, PPEs and nutritious food to public hospitals, military hospitals, health centres, COVID centres and social organizations in states and regions.
According to the junta media, Sinovac vaccination had been carried out for 345 workers from the industrial zones in Dagon Seikkam and Hlaing Thaya townships.
In Kyonepyaw of Ayeyarwady Region, junta police and soldiers have been collecting fines up to 50000 Kyats from those who go out without permit cards. According to residents, those who cannot pay it have been arrested and detained.
The military junta announced that they had been blocking off townships and conducting investigations to catch those who had opened gunfire on the city train in Yangon.
Mandalay Regional Monks Organization agreed to the discussion of the military council to keep monks at the junta check-points in Mandalay.
According to affiliates, the chief military officer of Winemaw-based Army (58) and some other officers were faced with the investigation at an army court.
The official Facebook page of Spring Lottery Raising the Flag of Victory announced that the time to start selling their NUG lottery had been changed to 4:00 pm Sunday.
Ministry for the Affairs of Federal Union released Federal Journal Issue (2) containing extensive explanation about characteristics of the Federal Union Constitution.
Ministry of Human Rights and Ministry for Women, Youth and Children- NUG released a joint statement that they had concerns about universal human rights, including health and other rights, of the prisoners who had been detained for their freedom of expression and anti-junta movements.
According to the social media post of lottery sales, the allotted number of Spring lottery was sold out within hours. Therefore, they would have to stop for the day and continue their sales the next day.
At about 5:00 pm Saturday, 6 policemen were shot by unknown gunmen on the city train from Yangon Station to Insein. Reportedly, 4 of them died in the incident.
On Sunday morning, there were bomb explosions in Sanchaung and Kyimyindine townships of Yangon Region.
According to residents, bomb explosions happened consecutively at administration offices of 5 wards in Kyimyindine Township.
In Ward (20) of western Hlaingthaya Township, the watchmen from the junta administration office beat a young man aged 30 to death.
In Lasho of Shan North, junta police raided a house in Ward (11) and took away 100 lakhs.
In Chin State, there was fighting between CDF and the junta armed forces at milepost (16) on Mindat-Matupi road on Sunday. According to CDF Mindat, the military junta lost many soldiers.
In Kanpetlet Township of Chin State, the junta armed forces opened fire wildly for no apparent reason at about 11:30 am Sunday. Reportedly, two people, father and son, were seriously injured.
On Saturday night, Mandalay Monks’ Union recited Parittas for the public as usual and protested against the military dictatorship.
On Sunday, Mandalay Monks’ Union made an anti-junta movement, reciting Parittas.
On Sunday, a rally of Chan/Zi in Unity marched against the military dictatorship.
In Madaya Township of Mandalay Region, U Win Naing, junta-appointed administrator of Thabyechaung village, was killed on Saturday afternoon. At night, the junta armed forces came there and arrested 3 villagers.
On Sunday, Myataung rally expressed their desire for the downfall of the military dictatorship, chanting anti-junta slogans.
On Sunday evening, a rally of Mandala University Students expressed their desire for the end of the military dictatorship.
As 188-day protest, there was an anti-junta march amidst violent crackdowns and arrests in Mandalay.
In Pha-Ang of Kayin State, young people led a protest against the military watchdog on Sunday, “Only NUG is our government”.
In Tantsi Township, a rally of youth, in cooperation with farmers, made a farming strike against the military dictatorship on Sunday.
In Monywa of Sagaing Region, there was a bomb explosion near the downtown clock tower, where the junta armed forces had been taking security, at about 8:22 am Sunday.
As 185-day protest, a rally comprising various villages from Salingyi North and Yinmabin East expressed their objection to the military dictatorship on Sunday morning.
In Salingyi Township of Sagaing Region, Latbadaung Taung General Strike protested against the military dictatorship.
In Monywa, a rally of youth and students expressed their disapproval of the military dictatorship, even amidst tight security measures by the junta armed forces.
At about 3:30 pm Saturday, a convoy of military trucks with about 50 junta soldiers was attacked by Yinmabin PDF with 3 mines near Myephwetaung in Yinmabin Township. Reportedly, no less than 3 junta soldiers died and no less than 10 others were injured.
On Sunday, Kalay people managed to conduct their anti-junta movement.
On Sunday afternoon, Dawei General Strike, in cooperation with a rally of youth/students expressed their desire against the military dictatorship, “Only NUG is our government”.
On Sunday evening, Longlone township youth marched against the military dictatorship in the rural community, chanting “Only NUG is our government”.
On Sunday afternoon, there was a guerrilla protest against the military dictatorship in Lower Yebyu village amidst the rain.
On the night of 11th August, Ko Aung Yu was arrested by the junta armed forces in Daungngu Ward. According to his wife, he died in the investigation after 3 days of arrest.
In Pha-Kant Township of Kachin State, residents of Lonekhine village marched in the rain on Sunday morning and expressed their desire against the military dictatorship.
On Sunday morning, there was an anti-junta movement in Pakkoku Township of Magwe Region.
In Gantgaw Township of Magwe Region, the junta armed forces came to Myaukkinyan village on 9th August and arrested a member of NLD with COVID-19 infection.
In Seik Phyu Township of Magwe Region, the junta armed forces conducted arrests on the exit of Seik Phyu and Pathein-Monywa road. Consequently, there was a lack of food in Shala village group and nearby villages.
In Chauk Township of Magwe Region, U Aung Myint Sein, junta-appointed administrator of Pwint-Lin village, was killed. Regarding the murder, junta police had been investigating suspects at the station. Therefore, residents were worried.
On Sunday afternoon, the public in Magwe Township protested against the military dictatorship, “We all are PDFs looking forward to D-Day”.
In Shan South, there was a battle between the junta armed forces and a combined force of Karenni Army between Pinlong and Phekone townships for 11 hours from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm Saturday.
According to Phekone PDF, the military junta lost a lot of soldiers and they had to ask for help from the army in Aung Pan.
At about 7:00 am Sunday, the battle resumed between the junta armed forces and Karenni PDFs between Pinlong and Phekone townships. Reportedly, 13 military trucks left Loikaw to help the junta army.
On Saturday night, INDF called for the cooperation of Inle people for the downfall of the military dictatorship.
In Ngaputaw Township of Ayeyarwady Region, arrangements had been made to build an oxygen plant with the funding of the public. The military junta said that they would lead it. Consequently, some funding had to be asked back.
In Tantalan Township the headquarters of Chin National Army, COVID-19 vaccinations began at Camp Victoria.
General Tun Myat Naing, Chief of AA, said in an interview with Arakan media on Sunday that arrangements had been made for the involvement of Muslims in Rakhine State for the positions of administration and police procedures of ULA/AA.
In Shan South, there was heavy fighting between a combined force of the junta army-PNO and a combined force of KA-KNDF near Lwehwe village from 8:45 am to 6:30 pm Saturday. Free Burma Ranger Karenni announced that they had to take women and children from the village to a safe place.
Summary on 16th August
Mizzima News
Karennis hit by war and pandemic in urgent need of aid, says rebel group
/in NewsThe man and his son were both inside their home when soldiers opened fire nearby
A man was seriously injured after he and his 4-year-year son were shot by regime troops in a village in Chin State’s Kanpetlet Township on Sunday.
The incident occurred at around 11am, when soldiers patrolling Kant Thar Yon, a village about a mile outside the town of Kanpetlet, opened fired near the man’s house.
Thirty-year-old Thang Htong and his son Naing Thang were both inside their home when they were hit by stray bullets, according to a member of the Kanpetlet Township Public Administration Committee, a civilian management group set up by opponents of Myanmar’s military junta.
Thang Htong was hit in the arm, thigh and abdomen and was taken to a public hospital in the city of Magway, about 250km away, with serious injuries. The child was not badly hurt, locals told Myanmar Now.
Residents of the village said the shooting was unprovoked.
“The soldiers said they were shooting at a suspicious-looking man on a motorcycle, but it seems more like they were just firing shots at random,” said one Kanpetlet resident who spoke to villagers who arrived on the scene shortly after the incident.
There have been tensions in the area since clashes broke out between junta troops and the Chinland Defence Force-Kanpetlet (CDF-Kanpetlet) in the village of Kha Nan on July 27.
Although there has been no fighting since then, the regime has maintained a heavy military presence in Kanpetlet and surrounding villages, according to the local management group.
“They’re fully armed and patrolling the town. Some are in plain clothes, hiding and ready for ambushes,” said a spokesperson for the group.
“There is also a checkpoint in front of a high school in the centre of town,” the spokesperson added, noting that at least five young people have been arrested since August 6 after their phones were inspected while passing the checkpoint.
Kanpetlet was the scene of fierce clashes in late May, when local CDF fighters carried out a series of attacks on junta reinforcements sent to crush the local anti-coup resistance movement.
Myanmar Now News
Weekly Update on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar Post-Coup (August 9-15)2021
/in HR SituationChoosing the truth over terror, five youth jumped to their deaths from an apartment building in Yangon while fleeing a chase by the Myanmar junta security forces. The junta has cremated the bodies of those who died – despite this going against the wishes of family members. Families were also reportedly not allowed to take their loved ones’ ashes. This heartbreaking incident devastated proponents of democracy and peace in Myanmar as uplifting drawings and various art forms commemorated their passing. The incident spoke volumes to the type of legacy the junta is leaving impressioned upon the younger generations who are willing to do anything for their freedom. May they rest in power.
The United Nations Special Envoy, Christine Schraner Burgener, expressed further concern for the situation in Myanmar, especially amid rising COVID-19 cases stating: “is still very worrisome.” Her concerns are rooted in Min Aung Hlaing’s declaration of a ‘caretaker government’ and concerted attempts to completely dismantle the National League for Democracy. Adding another layer of concern is the appointment by ASEAN’s decision to appoint Brunei’s Foreign Affairs Minister II Erywan Yusof as its special envoy to Myanmar. Civil society has expressed disdain and rejection of this appointment, which is rooted in the fact that ASEAN has failed to do any meaningful dialogue with the National Unity Government. Growing sentiment and distrust of Erywan Yusof has only intensified following news of Brunei’s business ties with the junta.
However, the resistance and growing momentum of the people in Myanmar has not been silenced. Even in the prisons where the junta thinks they have silenced dissidents, their voices are being heard. On the anniversary of the 1988 democracy uprisings, nationwide protests reinforced calls for democracy. In Mandalay’s Obo Prison, prisoners in block three who include mainly young people and students, began chanting pro-democracy cheers. The junta responded with more violence as several were reportedly beaten.
Clashes in ethnic areas are increasing risks faced by the most vulnerable, where for example, according to the Karen Peace Support Network, there are at least 70,000 IDPs in Karen State taking shelter and are afraid to return home. UN figures put displacement at over 200 000 since the military coup.
Weekly Update on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar Post-Coup (August 2-8)2021
/in HR SituationMyanmar civilians reject the junta and their illegal seizure of power. Attempts to legitimize themselves through the newly established ‘caretaker government’ have not fooled anyone. Protests continue, especially on 8-8-88 to mark long standing calls for democracy. More in our weekly update
Myanmar Needs ‘People First’ Assistance
/in NewsBy AUNG MYO MIN 5 August 2021
The people of Myanmar face an unparalleled national three Cs (coup, COVID and climate change) crisis today as we confront a failed military coup, catastrophic third COVID-19 wave, and natural disasters engineered by changes in the climate. As the third wave of COVID-19 spreads rampantly throughout Myanmar, it is possible that the next COVID-19 variant could arise out of Myanmar; this is a major threat to regional and global public health security, a threat that must be immediately addressed by ASEAN and Myanmar’s neighboring countries as well as the international community.
For six months, the military junta has robbed the people of Myanmar of their sense of security and dignity. The military has murdered 940 people, including over 70 children as young as 6 years old. They have arbitrarily detained over 5,400 people. Of those, 19 percent are women who have been at the forefront of leading anti-junta protests on the streets. The Ministry of Women, Youths and Children’s Affairs has reported rape and sexual violence against girls and women in detention. Along with peaceful LGBTIQ protesters, they have been sexually assaulted and harassed, made to conduct humiliating and degrading acts that amount to torture in detention.
Meanwhile, food insecurity is growing, the banking sector is in crisis, and the economy is collapsing with the World Bank forecasting Myanmar’s economy to shrink by 18 percent, and the World Food Program estimating that an additional 3.4 million people will now go hungry. This adds to the decades of military rule, and the mismanagement of essential administration, including in the health sector. Instead of funding education and health, the military focused on stealing wealth from the people of Myanmar to fund their decades-long civil war against ethnic communities, committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in ethnic areas and genocide against the Rohingya with impunity. As a result, more than half a million people are now internally displaced in Myanmar. This is the reason why Myanmar requires such dire levels of international assistance today.
In the face of these challenges, the people of Myanmar, and the National Unity Government (NUG) have repeatedly called on ASEAN and the international community for rapid and expanded humanitarian aid intervention. We welcome the generous support that has been provided by the regional and international community in response to the humanitarian crisis so far, particularly in dialogue with the NUG and NUG-aligned administrative bodies, as well as civil society organizations (CSOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs), but the needs are far greater and require a more robust and coordinated intervention.
Responsibility for this human rights and humanitarian crisis rests squarely with the military junta, which, rather than tackling these issues to the benefit of the people of Myanmar, continues to weaponize COVID-19 and humanitarian aid for its own political gain.
It is vital that humanitarian assistance programs be designed and implemented in a way that ensures that they are not being used to promote or benefit the political or financial interests of the military junta.
ASEAN and the wider international community must coordinate with and empower existing governance structures that are supported by the people in all parts of Myanmar, particularly through NUG-aligned administrative bodies and CSOs/CBOs in ethnic-administered areas for localized humanitarian response to needs on the ground.
The NUG’s people-centered response to humanitarian aid prioritizes the immediate needs of the people of Myanmar. The “People First” approach places the people’s well-being and health services as our first priority, as we endeavor to work with all UN agencies and development partners to bring equitable access to healthcare and COVID-19 vaccination for all people of Myanmar in accordance with international standards, including those laid out by the WHO and UNICEF.
We urge ASEAN, and its humanitarian assistance through the AHA Center, to adhere to certain principles in provision of humanitarian aid. While the people in Myanmar are in desperate need of assistance, support must reach those most in need in a way that does not legitimize the junta, which is the cause of the people’s suffering.
While recognizing that communication with the military may be unavoidable in some instances in providing humanitarian aid, all ASEAN, UN and international partners are strongly urged to avoid communications with the military junta, which will imply or provide it with legitimacy or recognition. To this end, we strongly urge ASEAN to have regular, meaningful and inclusive dialogue with all stakeholders as set out in its five point consensus, in particular by holding dialogue with the NUG and members of the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) as well as ethnic armed organizations.
It is crucial that resources be provided directly to local actors who can flexibly and creatively meet the needs on the ground in a way that does not legitimize or otherwise support the military junta. By resourcing CSOs, CBOs, ethnic administrations, and in some circumstances services through CDM health professionals, ASEAN and international support can meet the needs of the people without causing greater harm. This can also ensure that COVID-19 support and vaccinations are not used as a weapon against the people and those participating in the CDM.
Commitment to providing cross-border assistance is key to meeting the urgent needs of the people of Myanmar. Cross-border aid can be delivered through CSOs and CBOs with decades of experience in provision of essential services, particularly in ethnic administrations. The COVID-19 Task Force set up by the Ministry of Health, NUG and ethnic health organizations is central to such provision of assistance at this time.
Decentralized and localized aid is reflective of the emerging federal democratic union that we aspire to build and cross-border aid is currently essential in the realization of inclusive and equitable provision of aid.
These above positions of the NUG in regards to humanitarian aid are clearly laid out in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management position paper issued on June 19. On July 18, reiterating these calls, the NUG sent a letter to the UN Secretary General, requesting a robust and well-designed intervention from the international community.
Every day that passes without ASEAN and the international community’s urgent action is a day that we lose more lives. The military exists to serve its own interests and has demonstrated over the past six months that it will not act in the best interest of the people of Myanmar. Rather, it serves to perpetuate its own status quo, which will only be further emboldened by the inaction of ASEAN and the wider international community.
The attempted coup has failed. It is the people of Myanmar, despite the immense challenges and against all odds, who are keeping the future of Myanmar from falling into decades-long military rule once again. But we require immediate support.
ASEAN must act, and it must act NOW. Not only for the sake of the people of Myanmar but for the sake of ASEAN. Their continuing insistence on working through the junta is an affront to its own founding Charter, with its declaration of “adhering to the principles of democracy, the rule of law and good governance, respect for and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms”.
History is repeating itself once again. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing is an aspiring dictator, a third-generation military chief who is following in the footsteps of previous dictators, appointing himself as the “caretaker” of Myanmar. This is a threat to global stability and security, and while ASEAN has an important role to play, the world must no longer wait for ASEAN to act. The current human rights, humanitarian and COVID crisis requires robust and immediate action by the UN Secretary General and the UN Security Council. Their immediate action is needed to save lives.
Aung Myo Min is Minister of Human Rights in the National Unity Government of Myanmar.
Irrawaddy News
Myanmar human rights crisis needs solidarity-based approach
/in NewsThe people of Myanmar are facing a humanitarian catastrophe, with large-scale suffering caused by violence and displacement, an economic and food security crisis, and a public health emergency within which a deadly new wave of Covid-19 is wreaking havoc.
Myanmar is in dire need of humanitarian aid. But this aid needs to be politically sensitive.
It is essential to “frame” Myanmar’s current humanitarian crisis as a political and human rights crisis. Indeed – as highlighted by Professor Hugo Slim, a specialist in the ethics of war and humanitarianism – Myanmar is facing a political emergency in which a civil resistance movement is legitimately opposing a violent regime.
Myanmar has a long history of conflict between the Tatmadaw (armed forces) and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) struggling for self-determination in border areas. But if international actors frame the whole of the situation in Myanmar as the result of conflict (or, worse, “ethnic conflict”), it makes it far too easy for the military-run State Administration Council to deny any responsibility.
Instead, what is needed is recognition that, first, the humanitarian crisis cannot be isolated from what is a human-rights crisis driven by a military bent on terrorizing local populations to retain power; and, second, that deeply embedded structural violence and injustices lie at the root of Myanmar’s decades-long conflicts.
“Framing” the crisis in Myanmar as a political and human-rights crisis is obviously important from a moral perspective. It is also essential for the development of humanitarian programs.
Indeed, any humanitarian intervention in a political crisis will inevitably have political impacts. And any intervention in a conflict situation “will inevitably have an impact on the peace and conflict environment – positive or negative, direct or indirect, intentional or unintentional.”
The decisions that international donors and aid organizations make in Myanmar therefore carry heavy consequences.
The military has already blocked the delivery of humanitarian aid in many ethnic areas, as well as deliberately destroying food and medical supplies, diverting aid away from its intended recipients, and attacking aid workers. These acts constitute violations of international humanitarian law.
Myanmar soldiers on the march amid an anti-coup protest. Image: Getty via AFP / Hkun Lat
There are also major political and ethical implications in maintaining any kind of relationship that might signal international recognition of the State Administration Council.
For one – and even if this is not the intention of the agencies involved – international aid could legitimize a regime that is committing widespread and systematic attacks against the Myanmar people, which amount to crimes against humanity.
Second, if international agencies are seen as “siding” with the State Administration Council, this may sow distrust among local populations who overwhelmingly oppose the coup.
Third, this could create major tensions within aid agencies themselves – with many local staff opposing the State Administration Council.
In Myanmar’s political minefield, no matter how much international actors claim to be neutral, how they channel aid will not be perceived as neutral. Attempts at neutrality can also do real harm, particularly if – by not taking a stand or by having their aid politicized by the military regime – international actors end up emboldening and enabling those behind Myanmar’s human-rights crisis.
At the same time, as Hugo Slim highlights, “neutral humanitarian action is one version of humanitarianism – not the only version” – and it is not necessary to be neutral to be a good humanitarian.
The debate about humanitarian neutrality is far from new in Myanmar, with neutrality having been used in the past to justify shifts in international aid.
In the 1990s and 2000s, when Myanmar was under military rule, international donors provided aid in ways that in essence bypassed the junta – either by funding international non-governmental organizations or UN agencies operating inside Myanmar and/or by funding “cross-border aid.” These approaches were shaped by isolationist policies and concerns that aid would be misappropriated by and bolster an illegitimate military regime.
Cross-border aid organizations include health, education and other service provision “wings” of ethnic armed organizations, along with community-based organizations that serve local communities in border areas under EAO control.
Rebel soldiers of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) manning rifles on a supply route from Laiza, a KIA-controlled stronghold in Myanmar’s northern Kachin state on the border with China. Photo: AFP/Patrick Bodenham
Rebel soldiers of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) manning rifles on a supply route from Laiza, a KIA-controlled stronghold in Myanmar’s northern Kachin state on the border with China. Photo: AFP / Patrick Bodenham
They channel international assistance into Myanmar from a management and logistics base in a neighboring country (commonly, Thailand), but their staff come from and work within ethnic communities inside Myanmar.
In the past, donors described funding for cross-border aid as a way to support actors who were seen as legitimate “agents of change” in Myanmar.This amounted to a “solidarist” approach “employing humanitarian action within a political strategy on behalf of victims.” But when donors’ political aims in Myanmar shifted, so too did definitions of legitimate humanitarian action.
When Thein Sein’s government came to power in 2011, donors were encouraged by indications of political change in Myanmar and keen to engage with the new reformist leadership. Major Western donors were also influenced by broader geopolitical considerations, as they attempted to counter China’s influence in the region and to compete for stakes in Myanmar’s developing market economy.
Many donors shifted to channeling aid through official mechanisms inside Myanmar. In this evolving politics of international aid, cross-border aid organizations faced significant funding cuts. These cuts were often justified by claims that cross-border organizations were too political, or non-neutral, with the latter becoming synonymous, in the lexicon of many influential stakeholders at the time, with “un-humanitarian.”
Nevertheless, over the past decade, ethnic and community-based service providers have continued to provide essential services to local populations in border areas.
With conflict and displacement now increasing in the border areas, and with Civil Disobedience Movement members and other civilians from urban areas fleeing to areas controlled by EAOs, ethnic and community-based service providers are facing increased demand for their services. Some of these organizations are also at the forefront of responding to Covid-19.
These organizations therefore have the human resources and networks in place to respond in Myanmar’s current crisis. But they are in desperate need of funding. Funding them would obviously not be a neutral act.
But rather than trying to be neutral, what is important is that international donors and aid organizations do no harm. To achieve this, priority should be given to support that will not legitimize the State Administration Council.
At the same time, priority should be given to working with community-level and civil-society actors in ways that enable the provision of life-saving assistance and that demonstrate real commitment to decolonizing aid. As Myanmar activist Khin Ohmar argues, working around ethnic and community-based organizations rather than with them “represents a continued colonization of aid practices – a denial of locals’ agency.”
This picture taken on July 14, 2021, shows people waiting to fill up empty oxygen canisters outside a factory in Yangon, amid a surge in the number of Covid-19 coronavirus cases. Photo: AFP / Ye Aung Thu
To assist populations in conflict-affected border areas, international donors should fund cross-border aid, and international NGOs and UN bodies should work with ethnic and community-based service providers as equal partners, supporting the distribution of aid through these organizations.
To address the Covid-19 crisis, support should be coordinated with the Covid-19 Task Force, formed by the National Unity Government and ethnic health organizations.
This is important to address immediate humanitarian needs, but also to contribute to longer-term development and peace-building aims.
Myanmar’s military coup and defunct peace process highlight what many had said all along: that equitable development and lasting peace will never be achieved without real, systemic change – without reducing the control of the Bamar military elite over the state and without recognizing and strengthening ethnic service and governance systems.
Supporting and building the sustainability of ethnic and community-based service systems will help to address some of the structural inequities and injustices that have fed into decades of conflict in Myanmar.
At the same time, populations in more central, government-controlled areas are also in dire need of humanitarian aid. To access these populations, international NGOs and UN agencies should listen to civil society and community-level actors, and work with these actors in ways that limit involvement from the State Administration Council and that enable true localization of humanitarian decision-making and responses.
Moreover, with Myanmar’s current Covid-19 crisis presenting severe risks for the wider region, there is a clear impetus for a regional response.
Diplomatic and political pressure must be exerted by international donor countries on Myanmar’s neighbors, to allow for unrestricted cross-border humanitarian operations. At the same time, pressure must also be exerted on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and neighboring countries to help negotiate access for the Covid-19 response and advocate for the protection of health workers across the country.
With Myanmar’s human-rights crisis forcing international actors to recognize that aid is politicized and has political impacts, international donors and aid organizations must remain committed to provided life-saving humanitarian aid.
But in doing so, they must also demonstrate solidarity with the people of Myanmar, who have overwhelmingly rejected the military regime and continue to suffer because of its violent actions.
The full version of this article was originally published by Melbourne Asia Review, Asia Institute, University of Melbourne.
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