CIVIL SOCIETY STATEMENT ON THE VISIT OF HEAD OF OCHA TO MYANMAR

Civil society statement on the visit of Head of OCHA to Myanmar

While noting efforts by UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, to negotiate humanitarian access across Myanmar, including to Rakhine State following deadly Cyclone Mocha, we, the undersigned 513 civil society organizations, are concerned that Mr. Griffiths’ visit lacked substantive achievements and was used as propaganda by the military junta. We urge the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), to officially engage and partner with legitimate stakeholders of Myanmar and civil society service providers to deliver humanitarian assistance.

As Mr. Griffiths’ end-of-visit statement affirmed, “it is critical for us to have the humanitarian space we need for safe, sustained aid deliveries around the country.” Principled humanitarian engagement must see OCHA and other UN humanitarian agencies cut ties with the illegal criminal junta which is weaponizing aid and is the root cause of human suffering in Myanmar. Rather, OCHA must immediately partner with legitimate governance actors that control large parts of the country and deliver aid through local service providers. This includes Ethnic Revolutionary Organizations (EROs), the National Unity Government (NUG), and civil society organizations who have been effectively providing essential services on the ground, including through cross-border channels. Such stakeholders have the access, legitimacy, capacity and, most importantly, trust from the people that the junta simply lacks.

Given that the visit happened three months since Cyclone Mocha devastated communities in Chin and Rakhine States, Sagaing Region and beyond, the junta has proven to have no intention to address the acute needs of affected communities. Rather, OCHA visit has become the military junta’s latest propaganda exercise to attempt to gain international recognition and legitimacy. We are alarmed that OCHA’s statement omits the fact that the cause of the escalating humanitarian crisis is the junta’s violence and atrocities, or that it is the junta’s weaponization of humanitarian assistance that is blocking access to Cyclone Mocha’s victims.

While the junta has restricted humanitarian access and prevented aid from reaching vulnerable communities affected by the natural disaster, it is also the perpetrators of a nationwide man-made humanitarian catastrophe. Its widespread and systematic campaign of arson, military offensives, extrajudicial killings, and aerial attacks on civilians are, according to the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, strong evidence of “increasingly frequent and brazen war crimes.” In addition to these heinous crimes, severe restrictions of humanitarian aid delivery, including targeting aid workers, are the junta’s collective punishment of a population that is rejecting its ongoing brutal attempt to grab power. In his recent report to the 53rd Session of the Human Rights Council, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, outlines how “As part of its attempts to assert control, the military has imposed a range of legal, financial, and bureaucratic requirements on civil society and humanitarian activity that have severely reduced civic space and delivery of life-saving assistance.”

We further note OCHA’s recognition of the Myanmar military’s unconstitutional body of the “State Administration Council” in its statementwhich is inconsistent with the language used by the UN Security Council and UN General Assembly in their resolutions. It also legitimizes Min Aung Hlaing’s claim to be head of government by referring to him as the Chairman of the State Administration Council. We express serious concerns that OCHA’s current approach will embolden the junta to further its war of terror across the nation. Such actions risk exacerbating the humanitarian crisis, the very crisis OCHA is mandated to address and alleviate.

Despite the junta attempting to gain diplomatic legitimacy over this type of visit, OCHA must ensure substantial benefits are provided for the millions of people in dire need of humanitarian assistance as a result of the junta’s violence and atrocities. Access for OCHA staff to parts of Rakhine State and nearby areas is one issue at stake, but so is the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons in central, southeast and northwest Myanmar, where the junta is launching non-stop deliberate attacks on civilians. In these areas, the junta does not have effective control and cannot grant access to affected communities. On the contrary, local governance and civil society actors have been effectively delivering assistance to affected communities, but must be supported by more resources.

OCHA must reflect on its current failed approach and take critical, concrete actions which truly serve Myanmar communities that are in dire need. To fulfill its mandate and principles to do no harm, OCHA must immediately pivot to delivering aid in collaboration or partnership with local humanitarian and civil society groups, ethnic service providers, diaspora communities, local administration forces of the Spring Revolution, members of the Civil Disobedience Movement, EROs, and the NUG who have been effectively providing life-saving services on the ground, including through cross-border channels.

The Myanmar military has a long history of weaponizing humanitarian aid and UN agencies have a long history of being criticized for complicity in military atrocities, all done in the name of access. OCHA can no longer afford to rehash failed models of humanitarianism, and thus tacitly giving credence and status to the illegal military junta. Rather, OCHA must be innovative and supportive of local service providers, as well as engage and collaborate with the legitimate stakeholders of Myanmar. This will ensure the most effective and widespread delivery of humanitarian assistance to affected communities suffering from international crimes committed by a brutal military junta.

or more information, please contact:

Khin Ohmar, Progressive Voice, info@progressive-voice.org
Maw Pray Myar, Karenni National Women’s Organization, praymyarmaw@gmail.com
Nai Aue Mon, Human Rights Foundation of Monland, auemon@rehmonnya.org
Naw Wahku Shee, Karen Peace Support Network, wahku80@gmail.com
Salai Za Uk Ling, Chin Human Rights Organization, zauk@chinhumanrights.org

Signed by 513 Myanmar, regional and international organizations including 260 organizations who have chosen to not disclose their name:

5/ of Zaya State Strike
8888 Generation (New Zealand)
Action Against Myanmar Military Coup (AAMMC)
Action Committee for Democracy Development (Coalition of 14 grassroots networks)
Action Committee of Basic Education Students
Active Youths Kalaymyo
Ah Nah Podcast – Conversation with Myanmar
All Aung Myay Thar San Schools Strike Force
All Burma Democratic Front in New Zealand
All Burma Indigenous People Alliance (ABIPA)
All Burma Student Democratic Front (ABSDF) – Australia Branch
All Young Burmese League (AYBL)
Alliance of Students’ Union – Yangon (ASU-Yangon)
ALTSEAN-Burma
Anti Dictatorship in Burma – DC Metropolitan Area
Anti-coup Forces Coordination Committee (ACFCC -Mandalay)
Anti – Junta Alliance Yangon – AJAY
Anti – Myanmar Military Dictatorship Network (Australia)
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR)
Asia Pacific Solidarity Coalition (APSOC)
Asian Cultural Forum on Development (ACFOD)
Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters
Association Suisse-Birmanie
Associazione per l’Amicizia Italia Birmania “Giuseppe Malpeli”
Athan – Freedom of Expression Activist Organization
Auckland Kachin Community NZ
Auckland Zomi Community
Aung San Suu Kyi Park Norway
Australian Karen Organisation (AKO)
A-Yar -Taw People Strike
Ayeyarwaddy West Development Organisation AWDO (Magway)
Ayeyarwaddy West Development Organisation AWDO (Nagphe)
Back Pack Health Worker Team
Better Burma
Blood Money Campaign
Blooming Padauk
Boat People SOS
Burma Action Ireland
Burma Advocacy Group
Burma Campaign UK
Burma Civil War Museum (BCM)
Burma Lawyer Council (BLC)
Burma Medical Association
Burma Support
Burmese Canadian Network
Burmese Community Development Collaboration (BCDC)
Burmese Community Group (Manawatu, NZ)
Burmese Community Support Group (BCSG)
Burmese Medical Association Australia (BMAA)
Burmese Rohingya Welfare Organisation New Zealand
Burmese Women’s Union
CAN – Myanmar
CDM Medical Network (CDMMN)
CDM Support Organisation Mae Sot
Center For Action Point (CAP)
Chaung Oo Township Youth Strike Committee
Chin Community in Norway
Chin Community of Auckland
Chin Human Rights Organization
Civil Information Network (CIN)
Coalition for Democracy
Coalition Strike Committee – Dawei
Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS)
Community Association Development
Creative Home
CRPH & NUG Supporters Ireland
CRPH Funding Ireland
CRPH Support Group
CRPH, NUG Support Team Germany – Deutschland
Dahnu Youth Organization
Dawei Youths Revolutionary Movement Strike Committee
Democracy for Ethnic Minorities Organization
Democracy, Peace and Women’s Organization
Democratic Party for a New Society, Norway
Democratic Youth Council
Depayin Township Revolution Steering Committee
Doh Atu – Ensemble pour le Myanmar (France)
Earthrights International
Educational Initiatives Prague
Equality Myanmar
Ethnic Youth General Strike Committee (Mandalay)
Federal Corner
Federal Myanmar Benevolence Group (NZ)
Feminist Equality Justice and Peace (Myanmar)
Finland Myanmar Society Ry
Food Not Bombs
Free Burma Campaign (South Africa) (FBC(SA)
Free Rohingya Coalition
Freedom and Labor Action Group (FLAG)
Future Light Center
Future Thanlwin
Gender Equality Network
General Strike Collaboration Committee (GSCC)
General Strike Committee of Basic and Higher Education