Aid Accountability Essential After Quake

One month after the devastating magnitude 7.7 and 6.4 earthquakes hit central Myanmar, international aid responses are failing to meet dire humanitarian needs and the junta is blocking, weaponizing, and squandering aid supplies and funds—exacerbating already severe suffering of Myanmar people. International aid organizations and donors must take responsibility to ensure relief reaches the people and is not weaponized, ensuring transparency and observing due diligence in aid donation and distribution. As called for by 270 civil society organizations in a joint statement, to reach those most in need, international aid must be provided through border-based channels in collaboration with the National Unity Government (NUG) and Ethnic Resistance Organizations (EROs), utilizing locally led humanitarian aid provision mechanisms providing life-saving assistance on the ground.

Amid the quakes’ devastation, the junta has repeatedly and systematically blocked and weaponized aid, preventinghumanitarian supplies reaching those in desperate need. Whilst making pleas to the international community for relief and recovery support, the junta’s true intentions are evident in its bombarding of civilians with at least 349 airstrikes plus ground attacks, killing 264 people since the earthquake despite announcing a putative “ceasefire”. Excessive and illegitimate administrative procedures imposed on aid distribution has delayed and prohibited supplies, with convoys stopped at junta checkpoints preventing local humanitarians from delivering timely supplies—particularly to rural areas to which the junta blocks access. Further, a requirement imposed for affected civilians to register with junta-appointed local administrators to receive aid has prevented those fearing consequences of real or alleged association with resistance groups upon registering their identities from accessing relief assistance. In addition, there were reported cases of junta’s militias not only blocking aid but also intimidating, harassing, assaulting and extorting money from local responders, including the ongoing forced conscription. As a result of these restrictions, volunteers in Sagaing and Mandalay Regions and Shan State told RFA that over 10 local humanitarian groups were forced to cease work. As Khin Ohmar, Chairperson of Progressive Voice, wrote for DVB, “There can be no effective, ethical recovery if the architects of the suffering are allowed to control the [humanitarian] response while they continue to destroy lives through bombings and killings.”

Exacerbating the existing junta-created human rights and humanitarian crisis, the earthquakes on 28 March and the more than 140 aftershocks have caused extreme loss of life and destruction—killing over 4,400 people and injuring 11,300 others, according to latest estimates. Primarily across worst-affected Sagaing and Mandalay Regions, the NUG estimates 33,365 homes, 3,930 religious buildings, 6,501 infrastructure facilities, and 522 schools were damaged or destroyed by the quakes, with astronomical costs of demolition and construction equipment obstructing recovery efforts. An estimated 17 million people now require humanitarian assistance—many of whom were already in dire need prior to the earthquake due to the junta’s ground and aerial attacks. For the tens of thousands of people displaced, including over 200,000 people living in temporary makeshift shelters, extreme heat, unseasonable heavy rains, food and drinking water shortages, and lacking healthcare and medicines, are causing severe suffering. With monsoon season rapidly approaching and displaced people facing poor sanitation services and lacking clean water due to damaged infrastructure and dried up water sources caused by the quakes, risks of water-borne disease outbreaks are acute. On top of losing loved ones, homes, and belongings, people are severely traumatized. In addition, there is increased risk of sexual and gender-based violence towards women and children and further discrimination against religious and gender minorities in aid distribution and other assistance if left unaccountable and non-transparent.

While affected people on the ground are reporting on the junta’s manipulation, obstruction and weaponization of aid, international aid organizations and donor states are failing to ensure accountable, adequate, or effective distribution of their donated funds and in-kind donations. Despite millions of US dollars in international aid being allocated, UN High Commissioner for Refugees reports that 32 out of the 58 earthquake-affected townships have still not received any essential relief supplies and local reports indicate an absence of international aid reaching across many affected areas. As occurred in previous disaster responses, World Food Programme emergency food rations are not being seen distributed but being sold on the black market and thus failing to reach those who most desperately need them. Millions of US dollars in international aid are being donated to the junta and its auxiliaries such as the Myanmar Red Cross Society, bolstering its ability to weaponize and blockade aid­­ thus preventing effective distribution. As the junta attempts to capitalize on this moment of vulnerability to weaponize and manipulate aid and garner false legitimacy in international arenas, the international community’s humanitarian response must ensure transparency and accountability to actively prevent these repulsive intentions. In practice, the junta and junta-controlled or affiliated groups cannot reach those most in need in areas controlled by resistance groups.

Meanwhile, working tirelessly despite junta-imposed restrictions and frequent attacks, community-based organizations, Civil Disobedience Movement medical professionals, ethnic health providers, and wider civil society are mobilizing and working in close collaboration with one another. This is occurring not only to ensure emergency relief but also to rebuild through a self-mobilizing people-to-people approach with funding support from like-minded individuals and small donors from their trusted circles. Thus, it is essential that aid from large donors be distributed through local groups, frontline responders, and border-based channels who have the trust of communities and expertise to effectively distribute aid on the ground. International donors, including states and organizations, must work in close collaboration with legitimate Myanmar actors—including the NUG, EROs, and civil society—to ensure emergency aid and longer-term rehabilitation programs do not cause further harm but are successfully implemented to help people as intended.

As expressed in a recent report by the Network for Human Rights Documentation Burma, “Even amidst the junta’s brutality and chaos following a national emergency, civilians remain resilient and continue to actively demand a future where the military neither rules nor influences their lives.” It is time the international community honored that resilience by ensuring aid responses align with the Myanmar people’s needs and their desires for a new Myanmar, democratic and free from military tyranny.

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[1] One year following the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, the former military junta changed the country’s name from Burma to Myanmar overnight. Progressive Voice uses the term ‘Myanmar’ in acknowledgement that most people of the country use this term. However, the deception of inclusiveness and the historical process of coercion by the former State Peace and Development Council military regime into usage of ‘Myanmar’ rather than ‘Burma’ without the consent of the people is recognized and not forgotten. Thus, under certain circumstances, ‘Burma’ is used.

Progressive Voice is a participatory, rights-based policy research and advocacy organization that was born out of Burma Partnership. Burma Partnership officially ended its work on October 10, 2016 transitioning to a rights-based policy research and advocacy organization called Progressive Voice. For further information, please see our press release “Burma Partnership Celebrates Continuing Regional Solidarity for Burma and Embraces the Work Ahead for Progressive Voice.”