Junta’s Deepening of Typhoon Devastation
“The international community must recognize that the junta itself is the true disaster and, thus, must not allow themselves to be repeatedly used by the junta’s propagandized humanitarian charade. Instead, the world must utilize existing locally led networks, particularly border-based channels, operated by Myanmar’s frontline humanitarian responders.”
Super Typhoon Yagi struck in early September, wreaking havoc across China, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Thailand. In Myanmar, where people are already suffering from the military junta’s terror campaign, the population now faces severe flooding. The crisis is deepening as the junta’s atrocities and aid restrictions, including its barring of people-to-people aid delivery, exacerbate suffering, leaving the most vulnerable without emergency relief. The international community, including donors and international non-governmental organizations, must fundamentally change their approach to aid in Myanmar and prioritize funding aid through locally led border channels to ensure that those in need receive urgent emergency assistance.
Flooding wiped out entire villages overnight across 65 townships in Bago, Magwe, Mandalay, and Sagaing Regions, as well as Karen, Karenni, Rakhine, and eastern and southern Shan States. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), approximately 887,000 people, including war-affected internally displaced persons, have been impacted—likely a gross underestimation of the actual number. In Karenni State, according to the Interim Executive Council of Karenni State’s Department of Humanitarian and Rehabilitation, 28,735 people across five townships have been affected and in urgent need of basic supplies and shelters, whereas OCHA stated that more than 6,500 people were affected in Demawso, Pruso, and Shadaw Townships in Karenni State—a clear disconnect from the figures coming from the ground.
Additionally, the junta’s communication blackouts further exacerbated the crisis as people were left without access to early warnings and no time to prepare. Otherwise, many lives could have been saved. One survivor of the landslide in Thabyaepin Village, Yamethin Township, in Mandalay Region, reported that there were no phone lines or internet, leaving them unaware of the heavy rainfall projections.
Furthermore, in Loikaw Town, Karenni State, the military junta barred rescue teams at a junta-run checkpoint. Thousands of residents in the town still urgently need to evacuate as water levels are rising in low-lying wards. Similarly, in Yedashe Township, Bago Region, the junta established checkpoints and restricted the amount of relief food supplies. A local resident reported, “The soldiers inspect everything to ensure that none of it is going to revolutionary groups. Rice mills are also prohibited from processing large quantities of rice.”
Infamous for its sham relief efforts and intentional information blackouts, the Myanmar military is steeped in duplicity, exploiting adversity to advance its political interests. During Cyclone Nargis in 2008, which killed 140,000 people and left 2.4 million affected, the military rushed a fraudulent referendum for the 2008 Constitution in which cyclone victims were given relief in exchange for their votes. A similar pattern occurred with Cyclone Mocha in May 2023, which claimed over 400 lives, mostly Rohingya. The junta denied access to UN agencies, arrested individuals attempting to deliver aid, and threatened the media for reporting on the devastation. Sticking to the same playbook, this time, on 17 September, junta leader Min Aung Hlaing stated that those in relief camps must return home as quickly as possible before the population census scheduled for 1–15 October. This directive shows once again the junta’s merciless and reckless disregard for people’s lives, treating people as mere pawns for its political agenda.
Meanwhile, certain members of the international community keep trying to bet solely on the military junta—the main perpetrator of the crisis—by delivering aid directly into its hands, despite knowing full well that the junta has a track record of intentionally restricting access and weaponizing aid against the people. It is vital, therefore, that aid donors ask important questions to ensure the transparency of this aid provision, and take steps to ensure that it will not be weaponized.
For example, the Norwegian Embassy in Yangon, in partnership with the UN Office for Project Services, announced a USD 500,000 donation, claiming it would reach communities most affected by the floods. Ironically, the distribution is set to be carried out through the Myanmar Red Cross Society (MRCS). This raises serious concerns since the MRCS has traditionally been an auxiliary of the military. This poses security risks for recipients, while creating opportunities for the junta to weaponize aid to advance its political interests.
Meanwhile, India and the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management have delivered relief to Yangon and Naypyidaw international airports, where it has been received by the junta. Their support seeks to enhance their own image but a critical question remains: How can this relief effectively reach the communities in need? Similar questions must be raised to the European Union and the UN World Food Programme, which are gearing up to provide emergency food assistance to flood-affected communities in Myanmar.
While emergency relief is crucial after the devastating typhoon, the international community must not overlook the broader underlying issues of the crisis, particularly the military junta—the main perpetrator. A proactive, holistic approach is essential to tackle the crisis’ root causes; one-time reactive measures only provide temporary fixes. Myanmar’s humanitarian crisis extends far beyond Typhoon Yagi: It is rooted in a systematic disaster resulted from the military’s terror campaign before and after the attempted coup.
Time is of the essence. It is imperative to move beyond conventional emergency response approaches. The international community must recognize that the junta itself is the true disaster and, thus, must not allow themselves to be repeatedly used by the junta’s propagandized humanitarian charade. Instead, the world must utilize existing locally led networks, particularly border-based channels, operated by Myanmar’s frontline humanitarian responders.
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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.
Resources from the past week
Statements and Press Releases
Airbus’ Chinese partner AVIC complicit in Myanmar military’s international crimes
By Justice For Myanmar and Info Birmanie
By Myanmar National Organizing Committee for ACSC/APF
Statement of the National Unity Consultative Council on Flood Disasters
By National Unity Consultative Council
ရေဘေးဒုက္ခဖြစ်စဉ်များအပေါ် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအတိုင်ပင်ခံကောင်စီ၏ ထုတ်ပြန်ချက်
By National Unity Consultative Council
Joint Statement on the Widespread Flooding in Myanmar
By National Unity Government (Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management), Karen National Union, Karenni National Progressive Party, Chin National Front
နိုင်ငံအနှံ့ ရေကြီးရေလျှံမှုဘေးအန္တရာယ် ကျရောက်မှုနှင့်စပ်လျဉ်း၍ ပူးတွဲကြေညာချက်
By National Unity Government (Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management), Karen National Union, Karenni National Progressive Party, Chin National Front
International Cross-Border Response to Typhoon Yagi Urgently Needed
By Special Advisory Council for Myanmar
WFP to Launch Myanmar Flood Response to People Affected by Typhoon Yagi
By World Food Programme
Reports
By Justice For Myanmar and Info Birmanie
Report on Human Rights Violations in Karenni State (2024)
By Union of Karenni State Youth
ကရင်နီပြည်တွင် ၂၀၂၄ ခုနှစ်အတွင်း ဖြစ်ပွားသောလူ့အခွင့်ရေးချိုးဖောက်မှုအစီရင်ခံစာ
By Union of Karenni State Youth
Myanmar: Flood Situation Report #2, 20 September 2024
By UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
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.”
