The new storm will change the landscape again. Cadre is overwhelmed. The Torch is an omen? The Cadre remains sleepless and is now spooked.
Myanmar Braces for Storm
Outside Aid Efforts Encounter Resistance
From Regime Suspicious of U.S. Intentions
By PATRICK BARTA and KRISHNA POKHAREL
May 14, 2008 2:46 p.m.
As the U.S. and other countries press to get more aid to cyclone-stricken Myanmar, they are struggling to overcome years of antipathy exacerbated by U.S. efforts -- some in recent months -- to help undermine the country's military regime.
Funds from the U.S. government helped finance an underground campaign in Myanmar to convince residents to turn down a new constitution that critics say is designed to boost the power of the junta. The results of the vote, held last Saturday in most parts of the country, are not yet known. But a big vote in favor of the constitution and the regime --with widespread reports of coercion and vote-rigging -- is expected.
Associated Press
Myanmar children lined up to receive water from a local donor on the outskirts of Yangon.
Anti-constitution efforts were backed by the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, D.C., a private nonprofit organization funded by the U.S. government. Brian Joseph, the NED's director for South and Southeast Asia, says the group awarded grants to Myanmar exile groups of about $300,000 to $400,000. Money was used to print newspapers and posters and, among other things, make T-shirts emblazoned with messages urging people to "vote no."
"We are very proud and open about our support for the democracy movement in Burma," said Mr. Joseph.
The juxtaposition of helping foment dissent within Myanmar while also offering aid to its government to help with the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis represents a delicate foreign-policy balancing act for the U.S.
It may also help explain the junta's reluctance to allow in foreign aid workers: Myanmar officials are concerned that it could stimulate a desire for democracy and give political opponents an opportunity to spread anti-regime messages at a time when the nation is reeling. Myanmar says there are at least 34,273 dead and 27,838 missing. The International Red Cross estimated Wednesday that the death toll could reach 127,990. Aid groups and Western officials estimate as many as two million are vulnerable in the Irrawaddy River delta.
Despite all that, the government has continued to block most foreign aid workers from entering the country and has restricted the movements of those that do arrive, tightening access to the affected area.
The U.S. has been one of the major aid donors so far, sending in an additional five flights Wednesday with hygiene kits, food and other supplies, following three such flights earlier this week. U.S. officials said they hoped to schedule more flights, possibly with assistance from the U.S. Navy.
U.S. officials make a clear distinction that the cyclone relief effort is a humanitarian mission solely intended to help the people of Myanmar.
"We have no interest in anything other than saving lives that have been affected by the cyclone," said Michael Turner, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok. "We want to get in and help those that need the help.... Our offer is genuine. It's not about politics." U.S. officials and relief workers in Asia say privately that hard-line messages from Washington have further complicated an already delicate situation.
President Bush earlier this week suggested the Myanmar junta may be "callous" and said the world should "be angry and condemn" the government. His wife, Laura Bush, has described the regime as "inept" for failing to warn its people adequately of the cyclone. Others contend that these messages also served a useful function: A spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations said Mrs. Bush's remarks focused attention on the crisis and the regime, making it impossible for the junta to refuse aid.
The ability of donors to get more aid into the country could be pivotal for avoiding an even greater humanitarian catastrophe, aid officials say. A massive storm system is gathering strength in the region and is expected to dump heavy rains on the cyclone-hit areas in coming days. Yangon residents who traveled to the Irrawaddy delta trying to bring their own supplies said there was a clear lack of adequate aid. A teacher in a relief camp in Bogale said relief efforts were hampered by authorities helping themselves to aid.
"We get a small portion of what we should get. The rest go into their pockets," he said. While victims in temporary camps were being provided with basic food and medical care, he said many outside the camps and in villages away from town "are almost starving or dying of several diseases."
A group formed by Buddhist monks who were forced to leave the country after a state crackdown following September's pro-democracy protests has threatened to stage mass protests inside and outside Myanmar on May 23 unless the government eases its restrictions on foreign aid. The group, the U.S.-based International Burmese Monks Organization, which includes about 400 monks world-wide, has warned that monks will "come out to the streets" that day if more aid workers aren't allowed.
The U.S. has long had frosty relations with the Myanmar junta, in power since 1962. Since then, much contact with the outside world has been cut off. It is accused of widespread human rights abuses. It also refused to hand over power after a 1990 election in which the opposition party won a landslide victory. The U.S. has imposed a series of sanctions and trade restrictions.
Myanmar officials have responded with frostiness of their own. Coverage of the U.S. in the country's tightly controlled state media is consistently negative. A sign erected across from a former U.S. embassy site exhorted citizens to "oppose foreign nations interfering in internal affairs of state" and to "crush all internal and external destructive elements as the common enemy."
Some Myanmar experts hope the arrival of U.S. aid will bring more active engagement between the two countries. One Western diplomat said by phone from Yangon Wednesday that state-owned media included extensive laudatory coverage of the U.S. and its aid, to the surprise of some observers.
"This is the first time in collective memory where there was something positive said about the United States," the diplomat said. But a key sticking point is the fact that the U.S. continues to provide financial support to a large network of dissidents outside the country, as do sources in other Western countries.
Associated Press
Bottlenecks, poor logistics, limited infrastructure and the military government's visa restrictions have obstructed foreign aid.
Other recipients of U.S. support include a magazine named Irrawaddy, published from Thailand. It regularly prints reports considered hostile to the junta and has a network of undercover reporters inside the country.
The NED was set up in the 1980s to strengthen democratic institutions around the world. It receives an annual appropriation from the U.S. Congress and offers grants to civil society organizations world-wide. By order of Congress, some of the money is "earmarked" specifically for Myanmar, with more than $3 million spent on the country last year.
According to the group's Web site, past grants have included an $80,000 award to among other things "organize" a campaign in Southeast Asia "to secure the release" of Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and leader of Myanmar's opposition movement who is under house arrest in Yangon.
Another award went to "educate monks and Buddhist lay people about the nonviolent struggle for democracy in Burma" and otherwise "organize the Buddhist community inside Burma." Buddhist monks led the pro-democracy uprising last year.
Such support is part of "a deliberate policy to undermine the military regime and bring about mass popular protests" in Myanmar, says Monique Skidmore, a professor at Australian National University. Burmese exiles say the flow of money from the U.S. and elsewhere has been critical in recent months in the aftermath of the pro-democracy protests last year.
Among other things, they say, money from NED and elsewhere helped pay for a satellite hookup at a "media hideout" in Myanmar that allows them to send out photos and other reports from cyclone-devastated areas without using government Internet facilities. It also helped pay for safe houses for dissidents escaping from last year's crackdown.
--Louise Radnofsky contributed to this article.
No comments:
Post a Comment