Disaster and the refusal of the International assistance:
My government that I hate
By Naw Cha Mu
“Iwas sitting on the roof with my three
kids and my wife was holding my 14
days baby in her arm, at that moment I realized that we will be away from each other, so I asked my older son to pray, suddenly the cyclone hit us and we all fell apart. I was holding my three kids and drowning but I didn’t know where my wife and my youngest kid were. Unfortunately, my three kids did not survive with me. “Even myself had to survive very hard at that moment. In the next day I just found my wife’s dead body and I couldn’t find any of my kids’ bodies.”
Saw Wah 44 a Karen man who lives in Laputta, from the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta, who was survive from the Cyclone Nargis but he lost his wife and his three kids due to cyclone Nagis. His family, relatives, homeland and his friends have been already wiped out by the storm and water waves. He has arrived Mae Lah Karen refugee camp which is located in Thailand, with his brother and some relatives on the 28th of May. “When we arrive there are many people visiting to encourage, and provide basic house supplies for us, so living in refugee camp is better than living in Burma.” he added.
“I feel wretched about being a citizen of Burma, because the government of Burma ignore us even when we are gravely affect by the cyclone Nargis, have nothing to eat, to wear, to live or to drink. Beside, the regime places obstacles to the relief supplies both from the foreign countries and individual.” he added.
There are million of dollars and humanitarian aid has been donated to help the cyclone victims, but hundred of thousand have been still starving. UN statistics say assistance has reached 1.3 million people out of 2.5 million affected by the cyclone. The military regime has been denying the relief supplies need of the survivors and continue to place obstacles to international humanitarian aid distribution by any means. The United States has to withdraw their ships which carrying relief supplies to help the survivors of Cyclone Nargis, after the regime refuse to allow them in their country.
"I feel wretched about being a citizen of Burma, because the government of Burma ignore us..."
In addition, the Burmese regime state that all relief groups must receive travel permission and aid distribution clearance from the authorities. The relief supplies would be handed by the military themselves directly to the survivors. Yet, the regime also arrested the activists who provided aid to cyclone survivors in the Irrawaddy delta. Burma’s most popular comedian, Zarganar, who was distributed the relief supplies to the cyclone victims was arrested by the regime. He also give an interview to the foreign media outlet concerning on the regime unreasoned to the survivors of the cyclone. He had been detained by the regime last protest in September for providing food to the Buddhist monks who were anti government.
By looking at this situation how cunning of the regime respond to the assistance to their country and its own citizen. If they don’t allow the humanitarian aid from foreign countries or private donors, do they give full assistant to the survivors? If so why people spend most of their time beside the road and ask for food and starving?
“We just heard from radio program of British Broadcast Corporation (BBC), Voice of American VOA and Radio Free Asian (RFA) that the relief supplies will be brough by the foreign countries to the cyclone victims, but in reality we didn’t receive any relief supplies.” Said Saw wah.
The survivors were greatly relying on private donors for their daily sustenance. In addition, some private donors have offered residents farming equipment and tools—just in time for planting this year’s paddy fields. The private donors have to sneak into the affected areas to provide assistant to the survivors secretly. If the regime knows they will be surely arrested and put in jail for the reason that they broke the law not informing the authorities working in area.
The regime neither gave any protection nor provided the safety for those people who resided in the affected areas. Instead of providing the relief emergency as the priority, the military regime has been attentively working on the constitutional referendum for the stability of their power. While millions of people are terribly suffering and need urgent assistant, the regime forcefully still conducted the referendum on May 10 as they have planed.
Even after the cyclone Nargis the survivors faced difficulty due to lack of responsibility and the ignorance by the Burmese military regime. People lost their lives due to the shortage of food and drinking water. Some people died of dysentery, diarrhea and related diseases as the results of the people had to eat wet and spoil rice.
“No water to drink, just rely on the coconut fruit for two or three days. After coconut gone we have to dig a hole to get water from it. Furthermore we had no clothes and stay with the same cloth for weeks. We didn’t receive any aid relief from the government. But after one week we got some aid relief supplies from the Christian religious groups.” Said Saw Wah. “There are many survivors shelter in the monastery and fed by monks.”
Burma’s junta faced worldwide criticism after the May 2-3 storm for failing to speed up aid to cyclone survivors and initially barring foreign aid. The immediate priority of humanitarian relief need to the survivors and the regime need to remove restrictions on the distribution of international aid. The international organizations need to keep a close eye on this military regime and alert if they act improperly and interfere.
“The military regime is the canniest government and I really hate them. They just want to exist just their military community and they consider other people like us animals. I don’t want to stay under control of this government, if I continue I will never
To read the other articles in the June 2008 Newsletter please click on the links below:
