Cruel Burma regime bans mercy

I HAVE been working with displaced people from Burma on the Thai-Burma border for the last ten years. The two things that have never stopped amazing me are the inhumanity of the Burmese regime and the resilience and compassion of the people in the face of the regime's cruelty.

My heart is filled with examples that I will never forget: the forced recruitment of child soldiers, the mismanagement of the country's rice supplies so that the majority of people cannot afford to eat properly, teachers setting up classes days after the Burmese regime has burned down their village with the blackboard propped up against a tree in the ashes, and recently the people and monks who so bravely demonstrated in September, knowing that the most likely outcome was arrests and death.

I work at the Mae Tao Clinic, a clinic set up by Dr Cynthia Maung (winner of several International Human Rights Awards) in 1989 to treat displaced people from Burma who have been fleeing to Thailand since that time. In recent weeks members of the clinic, together with several other Burmese community organisations based in Thailand, established the Emergency Assistance Team – Burma (Eat-Burma), to help to get emergency relief to the areas worst hit by the cyclone.

Surely by now, the inhumanity of the Burmese regime is recognised globally as unquestionable. They are blocking supplies to people in need. When the communities try to organise themselves to clean up the dead bodies, the government stops them.

Burmese doctors who are ready to travel to Bogalay and Laputta (where unofficial estimates say that 180,000 have died) are refused travel permits.

Outrageously, the government stages propaganda photo shoots of them handing out aid to people but once the cameras are off, they take it back.

The people are dying, not because of any cyclone but because of the Burmese military's absolute neglect of its people.

In the face of these obstacles, the people are organising to help each other themselves. Eat-Burma has reached out using our established underground networks to get food, water, shelter and medicine to those most in need. We now have 18 teams who work through monasteries, churches, health worker networks, families and other means.

It is strange work being part of an emergency assistance coordination team, when we are coordinating our work via secret phone calls, messages from inside Burma, clandestine documentation smuggled out of Burma and hurried meetings with those who bring news to Thailand from the affected areas.

We try to learn from other more experienced international relief teams what a disaster response should look like. But no-one so far has ever experienced working in a disaster affected country where the regime refuses most external aid, forbids local people from helping and does next to nothing to help the people themselves.

This is indeed a complex emergency. The severity of the disaster and death tolls is compounded by the years of neglect of the regime. People who already did not have enough to eat, now have nothing. Roads are blocked because of storm damage, but they were already of poor quality.

The regime is restricting people from moving to safer places because, under the dictatorship, there has never been freedom of movement. There is a risk of an increase in infectious diseases, but these rates were already among the highest in the world because the dictatorship spends a tiny portion of its annual budget on health and education and, in order to subjugate the people, the majority on the military.

Children will be orphaned by the cyclone. However, the military's actions have already orphaned thousands. Refugees displaced by the disaster will start fleeing to neighbouring countries who are loathe to take them. They have been fleeing into neighbouring countries since 1988.

In short, Cyclone Nargis is a terrible natural disaster, but the regime has turned the aftermath into a nationwide man-made disaster. Some Burmese people believe that Nargis happened because the military violated the most sacred institution in the country by killing monks who took to the streets for peaceful demonstrations. But some ask why didn't it hit Nyapyidaw where the government headquarters are located. That would have been true justice.

All the people from Burma that I work with are hoping that this is the final straw – that, one way or another, the regime will be overthrown. This would be the only justice for the crimes against humanity committed by this despotic dictatorship.

• Visit www.maetaoclinic.org for more about the Mae Tao Clinic, or e-mail Lisa at [e-mail] to support Eat-Burma.


IT'S THE BIGGEST EMOTIONAL CHALLENGE I'VE EVER FACED
A CHARITY worker is preparing to jet out to Burma tomorrow to help thousands of families hit by the devastating cyclone.

Jess Camburn, from Drem in East Lothian, was given just a few days' notice when she was asked to join an emergency response team for Save the Children.

The former Edinburgh University student will be one of the few aid workers who have managed to get visas for Burma. The charity estimates as many as 216,000 people were killed by the cyclone which hit two weeks ago. Millions of people are in desperate need of help.

Jess will be joining a team to assess the most urgent needs and help access funding from around the world. She has already worked for the charity in Afghanistan but said she was prepared for a culture shock.

The 29-year-old, currently working with a youth project in Wales, admitted she felt "daunted" by the challenge, although she has already completed a tough training programme.

She said: "The call just came as I was packing my bags to run a workshop with young people. I knew I could be called at any moment but to be honest, I never thought I'd be asked to join the Burma team. After watching all the terrible images on the TV, my gut reaction was to say 'yes' immediately.

Save the Children already has 500 staff working in Burma, and Jess is one of another 15 or 20 being sent out. She said: "Everybody has been working flat out to reach vulnerable children and their families since the cyclone hit. I hope that our arrival will give the team the crucial support that they need.

"The first priorities are shelter, food and clean water to drink. We need to get things like water purification tablets and mosquito nets to the people affected.

"I know it's going to be hard work and probably the biggest emotional challenge I have ever faced, but I am honoured to be asked to be part of the team."