Observers fear that aid from Thailand’s new humanitarian aid program to war-torn Myanmar will be misused due to the role of the junta-run Myanmar Red Cross Society (as distinct from the International Committee of the Red Cross).
The UN agency said fighting since the February 2021 coup has displaced some 2.4 million people, with a quarter of them at risk of severe food insecurity. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said 18.6 million people in the country of 54 million are in need of assistance. Myanmar’s military has been accused of “shameless” war crimes and crimes against humanity in its war against resistance, and researchers estimate it has killed thousands of civilians.
The ten countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations approved Thailand’s proposal to establish a “humanitarian corridor” to provide assistance to Myanmar through Thailand. The first convoy of 10 trucks crossed into Myanmar on March 25, carrying 4,000 packages of mainly It’s food and water aid. The Thai border town of Mae Sot, where the Thai Red Cross handed over the cargo to the Myanmar Red Cross.
Thai officials said at the handover ceremony that the packages will be delivered to about 20,000 displaced people around three towns in Myanmar’s eastern Karen state, and if the first delivery goes well, the program may be expanded to other areas.
However, aid groups and experts say relying on the military regime and its affiliates, including the Myanmar Red Cross, to distribute aid to fighting victims puts aid programs at risk.
“This organization was handpicked and directed by the military regime, so this is not a good idea [for them] Put aid in the hands of … victims of the military regime,” said Sang Aung, executive director of the New Myanmar Foundation, a charity on the Thai-Myanmar border that helps families fleeing fighting.
Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is leading the program, declined VOA’s request for an interview.
Its reliance on the Myanmar Red Cross to distribute supplies within Myanmar worries many aid experts.
Adelina Kamal, the former head of ASEAN’s aid agency, the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Center, said any aid agency run by Myanmar’s military regime cannot be trusted to distribute aid equitably.
“In conflicts and crises like Myanmar, how aid is delivered and who is behind it is often much more important than the aid itself. If aid is actually delivered by the people who caused the crisis in the first place, then it is likely that it will actually Being used as a tool to gain popularity or … to show that they are trying to help the population they are trying to kill,” she said.
Kamal and others worry the junta may also “weaponize” aid, directing it toward communities it favors rather than those it dislikes. Many, if not most, of the displaced have taken refuge in parts of the country controlled by armed groups that the junta is fighting.
“When we talk about the weaponization of aid, it can actually take many forms…for example, after Cyclone Mocha hit Rakhine State, it was actually the military blocking aid access, or choosing who actually should Who receives or targets assistance, how and where it should actually be delivered,” Kamal said.
Last May, a month after Cyclone Moka struck Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, the United Nations said the regime abruptly cut off humanitarian access to the region, “crippling efforts to distribute life-saving aid to affected communities.” “.
San Aung agreed that the Myanmar Red Cross lacked the necessary independence to ensure aid reaches those who need it most.
“Humanitarian aid… must be delivered to the target areas without any bias or bias towards any organization or any person. But the Myanmar Red Cross Society, they are biased and they must follow the instructions of the military regime,” he said, calling on Myanmar’s former name.
“So we are very concerned that humanitarian aid could be used, e.g. [for] People who support the junta or… cronies,” he added.
Thailand said ASEAN aid agencies will monitor the delivery of aid to ensure fair distribution of aid.
However, Kamal, who led the agency for four years until 2021, said the agency was not designed to handle the role.
She said the agency was designed to respond to natural disasters, not political crises like the one in Myanmar. The agency’s board of directors includes officials from ASEAN countries, including those from Thailand and Myanmar’s military juntas, meaning the agency is unlikely to be a key issue if major issues arise, she said.
Thailand says its aid corridor’s goals include encouraging peace talks between the military junta and the resistance movement.
Surachanee Sriyai, a visiting fellow at the Yusof Issa Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, said both sides have so far refused to make any compromises and that the key role played by the Myanmar Red Cross Society in the aid corridor is not Too likely to reverse the resistance movement’s thinking. .
“They say it’s for humanitarian purposes, for humanitarian aid. But when you do that and work with the Myanmar Red Cross – which everyone now knows is part of the junta-controlled establishment – how do you facilitate the flow of support from The trust of ethnic groups, or what you now call resistance…power?” she said.
“Such trust cannot be built or forced by external actors,” she added.
Myanmar’s so-called Government of National Unity is a shadow government that mainly includes political leaders ousted in a coup aimed at overthrowing the military junta. In a statement to VOA, the government said it “truly appreciates” Thailand’s new aid corridor.
However, the Myanmar National League’s Humanitarian Affairs Ministry added that lasting peace in Myanmar will only be achieved when the majority of the population’s “fundamental grievances against the military dictatorship are credibly addressed.”
It does not recommend kicking the Myanmar Red Cross out of aid corridors entirely, but instead proposes a “parallel” plan that would include full cooperation from resistance groups to ensure aid is distributed strictly on the basis of need.
Aid groups and experts agree that national solidarity groups, armed resistance groups and non-governmental charities on both sides of the border need to be engaged to ensure aid reaches the most desperate and vulnerable.
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