Burma Update: An Ongoing Atrocity
The Red Cross is estimating the cyclone death toll in Burma (Myanmar) could be as high as 128,000. As many as 2.5 million Burmese remain in desperate need of food, water and shelter.
Tragically, the military junta in control of Burma continues to prevent foreign aid workers from reaching the disaster zone. The New York Times reports that aid is being delivered to Burma by many international organizations, but much of the food and supplies are being "stolen, diverted or warehoused by the country’s army."
The Buddhist Peace Fellowship asks that we direct our donations to the Foundation for the People of Burma (FPB), which has been using resources and contacts already in Burma to reach people in need.
Let us also direct our prayers and compassion to those who have lost loved ones in Monday's earthquakes in Sichuan Province, China. May Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva bring aid and comfort to wherever it is needed.
Updates: Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports today that the junta "is forcing homeless cyclone survivors out of the nation's monasteries, monks from the disaster zone said Thursday, as the junta rebuffed international pressure to allow in foreign aid workers."
The Burma military junta announced Thursday that its new constitution has been overwhelmingly approved by popular vote. The constitution, called a sham by human rights groups, allocates a quarter of seats in Parliament to the military and allows for the military to seize complete control of government during whatever it wants to call an "emergency."
The Associated Press reports intimidation at polling places. Voting officials would "pull aside the curtains protecting the privacy of the voting booths, in addition to asking voters to affix their fingerprints on the ballot papers." The junta may believe that the referendum announcement will divert attention from its cruel mismanagement of the cyclone disaster.
Meanwhile, the military continues to restrict international aid workers to Yangon (Rangoon), barring foreigners from the devastated Irrawaddy Delta. Human Rights Watch has confirmed reports that "high-protein biscuits supplied by the international community had been seized by the military, and that low-quality, locally produced substitutes were instead delivered to communities in need."
Photo Caption: A Burmese child holds a crying infant on May 12, 2008, in Maubin, Myanmar.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Comments
Could you tell your readers what this organization is doing, and why they can do it when other foreign aid centres cannot seem to? Please inform us, we all want to help but if we send our dollars that just go to the junta, the troops, what good is that? Please help us raise everyone’s awareness on this… MANY THANKS!
The Foundation for the People of Burma (FPB), which is an affiliate of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, is already established in Burma and was already carrying out humanitarian activities in Burma before the cyclone. These include programs to provide food to orphans and protect women who were victims of domestic abuse. You can read about them here. Because they are already operating in Burma, this gives them an advantage over other humanitarian organizations that had no representation at all in Burma before the cyclone.
FPB is tiny compared to the Red Cross or the UN World Food Programme, but they’re already in place, and they’ve already got a distribution network in place that, they say, bypasses the big checkpoints in Rangoon.