Arrests, Restrictions Hamper Cyclone Relief Work

By VIOLET CHO

The Burmese regime’s assumption of control over cyclone relief efforts and the arrests of several activist aid volunteers would have a direct affect on future humanitarian work, according to the cyclone relief committee of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD).

Shortly after Cyclone Nargis hit the Irrawaddy delta and Rangoon Division in May, the military government enforced regulations requiring all relief organizations to obtain official permission to carry out relief work.

The NLD’s cyclone relief committee maintains that this requirement deterred private donors from providing assistance to cyclone victims.

The regulation had resulted in a “huge decrease” in aid from private donors, said Dr Win Naing, a cyclone relief committee member. “They (donors) do not want to deal with the authorities.”

“The military authorities always said that they enforced these regulations because they do not want aid to be overlapping,” he said. “However, the main reason is that they want to have control over everything.”

An aid worker in Rangoon said her organization had suspended its relief operation because of lack of funds.

“There are many international NGOs in the area [struck by the cyclone] and we believe they can do more, as they can easily come to an agreement with the local authorities,” she said.

Last week, Rangoon authorities arrested the chairman of the cyclone relief committee, Ohn Kyaing, who had been actively involved in taking aid to cyclone survivors in the Irrawaddy delta.

“We still don’t know why he was arrested,” said Win Naing. Despite Ohn Kyaing’s arrest, the committee would continue its aid work, he said.

Several other prominent people have also been arrested after joining in the relief effort—including the popular satirist Zarganar, leading journalist Zaw Thet Htwe and the chief editor of the Myanmar Tribune weekly journal, Aung Kyaw San.