ICG Urges Cooperation with Junta

By WAI MOE

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) on Monday called for the international community to consolidate relations with Burma’s military regime in the wake of coordinated efforts made following the Cyclone Nargis disaster.

In its report Burma/Myanmar after Nargis: Time to Normalise Aid Relations published on Monday, ICG said that the international community “should build on the unprecedented cooperation between the Myanmar [Burmese] government and humanitarian agencies following Cyclone Nargis and reverse longstanding, counterproductive aid policies.”

The report said that aid is essential for humanitarian reasons, but is also the best available opportunity for the international community to promote positive change in Burma.

In a press release, ICG’s Southeast Asia Project Director John Virgoe said, “Political reform remains vital, but withholding aid has done nothing to promote this.”

“Aid is valuable in its own right for alleviating suffering, as well as a potential means of opening up a closed country, improving governance and empowering people to take control of their own lives,” he said.

The ICG press release said the report argues that the recent cooperation had proved that it was possible to work with the military regime on humanitarian issues and to deliver assistance in an effective and accountable way.

The ICG said that Burma’s political reform remained vital and should continue to be the subject of high-level international diplomacy and pressure.

The ICG claimed that it was a mistake in the Burma context to use aid as a bargaining chip, to be given only in return for political change.

The ICG also suggested that aid to Burma should be seen by international policymakers as valuable in its own right as well as a way of alleviating suffering, but also as a potential means of opening up a closed country, improving governance and empowering people to take control of their own lives.

However, the ICG criticized the Burmese regime, saying government repression, corruption and mismanagement bear primary responsibility for the humanitarian crisis.

The report also criticized the international community, saying “… Western governments— in their attempt to defeat the regime by isolating it— have sacrificed opportunities to promote economic reform, strengthen social services, empower local communities and support disaster prevention and preparedness.”

The ICG report recommended that the UN, Asean, Western and regional powers, aid agencies, donors and the Burmese junta work together to resolve the humanitarian crisis.

In its recommendations to the international community, the ICG called for more comprehensive engagement with the Burmese regime rather than pressure and sanctions. It furthermore called on Western governments to “lift political restrictions on aid.”

The ICG recommended that, in return, the Burmese regime “permit access by international aid agencies to vulnerable populations throughout the country, including conflict zones.

“Aid alone, of course, will not bring sustainable human development, never mind peace and democracy,” the ICG report said. “Yet, because of the limited links between Myanmar [Burma] and the outside world, aid has unusual importance as an arena of interaction among the government, society and the international community.”