Saving Myanmar

Saving Myanmar

Myanmar's miliatary regime is insisting on distributing aid itself.

Even as U.S. President George W. Bush offered aid to Myanmar, he called for a free society in the cyclone-ravaged country.

Jayshree Bajoria, Staff Writer, CFR.org

Date Posted: 05/13/08

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From CFR.org. Reprinted with permission. For more analysis on Myanmar and foreign policy, go to CFR.org.

As the death toll from the May 3 cyclone in Myanmar continues to rise—official state media list more than 30,000 dead and 35,000 missing—international relief agencies are expressing grave concern over delays in aid efforts. “I want to register my deep concern—and immense frustration—at the unacceptably slow response to this grave humanitarian crisis,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on May 12. Relief agencies like Oxfam International warn of a public health catastrophe endangering 1.5 million lives if aid doesn’t reach victims soon.

But even as Myanmar’s government allowed some aid to trickle in, it continues to limit access to foreign relief workers. News reports suggest the military regime has been insisting on distributing (WSJ) the aid itself, in some cases even sticking army labels on supplies to suggest the goods are from Myanmar’s government.

CFR’s Laurie Garrett says if the regime continues to insist on receiving supplies without the expertise to distribute them, “the death toll is going to exceed anything that we have ever seen in an Asian nation in the last thirty, forty years.”

Infrastructure problems such as a decrepit airport, poorly equipped ports, and blocked roads compound the challenges. The United States, which set up a task force to coordinate aid efforts soon after the cyclone hit, has military assets on standby, ready to respond if Myanmar’s junta allows them in.

A U.S. naval strike group including four navy ships, twenty-three helicopters, and 1,800 marines, also waits in international waters off Myanmar’s coast. Aboard one of these ships, U.S. Marine Col. John Mayer, commanding officer of the thirty-first marine expeditionary unit, told NPR that U.S. forces are equipped to provide medical support, get into remote areas to deliver aid, and turn saltwater to freshwater. Adm. Timothy J. Keating, commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, met with the commander in chief of Myanmar’s navy on May 12 in the highest-level bilateral talks (LAT) in years. Keating pressed for greater access, but the junta has yet to relent.

Myanmar’s junta is wary of Western governments, which have called for democratic reform in the past, and some experts say recent U.S. statements have heightened this suspicion. Even as U.S. President George W. Bush offered aid to Myanmar, he called for a free society in the cyclone-ravaged country.