Background
Burma is the largest country is South-East Asia. Ethnically diverse, it is made up of 135 ethnic groups. Formerly part of the British Commonwealth, Burma achieved independence from the UK in 1948, and has been ruled by military governments since 1962. Despite multiparty elections in 1990, which resulted in the main opposition party winning a landslide victory, the ruling junta, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), previously known as State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), refused to hand over power and remain in government today. The military regime has continued to prioritize military expenditure, spending over 40% of its national budget on defence and doubling the size of the Burma army to over 400,000 soldiers since 1988, whilst under 1% is spent on health and education combined. Tragically, the only war that Burma is fighting is against its own people.
As a result of such an inappropriate prioritisation of national spending, the regime has failed to support adequately vital public services. There are insufficient schools and public health facilities, particularly in rural areas. Where they do exist, they are understaffed and poorly supplied. School costs have risen sharply, to levels that are impossible for most families who survive on labour wages. Burma’s healthcare system is in a dire situation, ranked by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the second worst above Sierra Leone. A third of children under five suffer from severe malnutrition.
Despite substantial natural resources, Burma is one of the poorest countries in Asia. Corruption, narcotics trafficking, prostitution and AIDS are also major problems.
The SPDC are responsible for carrying out brutal crimes against humanity, targeting civilians in a counter-insurgency strategy that contravenes international humanitarian law. The ‘Four Cuts’ policy aims to undermine the armed opposition’s access to recruits, information, supplies and finances by forcibly relocating villages from contested areas into government controlled areas.
In 2006 alone, a survey by the Thai-Burma Border Consortium estimated 82,000 people were forced to leave their homes as a result of, or in order to avoid, the effects of armed conflict and human rights abuses. In eastern Burma alone, 232 villages were destroyed, forcibly relocated, or otherwise abandoned. Since 1996, over a million people are understood to have been displaced from their homes.
HART and the Chin People (Western Burma) – a “Bamboo Famine” and a “Plague of Rats”
HART’s advocacy, as well as aid, has made life-saving interventions. Every 47-49 years, the bamboo flowers, bringing a plague of rats which devour all the food, whether growing in the fields or in storage, bringing starvation in their wake. The World Food Programme (WFP) made an initial visit to Chin State, but did not visit the affected areas- and denied the existence of famine or the need for food aid. HART received information from our partners on the ground who knew the situation, about the dire conditions and the urgent need for food relief.
To obtain first hand evidence, HART visited the border area of Chin State with India in September 2008 and met over 60 representatives of villages from southern Chin State, many of whom had walked for up to 7 days through jungle and over mountains, already weakened by hunger, to meet us.
Thanks to the great generosity of HART supporters, we were able to take $27,000 (US) for food relief, which was enough to buy life saving rice for 7,000 people to last them an entire month. Additionally we were able to hear their poignant testimonies regarding their situation and fears. They convinced a BBC journalist, Bernadette Sandhu, who accompanied HART and who subsequently broadcasted the evidence on the BBC World Service. This resulted in WFP revising its position and in the British Government’s DfID committing £600,000 for food relief for Chin state.
The challenge now is to ensure the food does reach all the people in need, especially those in some of the most remote areas.
This aspect of HART’s work in Burma is an encouraging example of ways in which advocacy can make a difference and is a necessary complement to the provision of direct aid, when working, as HART does, with people suffering from oppression and persecution, in addition to natural disasters and conflict.
HART showed to DfID the documents brought back from the India/Chin Border; documents showing how well organised the Chin people were to help themselves. DfID recognised that these are people already helping themselves and capable of doing even more if the raw materials are provided. The rats had destroyed their food. Next year’s early harvest was already destroyed, eaten in the shoots. At the earliest there can be no hope of a harvest till the end of next year. But, supply them with raw food and they will see it gets to all who genuinely need it, through their own organisation, and by their own courage and commitment.
HART continues assisting with work for the Chin people on the Mizoram side of the border. Our main partner, based in Aizawi, the capital of the state, is Cheery. Through her we have been supporting the Women’s Empowerment Programme amongst Chin refugees. In addition to their other work they investigate and collate information in the villages within Chin State, including rape and crimes against women. Their report, “Unsafe State-state sanctioned sexual violence against Chin women in Burma”, is a powerful document.
We also support the work of two clinics in the border area, which the Chin are able to access, crossing the river from Chin state to Mizoram: in Zokhawthar and Champai. The clinics also send small cross-border teams to treat people in their villages inside Chin State.
HART and the Shan, Karenni and Karen Peoples (Eastern Burma)
HART is continuing to be the sole funder of SWAN’s (Shan Women’s Action Network) Women’s Empowerment Programme. HART assists with Primary Health Care clinics consisting of a main Health centre plus 2 satellite Health centres in refugee camps on the border of Shan state. HART are also heavily involved with Health Outreach programmes and Preventative Health Education, including maternal and child health care, and HIV prevention.
In Karen and Karenni state, HART supports the courageous work of cross-border mobile medical teams who risk their lives to take life-saving medical care to the civilians who have had to flee their villages under attack by Burmese soldiers with their shoot-to-kill policies. These displaced people are living in appalling conditions, in the jungle, scavenging for food and without access to medical care.
Financial Facts and Figures
In 2008 (Figures sourced on 15th November 2008) HART spent: £44,000 on the projects in Burma.
HART, Burma and the future
HART is seeking financial support to enable us:
To continue a watching brief on the situation amongst the Chin people, especially with the efficient and courageous assistance of our partners, in the more remote villages where the “Bamboo Famine” has its epicentre, and to continue to provide them with what Aid we can raise amongst supporters and donors, until we are convinced that larger Government and International Agencies, such as the UK Government’s DfID and the World Food Programme are getting food aid through- operating this Aid on the premise that every contribution is of help towards the monthly cost of $US 400,000 for the 100,000 most at risk
To continue to support the Cross-Border teams, working from Zowkathar and Champai, at a cost of $2.500 for each of the two clinics
To continue support of the Women’s Empowerment Programmes, amongst the Shan and the Chin peoples; the former costing $14,000 per annum; the latter costing $4,000 per annum
To seek donor support for the central clinic amongst the Shan, and the two local clinics, costing $12,000
Project update
Dr. Sasa’s Primary Health Care clinic - construction begins!
Having recently qualified as a Doctor in Armenia, Sasa has returned to serve his peoples in Chin State, Burma. The Primary Health Care clinic will provide medical education and care for those who have limited or no other access.
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