AlertNet - Almost two years after Cyclone Nargis killed nearly 140,000 people in Myanmar, the repression of rights in areas hit by the cyclone continues and the humanitarian space in the country is shrinking instead of growing as originally hoped, a report released on Thursday said.
"Civilians in cyclone-affected areas continue to be subjected to various forms of forced labour, everyday restrictions on movements, and infringements of the rights to freedom of expression and association," according to Human Rights Watch's new report.
It said ongoing international recovery efforts are not accompanied by measures to protect human rights and 21 people who were arrested in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone, for speaking out against the iron-fisted junta's handling of relief efforts, remain in jail.
The report called for their release as well as those of nearly 2,100 political prisoners. It cautioned that while the rise of civil society groups in Myanmar - formed to provide relief to cyclone survivors in the first few weeks before international aid was allowed in - is to be applauded, their existence remains extremely fragile.
The cyclone was the worst to hit Asia since 1991, and the country's ruling generals came under harsh international criticism for initially refusing to allow foreign aid workers into the country.
The government finally relented but progress was slow. Without the government's stringent restrictions in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, the survivors would be much farther down the road to recovery, the report said.
Despite estimated foreign reserves of US$5 billion and income from lucrative natural gas sales, "the Burmese government has failed to adequately support reconstruction efforts that benefit the population," it added, calling the country by its former name.
According to the report, the junta had allocated a mere 5 million kyats (US$50,000) to an emergency fund immediately after the storm.
Aid agencies also have not been able to replicate the same kind of assistance in other parts of Myanmar, the report quoted aid workers as saying. Approximately a third of Myanmar's population lives below the poverty line and maternal mortality is the worst in Asia after Afghanistan.
TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS
Elaine Pearson, HRW's deputy director for Asia, said humanitarian needs are high in Northern Rakhine State, Shan State, eastern Myanmar and the dry zone in Central Myanmar, yet "foreigners continue to face unnecessary travel delays and the need for travel permits" to visit these areas.
"Locals continue to face obstructions, preventing them from reaching and accessing local conditions. Unreasonable bureaucratic delays delayed the renewal of some MOUs (memorandum of understanding) and agreements in order to provide humanitarian assistance," she said.
"It's really a constant negotiation for space and this can be restricted or refused at any time."
According to David Mathieson, co-author of the report, most aid workers expect the humanitarian space to narrow considerably or freeze completely closer to the elections, likely to be held in late 2010.
"Once again, we're seeing that the Myanmar government is putting its sham political process ahead of the needs of its people," Pearson said.
"And this really creates a vicious cycle. As the regime increases the repression and oppression on aid efforts, then donors simply cut or refused to pledge the funds that are really needed to extend humanitarian access."
SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL
Mathieson said international donors should also be aware of the realities on the ground in Myanmar especially when it comes to giving out grants. He pointed out the example of Paung Ku, a major local non-government organisation (NGO) which provides micro grants.
The average size of an aid grant according to Paung Ku was about $3,000 - an amount small village initiatives could absorb - and most of it was in cash, Mathieson said.
"A lot of donors going to Burma do have large grants and $100,000 is very difficult to actually be absorbed in a local community especially for a school, a health clinic or an orphanage," he said.
"People should start thinking a bit smaller, it is the only way for a lot of these (civil society) groups to avoid attention from the central government."
The report also urged international donors to provide the full amounts needed for recovery efforts which are currently under-funded and press the junta to increase its financial contributions.
"The whole country is in urgent need," Mathieson said. "It's not just reaching areas of acute need. It's about consolidating the gains that have already been made. It's really about trying to formalise a lot of the (NGO) presences and slowly expanding."
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