Myanmar military involvement undermines local approach to humanitarian aid – The Diplomat

The last visit by Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, chairwoman of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to Myanmar and her subsequent meeting with Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyidaw are just the latest in a series of deeply flawed contacts with the military. The consultations risk legitimizing a brutal regime that has a long history of evading accountability for its appalling human rights record, including committing genocide against the long-persecuted Rohingya people.

The trip by the International Committee of the Red Cross took place just over a week after the junta took office. dropped two 500-pound bombs on internally displaced persons (IDPs) at an IDP camp in Bangkok’s Pekon commune in southern Shan State. Women and children were among those killed. The airstrike was the seventh attack on the IDP camp, in addition to dozens of other attacks, including aerial bombardment in February at a school in the village of Daw Si Ei, resulting in the death of four children.

Following talks with the International Committee of the Red Cross, Myanmar’s state-controlled media published an article stating that the meeting was not held to negotiate access to humanitarian aid in Rakhine State because the International Committee of the Red Cross he claimed, but to to insist that the regime respects the principles of the Geneva Convention. It should come as no surprise that the junta uses these interactions as a weapon for its own benefit and propaganda.

The assumption that meeting with the military will bring any progress shows a lack of awareness or respect for the politicization of aid, as independent analyst Adelina Kamal notes Of course, “This vertical, top-down, “neutral” approach to access to humanitarian aid, pursued by many international actors, risks deepening the conflict.”

This point is even more strongly emphasized by Khin Ohmar, a long-time, respected human rights defender who says There is nothing neutral about engaging with the Myanmar military. Neutrality is especially dangerous when dealing with a junta that consistently violates human rights.

Any formal or informal engagement with the Myanmar junta is a shameful display of willful ignorance and neglect that can compromise the integrity and dignity of beneficiaries. It also undermines the agency of local organizations that do not need to negotiate with terrorists to mount a meaningful and coordinated emergency response. These engagements also conveniently ignore the junta’s history, which includes decades of authoritarian rule that suppressed basic rights and freedoms and sought to promote a misogynist agenda that denied women protection and participation.

International Committee of the Red Cross Claims to be “neutral, impartial and independent,” but the Myanmar ICRC (MRCS) has a troubling history of working with the military. The MRCS is integrated in the Myanmar military since 1996 and, alarmingly, the current members of the MRCS Executive Committee previously held military positions.

In 2021, more than 400 civil society organizations published an open letter strongly condemning The MCRC’s presence at the junta’s Armed Forces Day reception. Their presence came less than three months after the coup, which was met with a violent response from the junta, including opening fire on peaceful protesters.

Earlier this year, the Karen National Union Central Executive Committee addressed the MRCS’s involvement in cooperating with the Royal Thai Government and the military junta in distributing humanitarian aid to Karen State. found: “Providing aid through MRCS shows indifference to the suffering of the people, because MRCS works for the SAC, which deliberately attacks its own citizens.”

The solution to accessing aid is to build meaningful relationships with local organizations operating in remote, hard-to-reach areas. Funding can strengthen their operations and security needs while supporting humanitarian initiatives through cross-border assistance. Local aid is a proven way to ensure that support reaches those most in need. For more than 30 years, local service providers and groups have successfully delivered aid without the junta’s consent.

In fact, the same services that Spoljaric, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, spoke about, inaccessible due to the conditions and restrictions imposed by the junta, are being filled by local service providers who do not comply with the restrictions imposed by the military. Waiting for permission to operate to save lives that have been put at risk by the Myanmar military is expensive and ineffective, and there is certainly no time to waste.

International organizations should focus on strengthening local networks and providing cross-border aid, rather than waiting for the junta to authorize operations in conflict zones. Given the Myanmar military’s neglect of civilians, it is simply unrealistic to think that any relationship with them will improve access to humanitarian aid.

Good intentions are not enough to solve the multiple human rights crises unfolding across Myanmar and the borderlands. These visits are unfair to the courage and adversity of local humanitarians and rights defenders, many of whom come from women-led organizations. Instead of shaking hands with the devil, international leaders must accept that their impartiality saves no one.