The Burma Campaign UK today called on United Nations, and development agencies operating in Burma, to investigate whether cyclone aid is being blocked to ethnic Karen. The Burma Campaign UK is concerned about consistent reports of aid being blocked to areas with predominantly Karen farms and villages.
Ethnic Karen are believed to make up around half of the delta population, and an even higher proportion in rural areas. Most of what little aid the regime has allowed into the delta region has gone to townships. Access to
many rural areas mainly populated by Karen is blocked.
“The military dictatorship already uses the denial of aid as part of its ethnic cleansing policy against Karen in Eastern Burma,” said Zoya Phan, International Coordinator of the Burma Campaign UK. “Now they are killing
thousands more Karen in the delta by denying them aid. The fact that they are Karen could be a factor in blocking aid, and this must be investigated by the UN.”
The Karen have faced oppression from central government for the past 60 years. In Karen State the United Nations has accused the regime of breaking the Geneva Convention by deliberately targeting civilians. The regime has destroyed thousands of villages, uses rape as a weapon of war, and thousands of people as slave labour, with more than half a million people being internally displaced. Many receive no aid because the regime refuses access to the UN and aid agencies.
The Burma Campaign UK has also received unconfirmed reports of Burmans being prioritised over Karen in refugee camps. Many foreign aid workers may not be aware of the ethnic issue, and the Burma Campaign UK is calling on the UN and aid agencies to ensure staff are aware of potential problems, and to monitor aid distribution with this in mind.
It is not only international aid workers that have been banned from some rural parts of the delta. Karen and Burmese aid workers are also being stopped from delivering aid.
“Soldiers are turning back aid instead of helping to deliver it,” said Zoya Phan. “Untold thousands have died and many more will die, because aid is being blocked. I am sure that Than Shwe will be delighted that some of the countries best farmland has been cleansed of Karen people, and is free to be taken over by the Generals and their business cronies.”