08 May 2008
Burma Aid Is About Saving Lives, Not About Politics, Rice Says
Assessment teams must act before relief supplies can be provided
Washington -- The death and destruction in Burma is not a matter of politics, it's a matter of saving lives, says Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"And it should be a matter that the government of Burma wants to see its people receive the help that is available to them," she says.
The United States and other nations, the United Nations, international relief agencies and nongovernmental organizations are prepared to bring considerable resources to the victims of Burma's Cyclone Nargis and its aftermath, Henrietta Fore, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said May 8 at a Washington briefing.
"We are poised and ready to make a significant contribution, but we need a very large coordinated international assistance effort," she said. "It is a time when we need that directed by international relief coordinators who have experience in the field. There are many international tragedies and this one needs to be contained at this time."
To date, the Burmese regime has not permitted the United States or most agencies access to the country to conduct much needed assessments and to begin bringing supplies, aid and help to the areas hit hardest by Cyclone Nargis.
Ky Luu, director of USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, said relief aid that is not directed specifically could be more harmful than helpful in a crisis of this kind. The reason is that disaster assistance has to be carefully orchestrated to reach the right people and their specific needs. Supplies could literally be air-dropped into Burma's most remote areas, but unless there is someone on the ground who can direct the aid to those who need it the most, it'll just sit there.
"The manner with which the U.S. government provides humanitarian assistance is that it's needs-based. What the DART [Disaster Assistance Response Team] does for us is, it allows us an operational platform, an operational presence in the affected region, in order to coordinate, in order to communicate with partners to best effectively target our assistance," Luu said.
"What a DART does in a chaotic environment [similar to Burma's current situation] is help us to be able to identify what the needs are."
Luu said the teams help USAID and relief agencies make informed decisions and help get the resources out more quickly. "Without the DART on the ground, or without other operational partners, it's very difficult, at this point in time, to tell you exactly what the conditions are on the ground."
The U.S. chargé d'affaires at the Rangoon embassy, Shari Villarosa, said that no single country is able to manage a disaster on this scale. But she said the Burmese government, a military junta that seized power in 1962, is extremely suspicious of the outside world and the United States. This wariness explains to a degree the government's reluctance to permit international assistance inside Burma.
"The experience around the world is that people who don't have enough food and water are desperate and will do desperate things," Villarosa said.
At the United Nations in New York, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said most governments are shocked by the behavior of the Burmese government.
"We're outraged by the slowness of the response of the government of Burma to welcome and accept assistance. It's clear that the government's ability to deal with the situation -- which is catastrophic -- is limited," Khalilzad said. "And a government has [a] responsibility to protect its own people, to provide for its people. It should be a no-brainer to accept the offer made by the international community, by states, by organizations, by international organizations."
Luu said that $1 million of the $3.25 million pledged by the United States for Burma relief efforts will be committed to the American Red Cross for the purchase, procurement and distribution of non-food items. He said the initial $250,000 provided by the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon was made available to U.N. partners -- the World Food Programme and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
"We are in discussions with operational partners who are currently on the ground in order to make sure that the funding that could be made available will have an immediate impact," Luu said.
The U.S. Treasury Department announced May 7 that it has issued a general license for U.S. and foreign nongovernmental organizations that want to transfer funds to Burma for relief efforts. Before this policy, they would have needed a license and registration number from the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) because of U.S. economic sanctions imposed after Burma’s 1962 coup.
"The American people continue to demonstrate their concern for the people of Burma, particularly as they reel from the devastation of Cyclone Nargis," says OFAC Director Adam Szubin. "This license will help to clear the way for additional humanitarian aid to make it to the Burmese people swiftly and efficiently."
