While noting efforts by UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, to negotiate humanitarian access across Myanmar, including to Rakhine State following deadly Cyclone Mocha, we, the undersigned 514 civil society organizations, are concerned that Mr. Griffiths’ visit lacked substantive achievements and was used as propaganda by the military junta. We urge the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), to officially engage and partner with legitimate stakeholders of Myanmar and civil society service providers to deliver humanitarian assistance.
As Mr. Griffiths’ end-of-visit statement affirmed, “it is critical for us to have the humanitarian space we need for safe, sustained aid deliveries around the country.” Principled humanitarian engagement must see OCHA and other UN humanitarian agencies cut ties with the illegal criminal junta which is weaponizing aid and is the root cause of human suffering in Myanmar. Rather, OCHA must immediately partner with legitimate governance actors that control large parts of the country and deliver aid through local service providers. This includes Ethnic Revolutionary Organizations (EROs), the National Unity Government (NUG), and civil society organizations who have been effectively providing essential services on the ground, including through cross-border channels. Such stakeholders have the access, legitimacy, capacity and, most importantly, trust from the people that the junta simply lacks.
Given that the visit happened three months since Cyclone Mocha devastated communities in Chin and Rakhine States, Sagaing Region and beyond, the junta has proven to have no intention to address the acute needs of affected communities. Rather, OCHA visit has become the military junta’s latest propaganda exercise to attempt to gain international recognition and legitimacy. We are alarmed that OCHA’s statement omits the fact that the cause of the escalating humanitarian crisis is the junta’s violence and atrocities, or that it is the junta’s weaponization of humanitarian assistance that is blocking access to Cyclone Mocha’s victims.
While the junta has restricted humanitarian access and prevented aid from reaching vulnerable communities affected by the natural disaster, it is also the perpetrators of a nationwide man-made humanitarian catastrophe. Its widespread and systematic campaign of arson, military offensives, extrajudicial killings, and aerial attacks on civilians are, according to the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, strong evidence of “increasingly frequent and brazen war crimes.” In addition to these heinous crimes, severe restrictions of humanitarian aid delivery, including targeting aid workers, are the junta’s collective punishment of a population that is rejecting its ongoing brutal attempt to grab power. In his recent report to the 53rd Session of the Human Rights Council, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, outlines how “As part of its attempts to assert control, the military has imposed a range of legal, financial, and bureaucratic requirements on civil society and humanitarian activity that have severely reduced civic space and delivery of life-saving assistance.”
We further note OCHA’s recognition of the Myanmar military’s unconstitutional body of the “State Administration Council” in its statementwhich is inconsistent with the language used by the UN Security Council and UN General Assembly in their resolutions. It also legitimizes Min Aung Hlaing’s claim to be head of government by referring to him as the Chairman of the State Administration Council. We express serious concerns that OCHA’s current approach will embolden the junta to further its war of terror across the nation. Such actions risk exacerbating the humanitarian crisis, the very crisis OCHA is mandated to address and alleviate.
Despite the junta attempting to gain diplomatic legitimacy over this type of visit, OCHA must ensure substantial benefits are provided for the millions of people in dire need of humanitarian assistance as a result of the junta’s violence and atrocities. Access for OCHA staff to parts of Rakhine State and nearby areas is one issue at stake, but so is the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons in central, southeast and northwest Myanmar, where the junta is launching non-stop deliberate attacks on civilians. In these areas, the junta does not have effective control and cannot grant access to affected communities. On the contrary, local governance and civil society actors have been effectively delivering assistance to affected communities, but must be supported by more resources.
OCHA must reflect on its current failed approach and take critical, concrete actions which truly serve Myanmar communities that are in dire need. To fulfill its mandate and principles to do no harm, OCHA must immediately pivot to delivering aid in collaboration or partnership with local humanitarian and civil society groups, ethnic service providers, diaspora communities, local administration forces of the Spring Revolution, members of the Civil Disobedience Movement, EROs, and the NUG who have been effectively providing life-saving services on the ground, including through cross-border channels.
The Myanmar military has a long history of weaponizing humanitarian aid and UN agencies have a long history of being criticized for complicity in military atrocities, all done in the name of access. OCHA can no longer afford to rehash failed models of humanitarianism, and thus tacitly giving credence and status to the illegal military junta. Rather, OCHA must be innovative and supportive of local service providers, as well as engage and collaborate with the legitimate stakeholders of Myanmar. This will ensure the most effective and widespread delivery of humanitarian assistance to affected communities suffering from international crimes committed by a brutal military junta.
For more information, please contact:
- Khin Ohmar, Progressive Voice, info@progressive-voice.org
- Maw Pray Myar, Karenni National Women’s Organization, praymyarmaw@gmail.com
- Nai Aue Mon, Human Rights Foundation of Monland, auemon@rehmonnya.org
- Naw Wahku Shee, Karen Peace Support Network, wahku80@gmail.com
- Salai Za Uk Ling, Chin Human Rights Organization, zauk@chinhumanrights.org
Signed by 514 Myanmar, regional and international organizations including 260 organizations who have chosen to not disclose their name:
- 5/ of Zaya State Strike
- 8888 Generation (New Zealand)
- Action Against Myanmar Military Coup (AAMMC)
- Action Committee for Democracy Development (Coalition of 14 grassroots networks)
- Action Committee of Basic Education Students
- Active Youths Kalaymyo
- Ah Nah Podcast – Conversation with Myanmar
- All Aung Myay Thar San Schools Strike Force
- All Burma Democratic Front in New Zealand
- All Burma Indigenous People Alliance (ABIPA)
- All Burma Student Democratic Front (ABSDF) – Australia Branch
- All Young Burmese League (AYBL)
- Alliance of Students’ Union – Yangon (ASU-Yangon)
- ALTSEAN-Burma
- Anti Dictatorship in Burma – DC Metropolitan Area
- Anti-coup Forces Coordination Committee (ACFCC -Mandalay)
- Anti – Junta Alliance Yangon – AJAY
- Anti – Myanmar Military Dictatorship Network (Australia)
- ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR)
- Asia Pacific Solidarity Coalition (APSOC)
- Asian Cultural Forum on Development (ACFOD)
- Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters
- Association Suisse-Birmanie
- Associazione per l’Amicizia Italia Birmania “Giuseppe Malpeli”
- Athan – Freedom of Expression Activist Organization
- Auckland Kachin Community NZ
- Auckland Zomi Community
- Aung San Suu Kyi Park Norway
- Australian Karen Organisation (AKO)
- A-Yar -Taw People Strike
- Ayeyarwaddy West Development Organisation AWDO (Magway)
- Ayeyarwaddy West Development Organisation AWDO (Nagphe)
- Back Pack Health Worker Team
- Better Burma
- Blood Money Campaign
- Blooming Padauk
- Boat People SOS
- Burma Action Ireland
- Burma Advocacy Group
- Burma Campaign UK
- Burma Civil War Museum (BCM)
- Burma Lawyer Council (BLC)
- Burma Medical Association
- Burma Support
- Burmese Canadian Network
- Burmese Community Development Collaboration (BCDC)
- Burmese Community Group (Manawatu, NZ)
- Burmese Community Support Group (BCSG)
- Burmese Medical Association Australia (BMAA)
- Burmese Rohingya Welfare Organisation New Zealand
- Burmese Women’s Union
- CAN – Myanmar
- CDM Medical Network (CDMMN)
- CDM Support Organisation Mae Sot
- Center For Action Point (CAP)
- Chaung Oo Township Youth Strike Committee
- Chin Community in Norway
- Chin Community of Auckland
- Chin Human Rights Organization
- Civil Information Network (CIN)
- Coalition for Democracy
- Coalition Strike Committee – Dawei
- Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS)
- Community Association Development
- Creative Home
- CRPH & NUG Supporters Ireland
- CRPH Funding Ireland
- CRPH Support Group
- CRPH, NUG Support Team Germany – Deutschland
- Dahnu Youth Organization
- Dawei Youths Revolutionary Movement Strike Committee
- Democracy for Ethnic Minorities Organization
- Democracy, Peace and Women’s Organization
- Democratic Party for a New Society, Norway
- Democratic Youth Council
- Depayin Township Revolution Steering Committee
- Doh Atu – Ensemble pour le Myanmar (France)
- Earthrights International
- Educational Initiatives Prague
- Equality Myanmar
- Ethnic Youth General Strike Committee (Mandalay)
- Federal Corner
- Federal Myanmar Benevolence Group (NZ)
- Feminist Equality Justice and Peace (Myanmar)
- Finland Myanmar Society Ry
- Food Not Bombs
- Free Burma Campaign (South Africa) (FBC(SA)
- Free Rohingya Coalition
- Freedom and Labor Action Group (FLAG)
- Future Light Center
- Future Thanlwin
- Gender Equality Network
- General Strike Collaboration Committee (GSCC)
- General Strike Committee of Basic and Higher Education
- Basic Education Worker Unions – Steering Committee
- Representative Committee of University Teacher Associations
- Basic Education General Strike Committee
- General Strikes Committee of Nationalities – GSCN
- Generation Wave
- Global Movement for Myanmar Democracy (GM4MD)
- Global Myanmar Spring Revolution
- Global Myanmar Spring Revolution (Japan)
- Global Myanmar Spring Revolution (Korea)
- Grass-root People
- Human Rights Educators Network
- Human Rights Foundation of Monland
- Industrial Training Centre (ITC) Family Sydney
- Info Birmanie
- Initiatives for International Dialogue
- Insight Myanmar Podcast
- Institute for Asian Democracy
- Integria, z.u.
- International Association, Myanmar – Switzerland (IAMS)
- JMC Inn Lay
- Justice For Myanmar
- Kachin Association Australia (KAA)
- Kachin Association Norway
- Kachin Student Union
- Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT)
- Kalay Township Strike Force
- Kanpetlat Land Development Association
- Karen Environment and Social Action Network
- Karen Human Rights Group
- Karen Office Relief Development (KORD)
- Karen Peace Support Network (KPSN)
- Karen Swedish Community (KSC)
- Karen Women’s Organization (KWO)
- Karenni Association – Norway
- Karenni Civil Society Network
- Karenni National Women’s Organization (KNWO)
- Karenni Society New Zealand
- Kayan Women’s Organization (KyWO)
- K’cho Ethnic Association
- Keng Tung Youth
- Kyain Seikgyi Spring Revolution Leading Committee
- La Communauté Birmane de France
- Latpadaung Region Strike Committee
- Legal Aid for Human Rights
- Let’s Help Each Other
- LGBT Alliance
- LGBT Community Yangon
- LGBT Alliance Myanmar (Kalay Region)
- LGBT Alliance Myanmar (Kyaukse Region)
- LGBT Union – Mandalay
- Monywa LGBT Strike
- MAGGA Initiative
- Magway People’s Revolution Committee
- Mandalay-Based University Students’ Unions
- Mandalay Medical Family (MFM)
- Mandalay Regional Youth Association Revolution Core Group
- Mandalay Strike Force (MSF)
- Chanmyatharzi Township People’s Strike
- Co-operative University Mandalay Students’ Strike
- Daung Sitthe Strike
- Industries Strike
- Maharaungmyay Township People’s Strike
- Mandalay-based People’s Strike
- Mandalay Alliance Coalition Strike
- Mandalar University Students’ Strike
- Mandalay Youth Strike
- Multi-Religions Strike
- Mya Taung Strike
- Myanmar Institute of Information Technology Students’ Strike
- No.12 Basic Education Branch High School (Maharaungmyay) Students’ Union
- Samgha Sammaga – Mandalay
- Seinpann Strike
- Matu Chin Community – NSW/UPU Chin Association
- MayMyo Strike Force
- Metta Campaign Mandalay
- Min Hla farmers Group
- Minbu farmers Group
- Mindat Chin Community NSW
- Mon National Council (MNC)
- Monywa-Amyint Road Strike Leading Committee
- Monywa People’s Strike Steering Committee
- All Burma Federation of Student Unions (Monywa District)
- Civil Society Organizations Coordination Committee (Monywa)
- Former Political Prisoners and New Generation Group – Monywa
- National League for Democracy (Monywa Township)
- Network of University Student Unions – Monywa
- Thakhin Kodaw Mhine Peace Network (Monywa)
- The 88 Generation Peace and Open Society (Monywa)
- Myanmar Accountability Project
- Myanmar Action Group Denmark
- Myanmar anti-military coup movement in New Zealand
- Myanmar Campaign Network
- Myanmar Catholic Community In Norway
- Myanmar Community Coffs Harbour (MCC)
- Myanmar Community Group Christchurch New Zealand
- Myanmar Community Group Dunedin New Zealand
- Myanmar Community in Norway
- Myanmar Cultural Research Society (MCRS)
- Myanmar Democratic Force in Denmark
- Myanmar Diaspora Group Finland
- Myanmar Engineers – New Zealand
- Myanmar Gonye (New Zealand)
- Myanmar Hindu Community – Norway
- Myanmar Labor Alliance (MLA)
- Myanmar People Alliance (Shan State)
- Myanmar Students’ Union in New Zealand
- Myanmar Teachers’ Federation
- Myaung Education Network
- Myaung Medical Team
- Myaung Youth Network
- Myingyan Civilian Movement Committee
- Nelson Myanmar Community Group New Zealand
- Network for Human Rights Documentation Burma (ND-Burma)
- New Zealand Doctors for NUG
- New Zealand Karen Association
- New Zealand Zo Community Inc.
- NLD Organization Committee (International) Norway
- NLD Solidarity Association (NSW Chapter)
- Norway Falam Community
- Norway Matu Community
- Norway Rvwang Community
- NSW Karenni (Kayah) Communities
- Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica
- Olive Organization
- Open Development Foundation
- Overseas Mon Association. New Zealand
- Padauk Finland – Myanmar Association
- Pale Township People’s Strike Steering Committee
- ParChan River Conservation and Development
- PFLAG – Myanmar
- Progressive Voice
- Pwintphyu Development Organisation
- Pyi Gyi Tagon Strike Force
- Pyithu Gonye (New Zealand)
- Rohingya Community in Norway
- Rural Community Development Society
- Rvwang Community Association New Zealand
- Save and Care Organization for Women at Border Areas
- Save Myanmar – USA
- Save Myanmar Fundraising Group (New Zealand)
- Shan Community (New Zealand)
- Shan MATA
- Shwe Pan Kone People`s Strike Steering Committee
- Social Garden
- Southern Dragon Myanmar
- Southern Youth Development Organization
- Spring Friends
- Spring Traveller
- Student Voice
- Sydney Friends For Myanmar Unity
- Synergy – Social Harmony Organization
- Ta Mar Institute of Development
- Ta’ang Women’s Organization (TWO)
- Tanintharyi MATA
- Taze Strike Committee
- Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (TACDB)
- The Ladies
- The Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute Foundation, Inc. (MPI)
- TRF – Myanmar
- TRIPNET
- Twel Let Myar
- Twitter Team for Revolution
- S. Campaign for Burma (USCB)
- Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC)
- University Students’ Unions Alumni Force
- We Pledge CDM (Australia)
- Wetlet Revolution Leading Committee
- White Coat Society Yangon (WCSY)
- Women Activists Myanmar
- Women Advocacy Coalition
- Women Alliance Burma (WAB)
- Chindwin (West) Villages Women Strike
- Dawei ( Ashaetaw) Women Strike
- Depayin Women Strike
- Gangaw Women Strike
- Kalay Women Strike
- Mandalay Women Strike
- Monywa-Amyint Road Women Strike
- Monywa Women Strike
- Taze Women Strike
- Thayat Chaung Women Strike
- Wetlet Township Women Strike
- Yangon Women Strike
- Women’s League of Burma
- Yadanabon University Students’ Union
- Yasakyo Township People`s Strike Steering Committee
- Yinmarpin and Salingyi All Villages Strike Committee
- Youth for Democratization of Myanmar (UDM)
- Youth Heart Beams
- Youths for Community – Myaung
- Zomi Association Australia Inc.
- Zomi Christian Fellowship of Norway
- Zomi Community Norway
- ကမ်းလက်ကူ
- ခုနစ်စဥ်ကြယ် အဖွဲ့
- ဒို့မြေကွန်ရက် – LIOH
- ဒေါနတနင်္သာရီ – စစ်ဘေးရှောင်များ အထောက်အကူပြုရေးအဖွဲ့
- နားဆင်သူများ
- ပဉ္စမမဏ္ဏိုင်
- ပွင့်ဖြူလယ်ယာမြေကွန်ရက်
- ယောဒေသစစ်ဘေးရှောင်ကူညီရေးအဖွဲ့
- သောင်ရင်း သတင်းလွှာ
Additional list (Organization who has signed on following publication)
- Justice For All
- SEA Junction
