Myanmar's military junta has relented, slightly, and will allow foreign aid workers from Asian countries in, Foreign Minister Nyan Win said at the meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers in Singapore. When this might happen remains unclear. At the same time, some of the world's most experienced non-Asian relief workers are on standby only 30 minutes from the country's borders. They are aboard warships from the United States, France and Great Britain, whose cargo holds are stacked up to the ceiling with relief goods.
The question is: can they supersede the junta's orders and move in to assist Myanmar's desperate people? France's helicopter carrier ship Mistral has been navigating off Myanmar's coast since last Saturday. The crew of the United States battle cruiser USS Essex has been in eyesight of the Irrawaddy River Delta for several days, just like the British frigate HMS Westminster. The Mistral carries 1,000 tons of relief goods on board, enough to sustain 100,000 people in the disaster zone for a full two weeks.
We can produce 20,000 litres of drinking water an hour," said Commander John Mayer of the USS Essex. "We have the equipment to help clear obstructed roads, and we have medical teams who could treat hundreds of patients a day," he added. But the decision of Myanmar's military regime to reject outside help is, in the words of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, "inhuman".
To admit foreign troops into the country is, in the eyes of the junta, inconceivable. The junta has for years been paranoid of foreign intervention. It has painted an invasion as a real threat and used the necessity to prepare against that to justify its continuing rule. Few doubt that the junta hardliners would order an assault if the American marines or French soldiers came ashore, armed with medicines, tents and food. "But who in the Tatmadaw (armed forces) could be loyal to the top generals who have fa
iled to help millions of people?" a former Myanmar army major told the online Myanmar-exile magazine Irrawaddy.
The army, said Htay Aung of the exile group Network for Democracy and Development, was far from remaining as loyal to Myanmar's rulers as it used to be. "The Burmese military officers are very corrupt, and they all are looking out for their own business interests," he said. Morale among Myanmar's armed forces seems to have declined steadily over the last couple of years, according to military magazine Jane's Defence Weekly, quoting a leaked internal army document in 2006. "Battalion commanders are chastise
d for drinking excessively and for being fixated on profit making and womanizing," the document alleged. It claimed almost 10,000 troops deserted within one four-month period.
The junta's brutal deployment of troops in September 2007 also left some emotional residue. "The beating of Buddhist monks has left an indent on the psyche of many young military officers," former BBC correspondent Larry Jagan told a forum in Bangkok, Thailand. Myanmar's armed forces, called the Tatmadaw, has been the regime's main pillar of strength since it took power in 1962. According to a study conducted by the "International Institute of Strategic Studies" in 2007, the country's military has a streng
th of 350,000 men. The army's main experience is based on pogroms and suppression against its own people, most notably against ethnic minorities such as the Karen.
Myanmar is a state comprising numerous ethnic minorities. It is dominated by the Burmans, the biggest ethnic group. The Karen are mercilessly persecuted, their villages are overrun and burned to the ground. Males are commonly forced to work as army porters and women and children are reportedly sent into suspected minefields to clear them. The army's brutality knows no bounds. The Burmese government has sometimes charged people who have stepped on landmines a "fine" for destroying state property. If they di
e, their family must pay the levy, which amounts to approximately $10, a large sum in Burma, according to the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch.
Last September, troops aimed their rifles at their own people just like in 1988 during the popular student uprising. This time they had to shoot at red-robed Buddhist monks and civilians who demonstrated against rising prices for consumer goods and, subsequently, for more freedom. Dozens were shot dead. The regime's henchmen regularly patrol villages and requisition "volunteers" to fight against the Karen and other minorities. Teenagers are apparently the most sought-after. Teenager Maung Zaw Oo told Human
Rights Watch he was forced into service at age 14 by an army officer who received a sack of rice, a canister of cooking oil and some cash for each "recruit." - dpa
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