Posted on 05/12/2008 4:47:25 PM PDT by blam
Burma cyclone: Burmese officials selling emergency aid supplies in local markets
By Alan Brown in Yangonpauk
Last Updated: 7:24PM BST 12/05/2008
Officials in Burma's cyclone-hit Irrawaddy delta area are appropriating emergency aid supplies and selling them in local markets, it was claimed on Monday.
Burmese officials have been accused of selling aid supplies
Burmese volunteers who are operating their own private aid missions to the area have said that they are having to hide from local apparatchiks in order to prevent them commandeering their aid and selling it on at markets.
The Daily Telegraph learned of the alleged scam from a Burmese businessman from Rangoon, who was leading one of dozens of private relief missions distributing supplies of rice, biscuits and clothing around the flood-hit delta area on Monday.
The volunteers had covered the back of their pick up truck with a tarpaulin so that local officials could not see what they were doing.
"If they see our relief supplies, they will come over and say 'don’t worry, give that to us, we will distribute it for you',” he said.
"But we know that for every ten sacks of rice we give them, only four will reach the people.
"The other six will end up being sold by that official on a market in some local town. Rice prices are very high right now and that official will then make a good profit.
On the outskirts of the more storm-damaged regions, checkpoints had sprung up overnight, where police and immigration officials were banning any foreigners - including aid workers - from entering the area.
"We have orders to turn all foreigners around," said one official.
"That includes even workers from the ICRC [the International Committee of the Red Cross]."
The secretive junta has already been condemned for refusing to allow in foreign aid experts to oversee the distribution of the massive aid effort, claiming that it alone is best equipped to deal to do so.
But on Monday, during a three-hour drive through the water-logged delta area, not a single village had received government aid.
The first American military aid flight was among a handful allowed to land in Rangoon yesterday. It was met with an ambiguous pledge by Burma’s leaders to deliver its cargo of water, mosquito nets and blankets “as soon as possible”.
The US intensified pressure on the regime on Monday, sending three naval ships towards the Burmese coast.
Admiral Timothy Keating, the head of the US Pacific Command, arrived in Rangoon on the aid flight to urge the Burmese leadership to allow a "long, continuous train of flights".
A French warship is also expected to arrive this week, carrying 1,500 tons of rice that France said it wants to distribute directly to survivors.
The United Nations confirmed a US estimate that more than 100,000 people had perished when Cyclone Nargis crashed into Burma 10 days ago, adding that more than 200,000 people were still unaccounted for.
The Burmese leader General Than Shwe would not accept a telephone call from Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General.
Mr Ban expressed "immense frustration" at the "unacceptably slow" response by Burma and demanded immediate action as the threat of starvation and disease threaten the delta region, where heavy rains are forecast this week.
Gordon Brown urged the Burmese authorities to give "unfettered access" to humanitarian agencies. He said that HMS Westminster was heading for Burma to help humanitarian operations.
"We now estimate that two million people face famine or disease as a result of the lack of co-operation of the Burmese authorities. This is completely unacceptable," he said.
Britain has pledged £5 million in assistance and aid agencies have raised another £5 million.
A British Government official said the UK was ready to at least match an Australian pledge of about £10.5 million in aid funds.
/johnny
Better than the aid not getting distributed at all.
I kind of agree with you but think it’s just a half-step below a war crime.
Thanks to lieberals, coming to a country near you.
On mountain climbing trips I have been shaken down for bribes by the military at checkpoints in 3rd world countries. They make up charges about improper paperwork or non-existent permits not being in place. They will certainly steal aid and sell it.
To save tens of thousands, massive.
Deal with the problem before you.
By restricting the amount of aid that gets into the country they are insuring the market for their goods will bring the greatest profit. And in this type of scenario, it comes close to a crime against man.
And in this case I didn't before posting!
Google has removed the link from its home page for making donations for relief to Burma. It was there yesterday. I guess just about everybody has figured out that any aid donated to the victims of that storm will just be stolen. My prayers for the poor people of that country.
Yep - sounds like another two-bit military dictatorship. Will they not learn from the mistakes of Saddam and Noriega?
US Forces to the Rescue - Da, ta da!!! Liberators of the World (while we allow third-worlders to come freely across our borders to quietly take over our country).
/sarcasm
May God help the people of Burma.
As for the government of “Myanmar”, I say napalm them all. I would love to watch those cold-blooded bastards wither like moths in a big zapper as stick after stick of W-77s rained down on their empty skulls. No more deserving crew ever lived. We should blacken the skies over Burma with A-10s and Predators and kill every man jack of them.
And the same goes for Kim Jong Illness, the government of the People’s Republic of China, and for every group of power-mad thugs who smirk cooly from behind their mirrored sunglasses while their people suffer and die. I look forward to the Day when God — the Just Judge and the Source of all authority — will settle their tab.
Typo in my last post. For “W-77” read “MK77”. I apologize for the mistake.
Sounds like the Welfare System in the USA!
"But we know that for every ten sacks of rice we give them, only four will reach the people.
"The other six will end up being sold by that official on a market in some local town. Rice prices are very high right now and that official will then make a good profit.
And that is the way the Generals pay back their low ranking officials. Following a long tradition but in dire circumstances now. These "officials" can watch their neighbor die without feeling a thing. That is how the generals stay in power. The military/police/local administrators are allowed to profit while the rice farmers, monks and shopkeepers starve.
Except if you’ve lost everything, you probably have no money to buy clean water or food. And so it’s not being distributed to those that need it most.
This might as well be called “The Story of Foreign Aid”.
Even in the best of (non-emergency) circumstances, this serves as a model for understanding where the hundreds of TRILLIONS of dollars that we have poured into other countries have actually gone.
This might as well be called “The Story of Foreign Aid”.
Even in the best of (non-emergency) circumstances, this serves as a model for understanding where the hundreds of TRILLIONS of dollars that we have poured into other countries have actually gone.
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