HOW DO YOU BELIEVE FOR REGIME PROMISE

Junta's credibility gap keeps aid from cyclone victims
May 23, 2008
As the first Asean-UN International Pledging Conference approaches this Sunday, serious questions have been raised about whether the Burmese junta has enough credibility and accountability to handle the large amount of aid given to it by international donors.
Worst of all, the junta's leaders have told Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan that the rescue and relief phase of operations there has been completed. At a press conference yesterday, Surin asked Burmese authorities to provide solid facts to fill the current discrepancy gap between the figures being given by Rangoon and those of credible international organisations.
Burmese authorities put the death toll at 77,000, with 55,000 missing or presumed dead, while the international community puts the latter number at 133,000.
"The government must provide facts and data and [reveal] how it got these numbers," Surin said adding that it is a question of creditability and trust. Without this, it would be difficult to convince international donors to pledge sufficient funds. "If they do, they will come up with lots of conditions," he said.
Since the pledging conference is only two days away, the onus is on the junta to assure international donors of its plan of action in terms of how the rehabilitation and recovery effort will be carried out. In an improbable coincidence, the planned conference also falls on the same day that Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest should legally have come to an end, given the junta's own provisions when it extended her detention last year.Several Bangkok-based aid workers who were waiting to get a visa to enter Burma also responded cautiously to the announcement, noting that the regime has a history of not keeping its promises. Foreign aid workers already inside Burma need permission to travel outside of Rangoon—another hurdle that will need to be cleared before an effective response to the disaster is possible. But some Burma watchers regarded Than Shwe’s decision to allow foreign aid workers into the country—after weeks of refusing to even respond to telephone calls from the UN secretary general—as a genuine concession.