Accountability vital in providing aid to burma

It is clear that future international engagement with the Burmese junta will be problematic. The stakes are high because vulnerable displaced villagers are likely to succumb to heat and disease. While the world community wants to save more lives, the junta has already announced that the rescue and relief phase following Cyclone Nargis is over. So the next step is to rehabilitate and restructure affected areas. But the way the Burmese authorities put forward its estimate of US$11.7 billion (Bt373 billion) in damages was a bit presumptuous.

Rangoon might have thought that this was the best way to extract financial assistance from concerned groups that are eager to gain access to cyclone-hit areas and help the victims.

If these groups do not give out assistance quickly, they could be blamed for placing conditions and causing unnecessary delays.

At a press conference on Thursday, Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan made it clear that the international community would not be fooled by the junta's malfeasance, especially when it comes to accountability and transparency. Nearly three weeks have passed and the international community has yet to determine the exact death toll and number of missing people in the country.

The junta still controls international workers' access to the country, even limiting the movements of the Asean Emergency Rapid Assessment Team. That explains why the Burmese side has been able to play down the number of casualties, saying that only 77,000 died, and 55,000 are missing. UN-related and international relief organisations put the latter number at around 133,000. So, the numbers game continues unabated.

It is the duty of the Burmese junta to explain the discrepancy in the figures. Without reliable data and evidence, it will be difficult to establish the actual figures that are needed for pledging and to draw up a future plan for recovery. The number of affected villagers has increased greatly, to around 3.3 million people.

Any delay in accessing affected areas for the distribution of clean water, food and medical aid could kill thousands upon thousands of suffering children and senior citizens.

As the regime prepares for tomorrow's pledging conference, it is also obvious that foreign journalists based in Bangkok, who are not attached to any official delegation attending the conference, will not be granted visas. Several Bangkok-based foreign correspondents have been turned away.

By keeping the media from covering the conference and the cyclone's aftermath, the junta is trying to fool the world into believing that its version of what is going on inside the country is the only acceptable one. When Surin said he wanted to hold a press conference immediately after the meeting with Burmese leaders, authorities there said there was no precedent set for giving news this way. Even the UN's special envoy for Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, was not allowed to speak to the press. If this is what the Burmese junta plans to do in coming months and years, international donors must impress on the junta that this is not acceptable.

Without the watchful eyes of the international media, the junta will benefit from the generous assistance it receives while the families of victims continue to suffer and do not receive the money that was intended to help them. By refusing foreign journalists, the Burmese junta thinks they can monopolise news information and assimilation.

During the first week after the cyclone, most media coverage was carried out clandestinely. These reports and the visual images they contained were genuine and quite disturbing. During UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's visit to Burma, a media corps followed him and they were shown areas where distribution of aid and rehabilitation was best being carried out. These are the kind of images and this is the kind of manipulated information that the regime wants to show the world.

Even though international donors have a desire to help the victims of the cyclone, they must think deeply about what kind of money they are giving and for what projects before committing to any funding. They must ensure transparent and acceptable practices of financial governance. Providing assistance blindly, as many might do, would be the most dangerous aspect of this humanitarian operation. The Burmese junta, which is struggling for its own survival, would utilise the incoming aid for its own benefit and, if possible, political longevity.