Supporting Internally Displaced People
The ruthless nature of Burma’s junta has been evident for many years, from its repression of the country’s democracy movement, its war against ethnic peoples, to its callously slow and restrictive response to the cyclone of last May. The regime is routinely condemned in U.N. human rights reports for arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, summary executions, forced labour, rape, torture, denial of the freedom of assembly, forcible displacement of civilians, and the inhumane treatment of prisoners. Over the last decade, several million people have been forcibly displaced throughout the country.
In eastern Burma, an estimated 3,200 villages have been destroyed since 1996 due to military operations against ethnic peoples. At least a half million people are currently internally displaced in the eastern regions, including more than 78,000 people who were forcibly dislocated in 2007. Many of these people flee into isolated mountain areas to avoid contact with the army. In these remote regions they are vulnerable to malaria, malnutrition and infectious diseases. Maternal and child mortality rates are appallingly high.
In response to this situation, several of Inter Pares’ counterparts are delivering humanitarian services to displaced people, supplied and coordinated from bordering countries. The Thailand-Burma Border Consortium sends teams into these remote regions to deliver basic necessities such as food. In 2007, the program reached 102,000 internally displaced people.
Similarly, in 2007 the Backpack Health Worker Teams provided health assistance to a population of 156,000 internally displaced people in Burma. The program trains displaced people to become community health volunteers who then work to ensure safe water and sanitation facilities and to implement disease reduction strategies. The program has upgraded the skills of more than 700 traditional birth attendants to improve maternal and infant survival rates. The teams are achieving remarkable results, with a 40 percent reduction in malaria in areas where they work.
These activities demonstrate how, in the face of repression and conflict, the lives of displaced people can be made more secure through the courageous efforts of local civil society groups.
| Reviewed August 23, 2008 |  |
Publishing Policies |
