In response, the ad hoc coalition has continued aid delivery
under the cover of night--at times quite literally. On Saturday, May 10, one
team attempted to bring clean water and medical supplies to a small hospital in
one of the devastated towns beyond Rangoon.
(The organizers declined to specify the exact location.) The hospital, one of
the few operating in the region, had victims with broken bones and
gangrenous-looking wounds waiting in a line that stretched past the doors. None
had received treatment within in a week’s time. The medical director tried to
hurry the volunteers away, saying “You can’t do it right now, you can’t do it
right now or they will take it away--please come back after dark,” the group
reported. Later that evening, the volunteers snuck back into the hospital to
drop off the supplies.
Burma’s
civic groups and community leaders have spent years learning how to maneuver around
such crushing restraints. “They have faced controls on their movements, on
goods and money, on their general freedom for so long, they have learned how to
rely on some of these backdoor and relationship systems,” said Jones. “They
know how to get things done in this environment.” Because most foreign aid
workers still face visa blockades and are prohibited from entering the
hardest-hit regions, the coalition has recruited local doctors and nurses to
tend to victims. Only a modest flow of aid from abroad has been allowed into
the country, so the volunteers rely on well-connected businessmen to procure
chlorine tablets and temporary toilets from local suppliers. Low-level military
officers helped secure access to the Irrawaddy Delta, the epicenter of the
disaster. And the civic groups have turned to blogs and fundraising
newsletters to convince potential donors that their contributions won’t go
straight into the hands of the junta.
Given the magnitude of the devastation, however, even the
most enterprising and resourceful grassroots efforts can only go so far. By the
government’s count, 134,000 people have died or are missing, and the U.N. says
that 2.5 million are still in need of aid. The logistical hurdles of reaching
the entire Delta region are beyond the scope of any small-scale operation. But
though their reach may be limited, the ability of civic groups to persist with
their work is evidence that the junta’s control is less than total, according
to Bridget Welsh, a Southeast Asia expert at Johns Hopkins
University. “The fact
that they let them have a space, that they have let people act, shows that
[officials] on the ground believe the military is not capable of addressing the
issues,” She says. Such cooperation between local officials and organizers
“serves to build trust and networks that bridge divides in the community that
the military foster to hold onto power.”