Monitoring Policy Making at the United Nations |
| ||||||||||||
Is Aid Helping Military Abuses in Asia? - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy Forum Is Aid Helping Military Abuses in Asia?
By Felicisimo Manalansan
IBON Red, Philippines
August 11, 2003An international non-government network calls for an end to aid policies of global domination and violence
Nang Lao Liang Won’s fondest wish is to go home to Burma. But according to her, the military is sure to kill her once she returns to her troubled country. Liang Won is a leading rights activist in the former Burma who has been on self-exile for ten years since the military took over their government. Since a violent coup in 1988, Burma has been rocked by civil disturbances and a war that has dealt severely with its civilian population, especially children, women and ethnic minorities.
The military junta has shown little respect for human rights, she says. It has refused to recognize the results of a general election in 1990 and, after a violent attack on National League of Democracy (NLD) supporters on May 30, has held opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi whose NLD garnered 80% of the Burmese population’s votes in the last election more than a decade ago. Worse, according to Liang Won, soldiers of the State Peace and Development Council have been routinely using rape as an instrument of war to subjugate and terrorize the people, especially the ethnic minorities of Burma.
Last month, Liang Won was in the Philippines to attend a series of meetings of the Reality of Aid (RoA) where she urged international aid donors to stop sending all forms of aid to Burma. The RoA is an international network of non-government organizations lobbying for aid policies and practices that would eradicate poverty in recipient countries. The RoA meeting in the Philippines, which was held from June 22-27, brought together 24 delegates from Asia, Latin America, Europe and Africa to discuss the effects of international aid on governance and human rights.
Aid, Liang Won says, only supports the Burmese military regime and increases its strength in violating basic human rights. Her appeal is contrary to calls made by United Nations agencies and international NGOs, as well as the governments of Japan and Australia, to further increase international humanitarian aid to Burma. According to A Peace of Pie, a report made by Burmese activists, for every US dollar that goes to UN agencies in Rangoon, 40 to 60 cents automatically benefits the military regime in Burma, as UN agencies accept an exchange rate lower than the going market rate.
Liang Won’s appeal hit a positive note among international delegates of the RoA. Among calls made by the RoA in a public forum and press conference last June 27 was for all aid donors, investors and governments to stop giving aid to Burma. IBON Foundation Research Director Antonio Tujan, who is also the overall chairperson of the RoA’s International Management Committee, is more emphatic in declaring support to Liang Won’s appeal. He recalls how aid “served to perpetuate a repressive regime” during the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines.
The RoA’s call to stop the flow of aid to the military regime in Burma complements a more comprehensive call by the RoA for international financial institutions (IFIs) and other donors to cease from “militarizing” aid as well as for “an immediate end to aid policies of domination and violence throughout the world”.
Militarization of aid around the world
In a statement, RoA says that “Foreign aid has become more selective and used for political purposes under the pretext of fighting terrorism, which should be addressed differently. “This changing trend is contributing to more militarization and conflicts around the world. Militarization of aid goes against the basic principles of development cooperation.”
The RoA criticizes the “interventionist” policies of the US and its allies, calling for an end to such policies particularly in the Philippines, Nepal, India, Indonesia, Africa and Colombia. In the Philippines, says RoA delegate Mae Templa of the Mindanao Interfaith, there is an intensification of US intervention under the pretext of fighting terrorism and at the expense of the people’s civil liberties. She mentions “increasing human rights violations,” particularly in Southern Tagalog and Mindanao, where she says there has been a marked increase in incidents of human rights violations perpetrated by the military.
Templa says that since February, 100,000 civilians, mostly Muslims in Mindanao, have been displaced because of the government’s intensive bombing of suspected lairs of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). This coincides with the entry into the region of more US military troops and a 44 billion yen Official Development Assistance (ODA) support package from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs billed as Mindanao Social Fund for Peace, she notes.
Templa calls for the immediate creation of an independent body composed of civil libertarians from people’s organizations to investigate “state sponsored terrorism”. She likewise supports calls for the resumption of peace negotiations between the government, the MILF and the National Democratic Front. Templa also calls for the rejection of the Anti-terrorism Bills now pending in Congress. She argues that passage of the bill can only lead to more human rights violations. Instead, she adds, national and international pressure should be put on the Arroyo administration to empower the people by addressing the root causes of poverty.
In Nepal an increase in military aid from the US, UK and India is seen to be sabotaging a recent ceasefire reached between the Maoist Communist Party of Nepal and the Nepali government.
In India, military aid from the US and other countries is being used to violate the human rights of the people, including religious minorities in India and Pakistan. The RoA cites a recent massacre of thousands of Muslims in the western state of Gujarat.
Nadia Hadad of the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development, on the other hand, condemns the “slaughter” of the people of Aceh, their continuing persecution, as well as the denial of the human rights of the people of West Papua. She says donors, particularly the Australian government, should stop giving military aid to the Indonesian government because it is being used to violate the human rights of Indonesians.
Over the last two decades, according to Brussels-based Jorge Balvis of the Asociación Latinoamericana de Organizaciones de Promoción, the US “has lost a lot of international cooperation.” He notes this has to do with three issues defining the international aid regime. These issues are: 1) aid’s use for political purposes of military cooperation under the pretext of fighting terrorism; 2) the subordination of international aid to the neo-liberal reform program of integrating less developed countries to the global economy; and 3) the subordination of aid to corporate interests.
“Because of aid and globalization’s push for more open economies for the business interests of northern countries, more and more of this aid is going directly to northern countries without any participation of recipient countries,” Balvis says. Balvis cites the case in Colombia where a Plan Colombia is allegedly promoting US military operations for the US’s own interests “at the cost of the peace process.”
Moreblessings Chidaushe from Zimbabwe and representative of the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development echoes the same demand for aid donors and the US to stop militarizing aid. The US is reported to be giving military aid to the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group to protect factions seen to serve US political interests, especially in the African states of Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone.
Respect Human Rights
If aid has to be realized, says Gopal “Chintan” Siwakoti, RoA Vice Chair for Asia Pacific, human rights have to be respected. But according to him, this is not happening. “More and more, the diversion of development aid to military aid, together with direct political interventions, are attacking human rights and the basic principles of governance among peoples supposed to benefit from international aid,” he says.
The RoA criticizes the agenda of donor countries and IFIs and calls on the donors to change their governance framework into a rights-based approach. By prioritizing human rights, delegates say that international aid can be “refocused” to its original objective to lessen poverty at the grassroots level. In conclusion, Siwakoti declares, “It is better to have no aid than to have aid with conditions that violate human rights.”
More Information on International Aid
More General Analysis on Poverty and Development
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
