Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) told BosNewsLife that it just returned from a two-week fact-finding visit to the Thailand-Burma border where, predominantly Christian, ethnic Karen and Karenni refugees from Burma expressed concerns about the situation in their country, also known as Myanmar.
"The result of the referendum announced by the military junta in the midst of indescribable suffering of the people of Burma must be internationally rejected and immediate action must be taken to ensure delivery of aid to the victims of Cyclone Nargis," said CSW’s Advocacy Officer, Benedict Rogers.
Burma’s military claimed Thursday, May 15, that 92.4 percent of voters approved the constitution, and said that 99 percent of the electorate turned out to vote in the May 10 referendum. A further round of voting is scheduled on May 24, in areas which were severely affected by the cyclone.
WIDESPREAD REPORTS
Rogers noted however that he "heard widespread reports of the regime’s efforts to rig the referendum” adding that he was told "of the people’s courageous defiance of the regime in some places by overwhelmingly voting against the proposed constitution."
He said he discussed the situation with Karen and Karenni refugees, ethnic Chin and Kachin activists and relief organisations at the Thailand-Burma border after arriving from Japan, where the official discussed Burma with Japanese legislators and the Foreign Ministry.
"During the past two weeks I have met with relief teams doing courageous work to get aid to the victims of the cyclone, despite the military regime’s obstruction. I have been given reports and photographs which illustrate the catastrophe unfolding in Burma," he told BosNewsLife in a statement. "In addition to these humanitarian and political crises, human rights violations continue to be perpetrated on a systematic scale in Karen and Karenni areas and throughout Burma," he added.
CHRISTIAN VILLAGERS
Thousands of mainly Christian villagers in these regions are constantly on the run for ongoing attacks by government forces, BosNewsLife established.
"Every hour of international inaction is costing lives. It is now time to hold the regime to account for these collective crimes against humanity," said Rogers. Also Saturday, May 17, frustrated world leaders increased pressure on Burma saying the military leaders were involved in crimes against humanity as they slowly respond to the cyclone disaster.
United States President George W. Bush extended sanctions on Burma while British Prime Minister Gordon Brown denounced the junta’s "inhuman" treatment of around two million survivors battling to stay alive two weeks after the storm hit, several news reports said.
"INTOLERABLE SITUATION"
"We have an intolerable situation created by a natural disaster," Brown, whose country once ruled Burma, told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). "It is being made into a man-made catastrophe by the negligence, the neglect and the inhuman treatment of the Burmese people by a regime that is failing to act and to allow the international community to do what it wants to do."
Wary of any foreign influence that could weaken its 46 years of iron rule in Myanmar, the junta has insisted on managing the operation itself and kept most international disaster experts away, according to aid workers and Western diplomats.
But relief groups have say the government cannot possibly handle the tragedy by itself, with hundreds of tonnes of supplies and high-tech equipment piling up in warehouses, bottle-necked by logistics and other problems.
In a published letter to Brown, Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Bishop Desmond Tutu, stressed that "the regime had effectively declared war on its own population and is committing crimes against humanity." He urged the United Nations Security Council to authorise aid drops by air over the objections of the generals.
