US officials said they have been airlifting basic supplies to Rangoon, also known as Yangon, despite the extention by a further six months of the detention of Suu Kyi, who went from being a housewife in the English countryside to one of the most prominent of over 1,000 known political prisoners.
Washington’s pledged aid effort Tuesday, May 27, came as relief to at least some of millions
of people displaced by Cyclone Nargis in Burma, or Myanmar, among them Christians who rights groups and missionaries claim have been denied aid by the ruling junta following the cyclone, which killed over 130,000 people and made over two million homeless.
Aid reaching Christians have also been complicated as almost every town has its Buddhist monastery–often the only substantial building in the village, according to Christian missionaries.
The Burmese government relies heavily on the network of Buddhist monasteries to distribute aid–and Buddhist monks in most cases apparently bypass Christians.
DISCRIMINATION
"The plight of Christians in Burma has been one of discrimination," said Stephen Van Valkenburg, Southeast Area Director for US-based Christian Aid Mission (CAM), which supports native missionaries in the area. "The government is staunchly Buddhist. The infrastructure of Burma is built on monasteries. Both the government and the Buddhists persecute Christians," he claimed.
Buddhist supporters have denied they discriminate Christians, and there has been cooperation between different groups during anti-government protests last year. Yet, CAM’s Van Valkenburg made clear that his group established that in many cases, "Large sums of money are offered to Christians if they become Buddhists."
When farmers need to borrow money to plant crops, he said, Buddhists can borrow from the government interest-free–but not Christians. "Food is given to Buddhists, but not to Christians. Now that the southern part of Burma has been devastated by a cyclone, will the government give out aid to the Christians right along with the Buddhists? Probably not," Van Valkenburg added.
That has apparently made the situation more difficult for at least one Rangoon-based mission organization assisted by CAM. "We lost the roof of our school buildings and members’ houses," a missionary said, speaking on condition of anonimity apparently for fear of repercussions. He said most of the roofs of at least nine churches and a Bible schools in Rangoon run by his group were severely damaged or blown off altogether. Hundreds of his church members throughout the delta region lost their houses, BosNewsLife learned.
He added that $400 to $800 are needed to rebuild each house, and an additional $7,000 to $8,000 to replace the roof of his Bible school building, huge amounts for Burmese standards. He stressed it would be “a safe refuge for many–if the Bible school had a roof” at a time when the rainy season rainy season is expected to start this month.
PROVISION
In addition, what little provision there is in the country is available only at exorbitant costs. Residents told BosNewsLife that gasoline was selling for $10 per gallon, causing public transportation prices to increase five-fold. A single egg reportedly sold for $3 a bottle water for $2. Renting a generator to run a pump to get fresh water costs $50 per hour, while buying such a generator would cost $2200, locals said on condition of anonymity.
"Today the situation in Burma is even more horrifying than it was on May 2," added CAM’s Mission Insider Report publication. Another report quoted a Burmese Christian leader as saying, "Many who survived the cyclone are now on the verge of death because of a lack of food, water, or shelter from the wind, rain, and cooler weather."
So far Burma’s ruling military junta has not allowed most non-Burmese relief personnel to leave Rangoon to reach the worse effected areas. Even relief trucks driven by Burmese workers have faced severe restrictions, aid workers revealed.
"The security officers told me not to distribute things along the road and gave me a pamphlet," an unidentified relief worker told the The Irrawaddy newspaper. The pamphlet reportedly claimed that the government had completed its emergency operations in the area and that distributing aid from the truck would “make the people of the area less willing to work.”
MISERY
Another Burmese writer, identified only as Marshall, described in The Irrawaddy how he drove
to the Irrawaddy Delta region with a team of Burmese citizens who work for an international non governmental organization. "Miserable, desperate, hopeless people lined the road," he recalled.
He said he saw no sign of government help. In one place police, "fully equipped with food and other supplies," visited an area but did nothing except check on outsiders entering the area, Marshall reported. "We were in tears as we returned home," he said.
As result of the aid, several people were baptized this month and are now conducting Bible studies in small groups of six to 12 people each, missionaries said. And, between the misery, missionaries and local Christians have spoken of "miracles" and "grace".
GRACE
Writing from Rangoon, also known as Yangon, a Christian worker said he experienced 22 hours of horror in what he called "the worst storm to hit Burma," also called Myanmar, in living memory. Yet, speaking on condition of anonymity, he said that his Rangoon-based Bible school suffered little damage.
One young man, married only in January, went on a 40-day fast April 26. When Nargis hit, he came out of his confinement. On May 9 he wrote to Christian supporters: "I had to come out of my prayer room as the storm hit our area because I am the only man in the family; the rest are ladies. Everyone was amazed as there was no damage at our home, while other houses were damaged…Even our landlord said, ‘God has protected you.’ God miraculously protected us…”
Another pastor, who did not want to be identified, said the night the cyclone struck, one of his church members gave birth to a baby girl. The villagers called her "the Nargis baby." Her parents named her "Grace."
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Donations for relief efforts can be done via ChristianAid.org or by calling 1-800-977-5650, officials told BosNewsLife. BosNewsLife’s MISSION WATCH is a regular look at missionaries working in the two-thirds world and other difficult areas and related developments.
(BosNewsLife Senior Mission Correspondent (Dr.) John M. Lindner is a writer on mission developments with over 25 years experience. He also heads World Christian Ministries (www.worldchristianministries.org), an organization dedicated to, and reporting on, the tribulation and triumphs of missionaries of the two-thirds world. He received a Doctor of Mission degree by Emmanuel Theological Seminary in Kota, India, in 2005. Dr. Lindner has authored two books: ‘God’s Special Agents’, depicting biographies of 12 mission leaders from the two-thirds world, and ‘The Mountains Shall Sing’, the story of P.M. Thomas and the Himalaya Evangelical Mission.)
