Myanmar junta blocking life-saving aid from reaching millions of displaced people: Human Rights Watch

Myanmar's military junta is blocking desperately needed humanitarian aid from reaching millions of displaced people and others at risk, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

The United Nations, the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and concerned governments should press the State Administration Council (SAC) junta to urgently allow aid to reach all those in need.

In recent months, the junta and its security forces have imposed new travel restrictions on humanitarian workers, blocked access roads and aid convoys, destroyed non-military supplies, attacked aid workers, and shut down telecommunications services, US-based international non-governmental organization, Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

The February 1 military coup also triggered widespread infrastructure collapse and a severe devaluation of the Myanmar currency, leading to increasingly dire banking and supply chain crises and shortages of food, medicine, and other essentials.

"Myanmar's junta has worsened a self-created humanitarian catastrophe by displacing hundreds of thousands of people and then blocking the critical support they need to survive," said Shayna Bauchner, Asia researcher.

"The generals are callously denying lifesaving assistance to people affected by conflict since the military takeover, seemingly as a form of punishment."

While Myanmar authorities have long impeded access to aid for vulnerable groups, the military junta has established new restrictions, creating a nationwide humanitarian catastrophe. The UN estimates that the number of people needing assistance will grow from 1 million before the coup to 14.4 million by 2022, including more than 5 million children. About 25 million people, or half the population, could be living below the national poverty line.

A man displaced in 2011 and now living in a camp outside Laiza, Kachin State, told Human Rights Watch: "Since the coup, NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] that provide food couldn't travel easily to the camp and they cannot transfer funding easily. Many people used to go outside of the camp for day jobs and to support families, but because of the coup and Covid-19, there aren't many job opportunities left they could do."

The junta's interference in relief operations has disregarded calls for unhindered aid delivery by the UN General Assembly, Human Rights Council, and Security Council, the European Parliament, and donor governments. The UN relief chief, Martin Griffiths, said on November 8 that "access to many people in desperate need across the country remains extremely limited due to bureaucratic impediments put in place by the armed forces."

He called on the junta to "facilitate safe, rapid, and unimpeded humanitarian access."

( With inputs from ANI )

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