Burma/Myanmar
Recent Conflict
Burma’s history is one of ongoing conflict which really reaches the ears of the international community. However, several emergencies have raised international attention in recent years.
In 2007 peaceful street demonstrations across Burma lead to a crackdown in police brutality now known as the Saffron Revolution. On August 15 the junta raised fuel prices by 500%. People were unprepared and unable to cope. Citizens began peaceful street protests, demanding that the military regime resolve the county’s ongoing economic problems. In an unprecedented move, monks and nuns then joined the demonstrations. The military junta retaliated with unexpected violence, beating those in the street, raiding monasteries, disrobing monks, killing many and imprisoning thousands. Today, many still remain as political prisoners.
On the 2nd of May 2008 Cyclone Nargis hit the Irrawaddy Delta. In the greatest natural disaster in the country’s history, an estimated 130,000 people died and the lives of 2.4 million people in the delta have been severely affected. Despite the severity of the devastation in the initial few weeks the Junta refused assistance from the international community. The government's failure to permit entry for large-scale international relief efforts was described by the United Nations as "unprecedented." Act for Peace’s partners responding to this disaster were instrumental in ensuring hundreds of thousands of people received assistance. Thanks to our generous supporters and the combined efforts of Australian churches and individuals, we were able to send over $500,000 to the people affected by the cyclone. Our partner’s ongoing efforts are allowing people in Burma to recover, provide for their families and re-establish their lives.
In 2008 the world also turned a small amount of attention to the plight of Burma’s Rohingyas, and to the famine in Chin state.
In 2009 the ongoing injustice perpetrated against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), hit international headlines once again. Imprisoned under house arrest for most of the previous 17 years as a result of her efforts to restore democracy, Daw Suu Kyi was tried and sentenced for an additional 18 months house arrest for violating the terms of her house arrest when she allowed American John Yettaw to remain in her home compound for two nights after he swam across the lake and entered her home. This sentence will block Suu Kyi from involvement in elections planned for 2010.
In August 2009, escalation in the conflict between the Burmese and the ethnic minority groups living in Burma’s eastern states saw tens of thousands of new refugees flee across the Burma/China and Burma/Thailand borders. Conflicts amongst armed forces in the eastern states have continued for 60 years, leaving more than 500,000 people currently displaced from their homes and fending for their lives on the run in the jungle, or in insecure displaced persons camps. Over 135,000 refugees currently reside in refugee camps on the Thailand/Burma border.
