Перейти к основному содержанию

The Border Consortium Mid-Year Overview: January to June 2022

Страны
Мьянма
+ 1
Источники
TBC
Дата публикации
Происхождение
Просмотреть оригинал

CONTEXT

Field reports from TBC’s partners in southeastern Myanmar documented the escalation of widespread and systematic attacks against civilian populations since the military coup. These attacks included military assaults on civilian settlements, fields, schools, churches and medical clinics. Roving Myanmar Armed Forces (MAF) patrols committed murder, torture and rape of civilians suspected of supporting opposition groups. In 2022, the MAF seems to be increasingly resorting to air strikes and heavy artillery fire. This deliberate military strategy increases the indiscriminate nature of attacks putting more civilian lives at risk in violation of customary international law.

Without a multi-lateral mandate to address the political causes of the complex emergency in Myanmar, UN international engagement with the State Administration Council (SAC) has focused on securing humanitarian access. However, there has not been proportionate engagement with other political stakeholders such as the National Unity Government and ethnic revolutionary forces.

A review of the Humanitarian Response Plan’s (HRP’s) Mid-Year Report for 2022 indicates that 81% of food aid beneficiaries during the first half of 2022 were in urban areas of Yangon and Rakhine State. Only 16% of the HRP’s beneficiaries were internally displaced or stateless persons. In contrast, the most urgent needs were in rural areas where the MAF were targeting attacks against ethnic minorities. The SAC has deliberately obstructed multilateral aid from reaching displaced and conflict-affected communities in rural areas.

Commonly reproduced estimates of internal displacement appear to grossly understate the scale and distribution of people forced to flee from their homes. UNHCR estimated that there are 274,000 IDPs in southeastern Myanmar in July 2022, whereas the Karen National Union estimate that there are 347,000 internally displaced Karen alone while the Karenni Civil Society Network estimates that 202,000 Karenni have been displaced since the military coup. Even discounting the Shan, Mon and other ethnic groups, these assessments of internal displacement amongst Karen and Karenni communities are double the official UN estimates.

The ASEAN Humanitarian Agency's (AHA) lack of experience in responding to complex emergencies was highlighted when it agreed with the SAC to conduct a needs assessment in southeastern Myanmar. OCHA and the AHA Center then proceeded to approach relevant ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) about securing access but were rebuked for consulting too little and too late. The EAOs indicated they would be willing to engage with the AHA Center in planning assessments to be conducted by local civil society partners, but were not willing to allow SAC to instrumentalise militarisation under the guise of humanitarian aid. The AHA Center tried to go ahead with their plan regardless only for the missions to be suspended when local MAF authorities denied access into rural areas.

More than 15,000 people crossed into Thailand during this period. All new arrivals, in accordance with Thai Policy, were denied official access to the existing nine refugee camps with many instead kept in tightly controlled “temporary safety areas” . Numerous protection issues have been raised regarding these “temporary safety areas” and their suitability for human habitation. Access to these areas has been tightly restricted, increasing the challenges of providing protection and humanitarian aid. Many new arrivals have been coerced to return, under the knowledge they will not be granted long term refuge in Thailand.

78,755 refugees remain in nine camps in Thailand. In these camps the COVID-19 vaccination programme continued and by the end of June 25,793 (33%) refugees over 18 had received at least one dose, with 23,277 (30%) refugees being fully vaccinated. During this reporting period there were 6,579 cumulative cases of COVID-19, with 43 deaths from COVID-19 related illness.