The work in Burma is being done under Baroness Caroline Cox's leadership with local on the ground partners. This is the work that HART-US wants to leverage support for and to assist in bringing awareness to through its US partners.

Background

Burma is the largest country is South-East Asia. Ethnically diverse, it is made up of 135 ethnic groups. Formerly part of the British Commonwealth, Burma achieved independence from the UK in 1948, and has been ruled by military governments since 1962. Despite multiparty elections in 1990, which resulted in the main opposition party winning a landslide victory, the ruling junta, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), previously known as State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), refused to hand over power and remain in government today. The military regime has continued to prioritize military expenditure, spending over 40% of its national budget on defense and doubling the size of the Burma army to over 400,000 soldiers since 1988, whilst under 1% is spent on health and education combined. Tragically, the only war that Burma is fighting is against its own people.

As a result of such an inappropriate prioritization of national spending, the regime has failed to support adequately vital public services. There are insufficient schools and public health facilities, particularly in rural areas. Where they do exist, they are understaffed and poorly supplied. School costs have risen sharply, to levels that are impossible for most families who survive on labor wages. Burma’s healthcare system is in a dire situation, ranked by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the second worst above Sierra Leone. A third of children under five suffer from severe malnutrition.

Despite substantial natural resources, Burma is one of the poorest countries in Asia. Corruption, narcotics trafficking, prostitution and AIDS are also major problems.

The SPDC are responsible for carrying out brutal crimes against humanity, targeting civilians in a counter-insurgency strategy that contravenes international humanitarian law. The ‘Four Cuts’ policy aims to undermine the armed opposition’s access to recruits, information, supplies and finances by forcibly relocating villages from contested areas into government controlled areas.

In 2006 alone, a survey by the Thai-Burma Border Consortium estimated 82,000 people were forced to leave their homes as a result of, or in order to avoid, the effects of armed conflict and human rights abuses. In eastern Burma alone, 232 villages were destroyed, forcibly relocated, or otherwise abandoned. Since 1996, over a million people are understood to have been displaced from their homes.