By Violet Cho
July 25, 2007—Providing grants to community-based organizations, or CBOs, is an effective way for Britain to channel aid for Burmese refugees and internally displaced persons and bypassing the military regime, a committee of the British Parliament said on Wednesday.
Burmese refugees and IDPs receive treatment at very few clinics like Mae Tao Clinic in Thailand's border town Mae Sot
"Funding CBOs provides donors with the means to support human rights and democracy work within Burma," said the parliamentary International Development Committee in a special report.
While welcoming the 3D Fund, an EU-supported initiative designed to tackle HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Burma, the report raised doubts whether it could "reach sufficient numbers of IDPs or other vulnerable groups living in border and conflict areas."
The report recommended the British government's Department for International Development to fund exiled groups assisting IDPs and other vulnerable groups.
The report singled out the exiled trade union movement and women's groups as particularly worthy of support. Providing support for such groups would have the simultaneous benefit of supporting and raising awareness about the plight of those displaced by the military regime and of building capacity for a future democratic transition, the report said.
The exiled Federal Trade Union of Burma welcomed the committee's recommendations, saying it hoped they would boost labor rights and help solve ongoing migrant problems.
FTBU human rights secretary Min Lwin said: "Labor rights are a serious problem in Burma. Because there are no labor rights in Burma, people are fleeing to neighboring countries. If we get more support, we can campaign for labor rights inside Burma and at the same time we can increase awareness among Burmese migrants about their labor rights."
The report emphasized that its recommendations for funding aid work in Burma did not mean "business as usual." It said: "The risk of funding reaching an illegal and repressive military junta must be absolutely minimized."
Political and humanitarian "space" to carry out the process of poverty reduction and humanitarian assistance in Burma is highly constrained and operating conditions for aid agencies in Burma remain very challenging, the report said. The military regime's restrictions on aid agencies meant that the capacity of partner organizations to spend aid money effectively was low, it added.