Myanmar junta boss Min Aung Hlaing on Saturday pleaded for foreign aid to help hundreds of thousands of flood victims, after having looted the state disaster relief fund following his coup in 2021.
Floods and landslides caused by torrential rain brought by Typhoon Yagi killed more than 400 people in Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand last week, regional reports say.
In Myanmar, the death toll has risen to 113, with 64 still missing and more than 300,000 people forced from their homes, the regime said on Sunday. The actual number of flood deaths is thought to be far higher.
Clad in a neatly ironed military uniform and shiny shoes, Min Aung Hlaing ventured out of his war office to tour flood-hit areas in Naypyitaw on Friday. He told junta officials “to contact foreign countries to receive rescue and relief aid to be provided to the victims.”
The international community including Myanmar’s neighbors stand ready to provide relief aid to the conflict-ravaged country.
However, they will be aware that Myanmar’s military has previously blocked or hindered dispersal of humanitarian aid from abroad.
In May last year, the military suspended travel authorization for aid groups trying to reach around one million victims of Cyclone Mocha in Rakhine State, western Myanmar. The United Nations called the decision “unfathomable”.
The regime is now reportedly blocking relief aid donated by community members in the flood disaster zone.
Donors who deployed five lifeboats to one of the flood-hit areas wrote on social media that four of the boats had been seized at a junta checkpoint with only one allowed to pass through.
Junta soldiers also seized boats from a charity that was preparing a rescue operation in case of flooding in southern Myanmar, said charity workers.
Myanmar’s military leaders have a history of blocking outside aid whenever natural disaster strikes.
When cyclone Nargis killed some 138,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands in 2008, the then-junta blocked emergency aid and initially refused to grant access to humanitarian workers and supplies. Volunteers who helped cremate the bodies of flood victims were arrested.
Successive military regimes have sidelined the Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Ministry. Only when the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by the now-ousted Daw Aung San Suu Kyi came to power in 2016 did the ministry start functioning effectively.
The junta jailed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and NLD government President U Win Myint over an array of charges including alleged corruption in the rental and purchase of a helicopter for use during natural disasters.
One retired director-general said military leaders view aircraft as military equipment and a luxury. Min Aung Hlaing has two airliners and a helicopter on standby for his exclusive use – two Fokkers named Air Force 002 and Air Force 003 and an MI-17 chopper.
No helicopter was reserved for the president under the NLD government. When government officials needed one for a rescue operation or to visit disaster-hit areas, they had to request permission in writing from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of Defense Forces.
The military rarely granted the requests but occasionally gave the nod on condition that the NLD government pay for use of the aircraft.
This policy forced the NLD government to rent a helicopter with disaster relief funds donated by people from at home and abroad, eventually leading to its purchase.
After the coup, the regime accused Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and U Win Myint of squandering government funds on the helicopter.
Henry Van Thio, former vice president of the ousted NLD government served as a defense witness at their trial inside Naypyitaw Prison in December 2022. As chairman of the NLD’s natural disaster management committee, he testified that all procedures, rules and regulations were followed in the rental and purchase of the helicopter.
The helicopter contract was put out to tender, with three companies submitting bids. A company owned by U Lin Htin, grandson of former military chief General Thura Kyaw Htin, won the tender and purchased the helicopter. U Lin Htin also testified that the helicopter purchase was transparent and above board.
Casting aside the testimony, judge U Myint Hsan declared the two NLD leaders guilty of corruption and handed them seven years each in prison.
However, it was in fact Min Aung Hlaing who violated financial rules and regulations in redirecting disaster relief funds to other sectors.
On Feb. 1, 2021, when the Myanmar military grabbed power from the NLD government, there was over 440 billion kyats left in the state disaster response fund.
A senior officer who served in the Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Ministry under the NLD government said: “We can’t predict disasters so we must prepare for them. We must keep emergency relief supplies. This is why we had set up funds.”
Disaster Management Department director-general Dr Ko Ko Naing assumed responsibility for cash donated to the disaster response fund. He is now Secretary of the Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Ministry.
After the putsch, Min Aung Hlaing siphoned 370 billion kyats from the fund and distributed it to his chief ministers at state and regional levels for agricultural and development efforts. Of the remaining 70 billion kyats, he lent 30 billion to small- and medium-scale companies to grow oil crops, according to former officials of the ministry.
As a result, when the highest rainfall in five decades triggered floods across the country last week, the disaster relief coffers were practically empty. An estimated 300,000 flood victims are now struggling with severe shortages of food, shelter and medicines due to the shortsightedness of junta top brass.
Generals however have always been eager to do one thing when Myanmar is hit by disasters: portray themselves as rescuers. True to form, they are now appearing in photos splashed across regime media, though their uniforms remain immaculate, without a drop of water or a speck mud to be seen.
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