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Burma to Allow 160 Asian Aid Workers
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Among the people trying to get aid into the cyclone zone are Burmese living abroad. Thailand alone has an estimated 1.5 million migrant workers and political dissidents from the country.
For six days after Nargis destroyed his home town of Bogalay, Win Min, an exiled Burmese political science lecturer in Thailand, was distraught over the fate of family and friends. After repeated efforts to call, he finally reached a family friend, who found his relatives sitting in the rain, their home destroyed. They were otherwise unscathed.
He and other academics have been translating relevant information from U.N. Web sites -- on such topics as how to dispose of bodies -- into Burmese and sending it to friends in Burma who are involved in impromptu volunteer relief efforts.
"It's beyond stress, and beyond sadness, seeing all your fellow citizens suffering like this," Win Min said. "It's very, very terrible -- beyond comprehension. At least this is something I can do."
Some Burmese university students are rushing home with cash and supplies, and volunteering in the disaster zone. Others, unable to return for financial, political or other reasons, are donating cash, supplies or advice from abroad.
Htoo Chit, director of Human Rights Education and Development, which educates the children of Burmese workers, said some migrants from the worst affected areas have returned from the beach resorts of southern Thailand to search for family members.
"Migrants are really angry that foreigners want to help the disaster victims but the government is not allowing them to go there," said Ko Ko Aung, a Burmese volunteer with Thailand's Labor Rights Promotion Network. "Even though the migrants' own situation is not so good, they are trying to collect clothes, or medicine, or money or whatever they can offer."
For the most part, support from Burmese living overseas is being sent though informal channels, including a complex, preexisting underground financial network. The aid goes to trusted local institutions and groups, including Buddhist monasteries, which are trying to shelter and assist homeless victims.
But initiatives are under pressure from military authorities, who are determined to control the relief effort and uneasy about the potential for unrest. Some monasteries have been ordered to stop taking large donations and to send all refugees to makeshift government shelters in schools.
"This is a very paternalistic regime," Win Min said. "They want people to rely on them, depend on them. That is why they don't want other people to distribute food -- it will undermine their legitimacy."
Still, the determination to help is strong. Ko Taw, a Burmese engineer in Singapore, donated $300, as well as some used clothes for men, women and children that his family washed and carefully ironed before taking them to an impromptu collection center in a mall popular among the city-state's Burmese residents.
"We feel so sad for the victims -- we are doing everything in our capacity to help," Ko Taw said. "But it is no substitute for international aid."
Staff writer Glenn Kessler in Washington contributed to this report.
