06/17/2006

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Below is an excerpt of an article from The Epoch Times:

Despite United Nations' request to release of Nobel laureate and Burma's opposition leader Aung Suu Kyi from a 10-year house arrest, global action is still lacking to address the ongoing abuses in the country run by a military regime.

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Little has been done by the international community to address the oppressive situation in Burma. Unlike countries like Sudan or Somalia, which have received wide-spread attention due to the ongoing human rights abuses, Burma remains in the largely "untouched territory".

In the Asian Tribune report Kavita Shukla, author of the book Ending the Waiting Game, argues that the crisis in Burma has reached a point people simply cannot wait any longer for outside assistance. Immediate problems include health services, education, food production and building the capacity of civil society organizations.

"The Burmese people suffer from disease, malnutrition and poverty at alarming rates and those who have been forced from their homes are particularly vulnerable," said Ms Shukla, also Advocate for Refugees International in the same report. "It is unconscionable to sit back and watch their plight without taking concrete measures to help them," she added.

Burma receives a little more than $100 million in international aid each year, about $2 per person in a country of about 50 million.

Australia has been providing relief assistance to displaced Burmese people living in camps along the Thai-Burma border since 1984. Care Australia special project to improve rural household livelihood contributed $A3.4 million over the last five years.