_ By Prof. Ma Tin Yee
[Prof Ma Tin Yee, fondly known by her pupils as Aunty Rosy, is the Director of the Empowering Women of Burma cum the Rector of AEIOU Programme of Chiang Mai University.]

 If the Burmese regime can successfully turn the natural catastrophe into a human disaster, we were wondering whether the so-called civilized community would follow its example and turn the Thai Burma border area into another man made disaster. It was already sometimes that the clarion calls goes out that the Thai Burma Border Commission (TBBC) is short of 7 million dollars, this year, just to keep the refugee camps running. Yet, they are not in a position to find additional funding.

 Protracted armed conflict and the harsh Burmese military rule for half a century (since 1962) has displaced millions of Burmese especially the ethnic minorities. As the world’s media spotlighted the plight of the Burmese Cyclone victims, the other humanitarian crisis of keeping the body and soul together of the 150,000 refugees in the border area is brewing up.

 The UNHCR has tried its level best even though rather paradoxical to learn that it is being taboo to assist the refugees as the Thai government is not a signatory to the 1954 Geneva Convention. Reading through the lines one can see a hush hush gentleman’s economic agreement between the Burmese Generals and their Thai counterparts. Hence, this heavy burden of looking after the refugees fell on the shoulders of NGOs composed mainly of humanitarian and Church organization which banded together and formed the Thai Burma Border Consortium to operate under Coordination Committee for the Stateless and Displaced Persons in Thailand (CCSDPT) supervised by the Thai Ministry of Interior. It was under this precarious scheme that the international community has generously responded with basic food, shelter, health care and education needs for over 20 years and everybody is thankful of that. The Thai authorities, with its suburb diplomacy and great experience, in dealing with the refugees since the Vietnamese war, are unlike the Burmese Generals who are crude in taking their share.

However, soaring global rice and oil prices during the past few months have left the primary provider of food aid under-funded for 2008.  Unless additional funds are urgently secured, rations will have to be reduced to half the international minimum standard of 2,100 kcals/ person/ day from August.  This would have a very destabilising affect on the camps and within a couple of months as we could expect not only significant increases in malnutrition and starvation, but also refugees are being forced to supplement their meagre food by going out and work with considerable risk, abuse and exploitation.

 Hence, when I read the email, from Sally Thompson, the Executive Director of TBBC “Rosy, I regret to inform you that TBBC is unable to support the nursery school lunch programme,” I stood aghast.  Once a fugitive myself, and a mother of five children that has to make both ends meet, I could not comprehend at the thought of these little innocents kids being rob of their meal? TBBC sensing the physical and mental growth of the children has been providing lunch in a place where the children food is extinct. Even though malnutrition is endemic, at least we can give a happy childhood.

 Empowering Women of Burma implementing several economic return projects including dozens of nursery schools in this area could not handle this extempore intrusion and I am sure several local organizations would face such a crisis. But, even an insignificant organization like us, who can maintain our projects, could send medical doctors and teams of students into the worst hit area of Burma, I see no reason of why the government backed NGOs and individuals of the first world could not take the incentive? We do not belief the French episode “of a man giving up half of its attire to a naked man becomes both half- naked”, because the pockets of the 1st world countries are deep enough to afford another set of clothes.

 Sometimes I wonder, whether megaphone diplomacy should be adopted as our world depends much on the media highlight for the forgotten refugees languishing in the malarias infested jungle of Thai-Burma border and prevent the second man made catastrophe.