Aid group forced to stop helping flood victims on Ma Ba Tha orders

Source mmtimes, 30 July

Hardline monks have flexed their muscles amid the desolation of Sagaing Region's floods, ordering a prominent aid group to leave the area and describing National League for Democracy and other volunteers as "troublemaking groups".

A Chanmya Thukha ambulance parks in Kawlin shortly before the local aid group returned to Mandalay on July 28. (Wa Lone/The Myanmar Times)

Flooding has devastated large areas of northern Sagaing Region, with Kawlin the worst-affected area. A total of 48,532 people in Kawlin – more than one-third of its population of 145,297 – were affected by the flooding, the Relief and Resettlement Department reported on July 23, with many forced to leave their homes.

But the secretary of the Kawlin township branch of the Committee for the Protection of Race and Religion, better known by its Myanmar-language acronym Ma Ba Tha, insisted in an interview with The Myanmar Times that aid could only be delivered with approval of a central committee set up by the government, local civil society and the township Sangha committee.

On July 27, the Ma Ba Tha branch told the Mandalay-based social welfare organisation Chanmya Thukha to leave Kawlin because it had not coordinated its activities with this central committee and also ignored instructions from senior Ma Ba Tha monks in the area.

"We demanded they leave Kawlin because the groups sent by Chanmya Thukha … just did what they wanted to do by collaborating with illegal groups from the NLD and other troublemaking organisations," said U Dhammasiri, secretary of the Ma Ba Tha branch in Kawlin.

U Dhammasiri added that Ma Ba Tha would "not take responsibility if unregistered groups face any problems" in Kawlin.

"In providing relief here, we have to manage the timing with the central committee. Nobody's allowed to just deliver aid separately, in any way they want."

U Dhammasiri said Chanmya Thukha had been reported to Kawlin township's General Administration Department and the commander of the local Light Infantry Division.

The Kawlin Flood Victim Relief Committee was formed by government departments, local philanthropic groups and the township Sangha Nayaka Committee shortly after heavy rains brought flooding to the township in mid-July.

Chanmya Thukha returned to Mandalay on July 28, but said the decision to do so was not related to the Ma Ba Tha order. However, the NLD office in Kawlin confirmed that the group's departure was because of "severe and repeated" warnings from Ma Ba Tha. Chanmya Thukha transferred its remaining supplies to the Kawlin Flood Victim Relief Committee when it departed for Mandalay.

More than 50 volunteers from the group had been distributing relief to people affected by flooding since July 22. They had stationed themselves at San Thaw Thar home for the aged near Ywarma village, at the edge of Kawlin town, and worked together with local organisations and others from Yangon, Pakokku in Magwe Region and Twante in rural Yangon.

Chanmya Thukha member Ko Thar Nyi rejected suggestions that his organisation had done anything "illegal".

"We were providing relief to real flood victims there," he said.

NLD members in Kawlin had also used the home for the aged as a base for their relief programs, with about 30 volunteers helping to provide supplies to needy households.

Daw Phyu Phyu Win, the head of the party's Kawlin branch, said the NLD had helped Chanmya Thukha set up their relief operation but they were working separately. She described the dispute as "shameful".

"We helped the victims and [Chanmya Thukha] cared for our people in the same way. That these problems happened in our township is so shameful," she said.

Other Ma Ba Tha members sought to distance themselves from U Dhammasiri's fiery remarks.

U Pandicca from War Yone Tone monastery in Kawlin said his comments did not reflect the opinion of all of the group's members in Kawlin.

"Because of this, many flood victims might suffer loss. Donor groups should provide aid freely. Don't stop providing assistance," he said, pledging his support to help any group that encountered difficulties delivering assistance.

The conflict between Ma Ba Tha and Chanmya Thukha was the result of a "misunderstanding", said Ko Aung Myo Wai, a spokesperson for the Kawlin Flood Victim Relief Committee.

He insisted that the committee was not formed to control donors.

"We don't want our people to be treated as though they are beggars so we are just requesting donors not to distribute aid in this way," he said. "We never supervise donors or ask them to inform us about their activities."

Translation by Thiri Min Htun