Myanmar junta requests aid after deadly floods: 'They use aid for weapons'

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00:00Typhoon Yagi, Myanmar's junta asking for foreign aid, for more let's speak to a man that goes by

00:06one name, Dr. Sasa. He is a member of Myanmar's exiled national unity government. He's the

00:11minister for international cooperation. Thank you for speaking to Paris Direct. Just want to begin

00:18first of all, the humanitarian situation obviously very dire in the country already. Myanmar has been

00:23in turmoil since the military coup in 2021, violence in large parts of the country. From

00:28what you're hearing, how has a storm exacerbated the humanitarian situation?

00:35Thank you so much indeed for having me today. My country Burma has been suffering

00:42for not only these typhoons of nature disasters, but also man-made disasters

00:50on top of what the military coup have been doing. So now we are hearing many people are

00:57stuck on the trees, on the roof for many days, many nights, and they are stuck and dying. And

01:05this morning we hear that at least 100 bodies were recovered and many thousands people are missing

01:16in this landslide or this flood. And the military has every opportunity to prevent,

01:25to evacuate the people, but it seems they do nothing but drawn the bomb from the sky

01:33to these villages. And they have done absolutely nothing. This is what the disaster that they want

01:40happened on the people of Burma. Do you think some of this could have been avoidable? You're

01:45accusing the government of an action. Why would they be appealing for international aid?

01:50This is not a new thing. 2008, there was a cyclone that killed more than 100,000 people of Burma.

02:01And international community came and they refused any aid to enter the country. It seems they used

02:09humanitarian assistance as weapons, as weapons to oppress more people. So now again, they are asking

02:18international community to help so that they can use aid for weapons. No international community

02:26must give any aid to the military junta of Burma. They are not a military that protect the people.

02:34They are the military that kill its own people for the last four years. In fact, they have killed

02:40In fact, they have killed more than 6,000 since the 2021 coup. So it seems the international

02:47community must help the people of Burma through the legitimate government of Burma,

02:54that is the national unity government of Myanmar. We are raising the funding to help the flood

03:00victims and the victims of man-made crashes and the victims of these natural disasters. No one

03:07should help the military through the military to the people because the people of Burma will not

03:13even get any aid that's given to the military. On that note, Dr. Sasa, if you don't want foreign

03:20governments to provide this foreign assistance to Myanmar's junta, but rather to the exiled

03:26government, which you are a member of, how would you then route that aid into Myanmar if your own

03:33government is in exile? We have now 60% of the country have been liberated by our opposition

03:41forces. The freedom fighters are working day and night in this flood area to provide assistance.

03:49Yes, we are partially exiled, but most of our teams, education, healthcare, these emergency

03:56assistance teams are there on the ground. We know all the mechanisms. It has been working.

04:03So what we are asking is, if international community give this assistance to the people

04:09of Burma through the military, we can currently know those aid will reach the people of Burma.

04:17That's why we are asking international community to give to national unity government of Myanmar,

04:23which is doing everything its power to provide assistance. So we have got a mechanism in place.

04:31We don't have the resources. We are asking the national community to do everything they can

04:36through us. In regards to the people on the ground in Myanmar, some of the most vulnerable

04:41places will obviously be rural areas or hilly and mountainous terrain. Since the junta came to power,

04:48getting reliable information was made more difficult in the country. How are people

04:53finding out about what resources are available or how to find emergency and rescue teams or to seek

05:00out shelter? Now we have to be, we came to a realization that these international community

05:11help need to be localized, meaning that the local people know how to do. All aids given to

05:19the people of Burma must be decentralized. It cannot follow the way how traditional way used

05:26to do, meaning that these local people are spending some nights on the tree, some nights on the roof,

05:33and they are not having any resources. If they are given the resources, they know how to do.

05:40The local people know how to do with their life. That's the military. So we are asking the

05:46national community. Yes, it's very difficult circumstances. Yes, it's a very, very critical

05:52moment that my country is facing dual disasters. One is made by the military. The other one is

05:59made by nature disasters. The people of Burma cannot survive anymore with this dual crisis.

06:06We need all possible help by international community to give to the people of Burma

06:12directly. It has to be direct aid to the people of Burma. And are there any, sorry to interrupt,

06:18are there any options? Remind us about the presence or lack thereof of international

06:24aid groups on the ground in Myanmar or whether they've been expelled since the junta took power.

06:30We know that there's some international presence in Yangon. We know that there's

06:35international aid organizations on the ground. But again, what we know is also that these

06:42international organizations are not free from the military junta framework of how to deliver

06:49this aid. But the military is making this aid impossible to reach the people of Myanmar

06:57by four cards policy. Card of communication, card of access, card of health care, card of

07:03basic supplies to the people. So mean is that that is the strategy and the policy that the

07:09military are implementing. Even though we have got international community on the ground,

07:14they are not able to deliver these aids to the most in need community. Yes, they can deliver

07:21some to Yangon. Maybe they can deliver some to this part of the country. But largely,

07:27most of the country are being restricted local area by military junta imposed on international

07:35aid worker. They are not allowed to do what they have to do. And just one final question,

07:41you touched on it at the beginning of our conversation. You said that the junta is

07:46trying to weaponize foreign assistance, but previously the junta has blocked or frustrated

07:50humanitarian assistance entering the country. So the sign that it's actually appealing

07:55for that help now, what does that reveal about the state of the junta?

08:01So we have to understand that my country now we need, before this nature disasters come,

08:0819 million people of my country need life saving assistance. They have already made

08:14three million people of my country homeless by the military junta aggression against their own

08:19people. So we are looking at this picture. So 45 millions are under the poverty line.

08:26So the military have proved themselves that they are the enemy of the people of Burma.

08:31Meaning that anything that need to do with the military has to be avoided. They have to bypass

08:38everything and they have to do things through legitimate government of Myanmar. The military

08:44are losing. This nature disaster could have been prevented if these people are evacuated

08:51before it come. They know that it's coming. They know that it was happening, but they do nothing

08:58to prevent. Instead they block the people to go to those area. They are not trying to do anything.

09:04They are trying to weaponize so that the people of Burma surrender to them. But the people of Burma

09:10will never give up, will never surrender until they get their own freedom. And one final point,

09:16we saw figures coming out of Myanmar on Friday that over 30 people had been killed by the storm.

09:23Have you heard any updated figures as to the number of casualties? As of now, we have got

09:30at least 300 people being killed. Only in Myanmar because the number we're seeing is 300,

09:38but that includes surrounding countries as well. This morning, the data coming to my desk

09:44say that at least they have recovered only one place, 100 body and 300 are missing.

09:51Another report say that that is only from this freedom fighter area. We have know that 35 people

09:59body have been recovered. So there's communication cut off. There is no communication to many part

10:05of these places. So all my data is saying here already 300 number, each body has been founded.

10:13All right. Dr. Sasa, thank you very much for your time. Thank you for speaking to Paris Direct.

10:17Thank you very much. Thank you for having me.

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