CHARITY CONDEMNED BREAKING OF RULES.
Save the Children have been condemned this week for inadvertently handing over DFID aid to the Burmese military dictatorship.
A written Parliamentary statement of 18th June has revealed that Save the Children handed over 9,000 plastic sheets paid for by UK taxpayers to the regime. The official report written by Douglas Alexander, the Secretary of State for International Development on the Burma Cyclone Nargis stated that “none of the UK ’s assistance will go through the Burmese regime.”
The reason UK aid rules forbid British aid being distributed through the regime is because it may be at risk of being stolen or even used for propaganda purposes. However, the regime claimed that they would use the sheeting to repair housing that was hit by the cyclone.
“We are outraged that Save the Children gave British aid to the dictatorship,” said Anna Roberts, Director of Burma Campaign UK . “Sadly there is also no guarantee that the regime will distribute aid on the basis of need. Instead it can go to favoured business people or regime allies.”
The 9,000 sheets were part of an overall consignment of 131,000 sheets that had been delivered by DFID to international NGOs, the Red Cross and the UN to assist the victims of the cyclone which devastated the country seven weeks ago.
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27th June 2008
- the latest from Burma