2/24/25, 3:23 PM Myanmar: Recklessly abrupt US aid stoppage poses existential threat to human rights - Amnesty International Since the Myanmar military took power in a 2021 coup, armed conflict has intensified across the country. Ever-increasing military air strikes have killed civilians and targeted schools, hospitals and monasteries, while elsewhere the military has targeted protesters, activists and journalists. Funded by USAID, civil society organizations across Myanmar help civilians, journalists and human rights defenders find shelter, aid and safety in exile if they have to flee the country. Groups in southeastern Myanmar, an area particularly hard-hit by military air strikes, run several US-funded programs which can be considered life-saving. They provide mobile medical units in frontline areas, help pay for hospital referrals for more advanced care and assist civilians in the aftermath of an air strike to find food and shelter. “At the same time as all the air strikes, all the bombings…artillery attacks, displacement…the funding has been stopped,” said Saw Diamond Khin, director of the Karen Department of Health and Welfare, which assists seven districts in southeastern Myanmar. “It is very tough days for us.” No waivers for life-saving work Saw Thar Win, from the Ethnic Health Systems Strengthening Group, said his organization had planned to deliver portable, battery-charged ultrasound and X-ray machines to conflictaffected communities in Myanmar. One set can serve an estimated 50,000 people. But the stop work order meant the machines were just sitting in boxes in his office because the funding for transporting it had been impacted. Another community-based health provider said the pause in US funding meant that they can no longer support urgent life-saving treatment inside Myanmar. Their funding had supported costs for emergency surgery to treat wounds from air strikes or other armed conflict injuries, as well as neonatal emergency treatment and surgery for appendicitis and blood transfusions. Despite the announcement of waivers at the end of January, medicines for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, as well as support for mental health services for those traumatized by the armed conflict, have been similarly affected. Not one group Amnesty spoke to said they had been given any communication or confirmation of a waiver for life-saving work, even though their operations, such as helping feed, shelter and treat people in war zones, would clearly qualify. All said they lacked clear communication from US agencies such as USAID and their partners on the grounds. The Overseas Irrawaddy Association – which provides emergency relocation for hundreds of activists inside Myanmar, where protesters are routinely imprisoned and tortured by the military – said the freeze has affected their ability to support hundreds of at-risk individuals. “By removing the ability of these organizations to protect some of the most vulnerable people inside Myanmar, the US is effectively giving the rights-abusing Myanmar military an invaluable gift in their crackdown on the right to freedom of expression and information,” Freeman said. “People are now more vulnerable to arrest, to torture, and for those who have fled to Thailand and rely on funding for shelter, to deportation back to Myanmar. The US must immediately https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/02/myanmar-recklessly-abrupt-us-aid-stoppage-poses-existential-threat-to-human-rights/ 4/7