The international community should insist it will not deliver aid to Burma unless the country’s ruling military junta opens the country’s borders, a leader of the Burmese Canadian community has said.

The Burmese military and authorities are very, very corrupt,” Tin Maung Htoo, executive director of Canadian Friends of Burma, told the Straight. “The military is blocking and taking away aid at the airport or at the borders, and they should be distributing aid to the people.”

Nearly two weeks have passed since a devastating cyclone ripped through south Burma. Since then, the international community has slammed the ruling military junta for blocking international relief efforts.

Making the situation all the more dire is a second cyclone reported by USA Today to be headed towards Burma’s already-devastated Irrawaddy province.

Speaking from Ottawa, Htoo said that his sources inside Burma report that food and supplies from the international community can already be found on the black market, indicating that aid is not getting to the right people.

“That is why I support the international aid agencies and the Canadian government insisting that aid should only be handed to the people in need; not to the military government,” Htoo said.

Vancouver resident Htay Aung fought against Burma’s government in the 1980s, before immigrating to Canada. He is now a member of the Burmese Student Democratic Organization, a Vancouver-based group of Burmese Canadians. Aung still has a sister in Rangoon, Burma’s capital, whom he has not been able to contact since the cyclone hit.

“The emergency aid and relief organizations are arriving at the airport, and then they cannot get to the survivors,” Aung said, relaying the message he has heard from contacts inside Burma.

Aung told the Straight that the Canadian government should not deliver aid to Burma if the military junta insists on all aid going through the regime. He argued that money spent in this way is “wasted”, and questioned what the Burmese military regime was doing for survivors.

A Red Cross estimate said Cyclone Nargis’s death toll could be as high as 128,000, according to a May 14 BBC News report.

According to a government of Canada media release, a global day of action on Burma will take place on May 17.

Events will be held in Vancouver and across Canada, Htoo said, with the objective of creating awareness about the disaster and pressuring the United Nations Security Council to take action on forcing Burma’s government to allow aid workers into the country.

Vancouver’s rally is scheduled to take place at Robson Square at 11 a.m.