Irrawaddy-Feb 12
A center will be established in the “humanitarian corridor” on the Myanmar-Thai border within one month to deliver aid to people displaced by fighting in Myanmar, Thai government spokesman Chai Wacharonke said on Friday. It will deliver food and medical supplies from the Thai Red Cross Society to its counterpart in Myanmar, he told the Bangkok Post. Deliveries will arrive via the 2nd customs checkpoint in Tak’s Mae Sot district through the Mae Sot-Myawaddy checkpoint and the 2nd Thai-Myanmar Bridge for disbursement in areas where displaced people are gathered. Another center will also be set up on the Myanmar side of the border, in Karen State, to receive and distribute the food and medicine received from Thailand to displaced people. Thai Foreign Affairs Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara led a delegation of authorities to inspect a potential humanitarian zone in Mae Sot, a Thai border town opposite Karen State on Friday. Thailand shares a more than 2,400-kilometer-long border with Myanmar. Some of Myanmar’s established ethnic armed groups and anti-regime resistance forces have been fighting the junta since the military coup in 2021. When fighting breaks out near the border, refugees flee to the Thai side. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) proposed a peace plan for Myanmar following the coup, but the junta has failed to honor it. Known as the Five-Point Consensus, the plan includes sending humanitarian aid to Myanmar. The plan was recently endorsed by the ASEAN foreign ministers during their retreat in Luang Prabang, Laos last month. The aid operation will be overseen by the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian and Disaster Management. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/myanmars-crisis-the-world/thailand-to-open-humanitarian-center-to-deliver-aid-to-myanmar-in-one-month.html
