YANGON, Myanmar: Staff hired to work with the U.S. government's aid agency in Myanmar are preparing to move out of their office following revelations their landlord is a notorious former spymaster who oversaw the imprisonment and torture of thousands of pro-democracy activists.
The debacle surrounding Development Alternatives Inc., a company contracted by USAID to deliver humanitarian programs, highlights the contradictions ensnaring foreign donors who flocked to the country after reclusive military leaders ended a half-century of iron-fisted rule and self-imposed isolation.
With almost all property in the biggest city Yangon owned by former and current generals and their cronies, much of which was seized during military rule, many organizations find themselves funding a tarnished elite that still holds sway despite elections.
The U.S. government, via its aid proxies, has been lining the pockets of former spy chief Gen. Khyin Nyunt since Washington eased economic sanctions two years ago.
UNICEF, the UN children's agency, pays $87,000 a month to a famously corrupt former minister; the European Union around $80,000 to a conglomerate founded by a drug kingpin; the World Health Organization $79,000 a month, to a mystery owner.
For Development Alternatives, there was only one way to clear its name: Move. Development Alternatives “failed to take proper account of the political context of Myanmar,” said spokesman Steven O'Connor of its 2012 decision to sign a $7,000 a month lease with Khin Nyunt's family.
When President Barack Obama and other world leaders arrive in Myanmar on Wednesday for a regional summit they will have a chance to reflect on reforms implemented immediately after President Thein Sein's 2011 inauguration, many of which have since stalled or experienced a worrying backslide.
The military controls the parliament and is blocking popular opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's path to the presidency. Business conglomerates linked to the old guard remain the engines of the economy and the main beneficiaries of more than $10 billion in post-junta foreign investment and aid.
The scandal behind Myanmar's “development aid rush” was revealed by the Irrawaddy news agency earlier this year.
It reported that UNICEF was paying astronomical rent for a three-story house belonging to the family of Nyunt Tin, one of the most corrupt ministers under Gen. Than Shwe's former junta.
Noting its rent was “steep,” the agency said it looked at some 40 properties before signing the seven-year lease.
Decades of corruption and mismanagement by military regimes, together with crippling sanctions by the West, turned the country of 50 million from one of the richest in Asia to among the poorest.
Most buildings in Yangon are in a serious state of disrepair, but some experts say international organizations should play a role in saving these crumbling reminders of Myanmar's past.
“You don't have to walk 200 meters in this city to find a property that is not being used,” said Lex Rieffel, a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution of the magnificent colonial-era buildings threatened by demolition.
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