Here is a view on the 'name, registration, and supervision' issue from a consulting group based in Australia. The [him] moderator looks forward to reading and amplifying the voices of those whose views will appear on the site.

[him] moderator

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MYANMAR MOVES TO “SUPERVISE” PLHIV GROUPS
Tuesday, September 15, 2009

YANGON, MYANMAR. On August 6 this year Myanmar's Ministry of Health moved to impose registration on networks of people living with HIV (PLHIV) forming in different states and divisions across the country. The Myanmar Health Department requires these informal groups to work under the supervision of Prevention and Control Teams for STDs and HIV in each state. Alternatively, where a group wishes to form independently, it is required to register step-by-step with first the township, province, State/Division Peace and Development Councils and finally with the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Bloggers across Asia Pacific have begun agitating online. They argue registration will impede development of the enabling environment needed to support PLHIV and to change the stigma and discrimination toward them in the country.

But Cyclone Nargis and the burgeoning non-government organization presence in-country have created a conundrum. The health and humanitarian assistance is desperately needed; but the Myanmar leadership has viewed humanitarian and health intervention as a threat to their security.

An August 24 article in The Washington Post explains the reasons why. 'Strategies of Dissent Evolving in Burma' maps the evolving ways activists are finding political momentum using humanitarian non-profit organizations. It describes the Burmese junta since 1962 clamping down on civil society and prohibiting associations of more than five people. However, immediately post-Nargis, while the government was negotiating conditional entry of international aid agencies, the article describes Burmese citizens, concerned about the lack of adequate relief aid by authorities, forming in to groups, gathering and distributing food aid, assisting with rebuilding, re-housing and providing medical care. The article describes how these national groups and some non-profit organizations are becoming undercover recruitment points for political leadership and activism. It quotes an AIDS activist: "many people say civil society is dead. But it never dies. Sometimes it takes different forms, under pretext of religion, under pretext of medicine."

While there is international consensus that political change is urgently needed in Myanmar, it's clear that humanitarian aid and medical care as political activism will be treated as a serious threat by the current regime. This move to restrict informal PLHIV groups is viewed by those with experience in Myanmar as an attempt to limit that perceived threat.

The challenge now is to determine a way forward that ensures progressive support at local level for PLHIV. APMG Asia Pacific has asked a number of Myanmar leaders in HIV for their views on the way forward – we'll present their thoughts in an upcoming post.

http://www.hivinasia.blogspot.com/