YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar’s military government is forcing cyclone victims out of refugee camps and “dumping” them near their devastated villages with virtually no aid supplies, U.N. and church officials said Friday.
Eight camps set up by the junta for homeless victims in the Irrawaddy delta town of Bogalay were “totally empty” as the clear-out continued, said Teh Tai Ring of UNICEF, speaking at a meeting of U.N. and aid agency workers discussing water and sanitation issues.
“The government is moving people unannounced,” he said, adding that authorities were “dumping people in the approximate location of the villages, basically with nothing.”
After his remarks were reported, UNICEF issued a statement saying they referred to “unconfirmed reports by relief workers on the relocation of displaced people.”
However, Teh said the information came from a relief worker who had just returned from the area and that “tears were shed” when he recounted his findings to UNICEF officials.
At a church in Yangon, meanwhile, more than 400 cyclone victims from the delta township of Labutta were evicted Friday following orders from authorities a day earlier.
“It was a scene of sadness, despair and pain,” said a church official at the Yangon Karen Baptist Home Missions. “Those villagers lost their homes, their family members and the whole village was washed away. They have no home to go back to.”
All the refugees except for a few pregnant women, two young children and those with severe illnesses left the church Friday, the official said.
Authorities told church workers the victims would first be taken to a government camp in Myaung Mya — a mostly undamaged town in the Irrawaddy delta. It was not clear when they would be resettled in their villages.
Centralizing stricken people in the centers had made it easier for aid agencies to deliver emergency relief since many villages in the delta can only be reached by boat or over very rough roads. The UNICEF official said some refugees were “given rations and then they are forced to move.” But others were denied aid because they had lost their identity cards, he said.
The government has not given a reason for moving people out of camps and shelters, but last week it declared the “relief” phase of the rescue effort over and said “reconstruction” was under way.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
