Myanmar’s military government is forcing cyclone victims out of refugee camps and “dumping” them near their devastated villages with virtually no aid supplies, the UN said yesterday.
Eight camps set up earlier by the government for homeless victims in the Irrawaddy delta town of Bogale were “totally empty” as the clear-out continued, UNICEF official Teh Tai Ring told a meeting of aid groups.
“The government is moving people unannounced,” he said, adding that authorities were “dumping people in the approximate location of the villages, basically with nothing.”
Camps were also being closed in Labutta, another town in the delta, a low-lying area that took the brunt of Cyclone Nargis nearly a month ago.
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.
Aid workers who have reached some of the remote villages say little remains that could sustain the former residents. Houses are destroyed, livestock have perished and food stocks have virtually run out. Medicines are nonexistent.
The UNICEF official said some of the refugees were “being given rations and then they are forced to move.”
But others were being denied such aid because they had lost their government identity cards, he said.
Terje Skavdal, a senior UN official in Bangkok, Thailand, said he could not confirm the camp closures but that any such forced movement was “completely unacceptable.”
“People need to be assisted in the settlements and satisfactory conditions need to be created before they can return to their place of origins,” Skavdal said.
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