Cyclone refugees forced home, reports say

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.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates added his voice to critics of the junta’s handling of the crisis today, saying obstruction of international efforts to help cyclone victims cost “tens of thousands of lives.”

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 private 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” affected by the May 2-3 storm.

However, Teh said the information came from a relief worker who had just returned from the affected area and that “tears were shed” when he recounted his findings to UNICEF officials earlier in the day.

The rights group Refugees International said authorities appear to be trying to get villagers back to their land to begin tending their fields and reviving agriculture.

“While agriculture recovery is indeed vital, forcing people home without aid makes it harder for aid agencies to reach them with assistance,” it said.

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, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of official reprisal. “Those villagers lost their homes, their family members and the whole village was washed away. They have no home to go back to.”