Myanmar drawing fire for relocations

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 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."

All the refugees except for a few pregnant women, two young children and those with severe illnesses left the church in 11 trucks Friday morning, 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 immediately clear when they would be resettled in their villages.

Aid groups said Myanmar's military government was still hindering foreign assistance for victims of the cyclone, despite a promise to U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon to ease travel restrictions.