KYAUKTAN, Myanmar - Myanmar's junta started evicting destitute families from government-run cyclone relief centres on Friday, apparently out of concern the 'tented villages' might become permanent. 'It is better that they move to their homes where they are more stable,' a government official said at one camp where people have been told to clear out by 4 pm (0930 GMT). 'Here, they are relying on donations and it is not stable.'
Locals and aid workers said 39 camps in the immediate vicinity of Kyauktan, 30 km (19 miles) south of Yangon, were being cleared out as part of a general eviction plan. Rumours are flying around the international aid community in Yangon that the evictions are occurring in state-run refugee centres across the delta.
The U.N., which has local and foreign aid workers in the delta, said it did not know if that was the case. 'We certainly don't endorse premature return to where there are no services, and any forced or coerced movement is completely unacceptable,' U.N. spokeswoman Amanda Pitt said in Bangkok.
The evictions come a day after official media in the former Burma lashed out at offers of foreign aid, criticising donors' demands for access to the delta and saying cyclone victims could 'stand by themselves'. 'The people from Irrawaddy can survive on self-reliance without chocolate bars donated by foreign countries,' the Kyemon newspaper said in a Burmese-language editorial. |