The military government of Myanmar is reportedly forcing the cyclone survivors to leave their refugee camps and dumping them back nearby their devastated villages with practically no aid supplies. This information was provided by the United Nation and church officials in Myanmar on Friday 30 May. This invoked a sharp criticism from the US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Saturday 31 May, who said obstruction of international aid to the region by the junta had cost tens of thousands of lives in Myanmar.

 

Speaking at a meeting of U.N. and private aid agency workers discussing water and sanitation issues, the UNICEF’s Teh Tai Ring said that the eight refugee camps put up by Myanmar’s junta was nearly empty because the cyclone victims were being cleared out from there. Teh Tai Ring informed that the Myanmar government is shifting people unannounced and dumping them in areas close to their wiped out villages with practically nothing.

 

The rights group Refugees International, on the other hand, explained this move of the government saying that it wants villagers to get back to their land and revive agriculture. But it also added that while revival of agriculture was important, forcing refugees to go home without aid will make it tougher for aid agencies to help them out. From a Yangon church, near about 400 victims of cyclone were made to return to their home in the delta of Labutta on Friday 30 May.