Kick out victims, monks ordered

The monks who spearheaded an uprising last fall against Burma's military rulers are back on the front lines, this time providing food, shelter and spiritual solace to cyclone victims.

But the junta has moved to curb the Buddhist clerics' efforts, even as it fails to deliver adequate aid itself.

Authorities have given some monasteries deadlines to clear out refugees, many of whom have no homes to return to, monks and survivors say.

"There is no aid. We haven't seen anyone from the government," said an abbot of the Kyi Bui Kha monastery sharing almost depleted rice stocks and precious rainwater with some 100 homeless villagers in its compound.

Similar scenes are being repeated in other areas of the Irrawaddy Delta and Rangoon, where monasteries became safe havens after cyclone Nargis struck on May 3.


Complicating the situation, survivors in the Irrawaddy Delta were pelted by heavy rains yesterday.

A senior monk said he tried to argue with military officials who ordered the more than 100 refugees to leave.

"I don't know where they will go. But that was the order," he said.

Other monasteries in Rangoon have been told to clear out victims in coming days, the monk said, but in the delta refugees were being allowed to remain or told they could come to monasteries for supplies but not shelter.

"They don't want too many people gathering in small towns," said Hla Khay, a delta boat operator. The regime "is concerned about security. With lots of frustrated people together, there may be another uprising."

The junta has rejected growing international pressure to accept aid workers, insisting against all the evidence they could handle the relief effort alone.

"The nation does not need skilled relief workers yet," Vice Admiral Soe Thein said.

Aid agencies say up to two million people are without sufficient food, water and shelter. They said there are about 100,000 people dead or missing. The junta's tally is 34,273 dead and 27,838 missing.

The agencies also feared the junta is hoarding high-quality foreign aid for itself while people make do with rotten food.

A foreign resident said the high- energy biscuits brought in by the World Food Program were sent to a military warehouse and exchanged with biscuits the Industry Ministry produced.

The Standard