Myanmar warned over forcing cyclone survivors home

By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar must stop forcing cyclone survivors to return to their shattered homes where they face more misery or even death, rights groups said on Saturday, as a U.S. official accused the junta of being "deaf and dumb" to foreign aid pleas.

The former Burma's junta started evicting destitute families from government-run cyclone relief centers on Friday, apparently fearing the 'tented villages' might become permanent.

"It's unconscionable for Burma's generals to force cyclone victims back to their devastated homes," Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

"Claiming a return to 'normalcy' is no basis for returning people to greater misery and possible death," he added.

Myanmar has said the rescue and relief effort is largely over and it is focused on reconstruction, but the United Nations has said the scale of the devastation means the relief phase after Cyclone Nargis struck on May 2 is likely to last six months.

In some of the bluntest comments by Washington on Myanmar's response to the cyclone, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said tens of thousands had died due to the military government's refusal to allow foreign aid.

Nearly a week after junta leader Than Shwe promised to allow in "all" legitimate foreign aid workers, 45 remaining U.N. visa requests had been approved on Wednesday, but red tape is still hampering access to the Irrawaddy delta.

U.S. and other Western naval ships cruising nearby have also not been allowed to deliver aid directly to the devastated areas.

Locals and aid workers said on Friday 39 camps in the immediate vicinity of Kyauktan, 30 km (20 miles) south of Yangon, were being cleared as part of a general eviction plan.

"We knew we had to go at some point but we had hoped for more support," 21-year-old trishaw driver Kyaw Moe Thu said as he trudged out of the camp with his five brothers and sisters.

They had been given 20 bamboo poles and some tarpaulins to help rebuild their lives in the Irrawaddy delta, where 134,000 people were left dead or missing by Cyclone Nargis on May 2.

A government official said at one camp where people had been told to clear out at short notice that it was for their own good.

"It is better that they move to their homes where they are more stable," the official said.

SURVIVING ON FISH AND FROGS

U Kyi, who fled with his wife to a camp in Kawhmu, south of Yangon, days after the storm, said he would prefer to go home.