Cyclone Aid Reportedly Withheld from Opposition Voters

news:the irrawaddy 

In this photo taken in October, children walk along a road covered by debris after Cyclone Giri swept through the area, in Myebon in western Arakan State, in Burma. (Photo: AP)

 Supplies of relief aid to victims of Cyclone Giri in some villages of Burma's Arakan (Rakhine) State have reportedly been cut by local authorities because they failed to vote for the regime proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in the Nov. 7 election.

''We were told the day after the election: 'you did not vote for the USDP, so go and ask for aid from the party you did vote for,''' a resident of Wat Gaung, Myebon Township, told The Irrawaddy. Myebon Township was the hardest hit area when the cyclone struck in October. The villager said he and other victims had anyway received only 4kg of rice in aid.

Dr Aye Maung, chairman of the Rakhine National Democratic Party (RNDP), confirmed that he had been told by local people that they were being overlooked by the local authorities because they had voted for his party, which won a majority of the votes cast in Arakan State.

Sources in the region said local authorities were angry because most residents of the Arakan State towns of Kyaukpyu, Myebon, Pauktaw, Minbyar, Myanaung, Yanbyae, Ponnagyune and Sittwe, which were particularly badly hit by the cyclone, voted for the RNDP.

One villager said Forestry Minister Thein Aung had visited his community and told them that if they had voted for opposition parties, ''go and ask help from them."

A resident of Pike Sate ward of Kyaukpyu Township said 300 local people had been removed from the list of people eligible for relief aid because they had not voted for the USDP.

Prime Minister Thein Sein had campaigned in the area, telling people the USDP was the only party which would implement local development, sources said.

"This is not right, cutting relief to cyclone victims because they voted for our party,'' Than Phae, a RNDP candidate in Myebon Township, told The Irrawaddy.

Cyclone Giri hit Burma on Oct. 22, killing about 170 people and leaving about 200,000 people homeless, according to information provided by local organizations.

Local residents complain that the regime paid more heed to the Nov. 7 election than to the well-being of cyclone victims.

A Rangoon-based NGO official told The Irrawaddy that local and international NGOs in the cyclone-battered areas have to follow the directives of the local authorities to operate their relief work.

UN Development Programme staff are stationed in Kyaukpyu Township, while workers of the World Food Programme, the Myanmar Red Cross and other NGOs are in areas approved by the Burmese authorities.

Aung Thar Aung, secretary of the Committee Representing the People's Parliament and Chairman of the Arakan League for Democracy, which won in Arakan State in the 1990 election, told The Irrawaddy that he  worked to provide relief for cyclone victims in Kyaukpyu and Myebon townships. "There was no harassment but close surveillance wherever I went,'' he said.

Extensive areas of rice paddies had been destroyed by the cyclone, which would result in shortages of rice, Aung Thar Aung said. Sources charged that government departments of agriculture and irrigation had compounded the problem by breaching paddy walls, flooding the fields, in a punitive action.

Cyclone Giri hit Kyaukpyu, Myebon, Pauktaw, Anm, Myanaung, Yanbyae, Ponnagyune and Sittwe in Arakan State with winds of up to 120 mph.