Not Much Aid Reaching Laputta Victims

Despite all the aid pledged to Burma’s cyclone victims, many supplies dispatched to Laputta are still not being delivered to those in need, according to residents in areas where refugees are sheltering.

A resident of Laputta said, "The military government’s trucks have arrived with international aid in Laputta, but most of it is being kept at the football pitch near Su Taung Pyate monastery. The refugees are receiving nothing from this convoy.”

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"We passed by a convoy from the Max Myanmar company, which was carrying assistance to Laputta Township,” said a private donor from Rangoon, who volunteered to distribute emergency aid in Laputta on May 14. “I asked the drivers what they wee carrying and they told me sacks of rice, generators and batteries donated from Japan. When I arrived in Laputta and went to the monasteries, they said they hadn't received any batteries or generators."

Nonetheless, some volunteers, monks and refugees in Laputta—one of the areas most devastated by the cyclone—said they had received some international assistance from the United Nations Development Project (UNDP), the World Food Programme (WFP) and other international non-governmental organizations, in the form of food, shelter, water purification equipment and free medical services.

The abbot of Lay Htut Kyaung monastery, U Nivarana, who is co-ordinating the most crowded refugee facility in Laputta, said, "Since the day after the cyclone, the first of some 2,000 people began arriving to take refuge at the monastery. In the first days after the disaster, the Township Peace and Development Council delivered 22 or 23 sacks of rice and 7 sacks of potatoes. Then, I believe, the UNDP started assisting the refugees and the local administrative officers stopped distributing aid some three or four days ago. Another NGO came and distributed some plastic sheeting. That's all. We received nothing else."

Other monasteries in Laputta are providing temporary shelter for cyclone victims, such as at Tha Yet Taw monastery and Sasanaw Daya monastery, where monks are coordinating an aid effort with donations and assistance from UNDP and WFP, volunteers and camp managers said.

Meanwhile, in Rangoon, residents report that some department stores and shops are openly selling high-energy biscuits, canned fish and meat, and insecticide-treated mosquito nets labelled as US or Japanese donations.