Pro-government Thugs Attack Relief Vehicles
| By MIN LWIN | Friday, May 9, 2008 |
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Club-wielding members of a pro-regime citizens’ group attempted to hijack relief supplies in Rangoon, according to local charity groups and non-government organizations in the former Burmese capital.
A convoy of vehicles carrying rice to cyclone victims in Rangoon’s Thanlyin Township was attacked on Thursday by armed members of Swan-Ar-Shin, a government-supported organization that helped suppress last September’s demonstrations, one Rangoon source reported. The attackers were armed with clubs and knives, the source said.
One NGO worker said permission had to be obtained from another pro-government organization, the Union Solidarity and Development Association, before relief supplies could be delivered
Looting and violent clashes involving hungry residents are being reported from Rangoon’s outskirts, where security is lacking. Fighting broke out on Thursday among people queuing at a food distribution center set up by a local relief group in Rangoon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township.
Looting is also being reported from the Irrawaddy Delta, where at least a million survivors of the cyclone are in dire need of food, fresh water and medicines. One source told The Irrawaddy that one group of people had broken into a paddy mill in Dedaye Township and carried away the rice.
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