Authorities Tighten Restrictions on Private Aid Efforts

Private aid convoys from Rangoon, which have provided a lifeline to victims of Cyclone Nargis in some hard-hit areas of the Irrawaddy delta, are facing tighter restrictions by local authorities, who say that the government now has the situation under control.

At a checkpoint near the Panhlaing Bridge in Rangoon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township, trucks and other vehicles carrying supplies to the delta are being stopped and inspected, according to local nongovernmental organizations and other private donors.

“The security officers told me not to distribute things along the road and gave me a pamphlet,” said a relief worker who passed through the checkpoint, where guards recorded license plate numbers of vehicles traveling to Kungyangone and Twante Townships located in the Irrawaddy delta.

According to the relief worker, the pamphlet claimed that the government had completed its emergency operations in the area, and was now undertaking efforts to rehabilitate the local population. It added that private donations were disrupting these efforts, as they made people in the area less willing to work.

Relief workers who have visited some of the hardest-hit areas deny that the government’s efforts have been effective in dealing with the crisis, which they say remains far from over.

Meanwhile, private donations—of money, food, water, clothing and other basic necessities—continue to be collected throughout the country.

Much of this informal aid effort is being handled by Buddhist monks, who are overseeing the distribution of scarce resources to cyclone survivors in areas that have seen little assistance from the government.
 
“I am afraid that the victims won’t receive the assistance,” said one donor, explaining why he declined to make donations through the government.