Photos created by kalle Bergbom Facebook
Thomas Fuller
May 11, 2013
BANGKOK — A tropical cyclone in the Andaman Sea is headed
close to an area in Myanmar where tens of thousands of victims of ethnic and
religious violence are living in makeshift camps, adding urgency to fears of
what the United Nations has termed a looming “humanitarian catastrophe” for
displaced families.
Of the more than 130,000 people forced to flee their homes
in rioting between Buddhists and Muslims over the last year in western Myanmar,
around half are living in low-lying camps near the sea, the United Nations
says.
Human rights organizations have issued repeated warnings
that the displaced people are at risk of disease and hunger during the rainy
season, which begins this month and continues until around September.
“We’re definitely very concerned,” said Vivian Tan, a
spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United
Nations refugee agency. “We are working around the clock, trying to get as many
people out of low-lying areas and into decent shelters.”
Projections on Saturday by the United States Navy Marine
Meteorology Division estimated that the cyclone would reach land around
Wednesday. According to the same calculations, the center of the storm will be
just south of Chittagong, a major city in Bangladesh, and rain and strong winds
would also hit areas in Myanmar’s Rakhine State where the camps are.
Although the storm could change direction or lessen in
intensity, aid groups say even heavy rains would create very difficult
conditions for the displaced families who are camped out in muddy fields
vulnerable to tidal surges. Myanmar is prone to violent tropical storms. A
cyclone in 2008 killed more than 150,000 people in the country’s Irrawaddy
river delta. Another storm in 2010 in western Myanmar, in roughly the same areas
as those under threat now, displaced tens of thousands of people and killed
more than 100.
The vast majority of those displaced by religious violence
in western Myanmar are Muslims who call themselves Rohingya, a group not
recognized by the country’s government and denied citizenship.
Continued deep hostility toward the Rohingya by the local
Buddhist population has prevented their return to their homes or resettlement
in other areas. The Irrawaddy, an online news site, reported last week that the
Rakhine State government in April backed down from a plan to resettle Muslims
after Buddhist villagers objected. Aid groups say they have been hindered from
delivering aid because of threats by Buddhists.
Although a court on Tuesday sentenced 10 Buddhist men to prison
terms for destruction of property during the riots, most of the perpetrators of
the violence in Western Myanmar, which left at least 167 people dead, remain
free, human rights organizations say. Scores more people were killed in
Muslim-Buddhist violence in March.
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