By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar must stop forcing cyclonesurvivors to return to their shattered homes where they facemore misery or even death, rights groups said on Saturday, as aU.S. official accused the junta of being "deaf and dumb" toforeign aid pleas.
The former Burma's junta started evicting destitutefamilies from government-run cyclone relief centres on Friday,apparently fearing the 'tented villages' might becomepermanent.
"It's unconscionable for Burma's generals to force cyclonevictims back to their devastated homes," Brad Adams, Asiadirector at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
"Claiming a return to 'normalcy' is no basis for returningpeople to greater misery and possible death," he added.
Myanmar has said the rescue and relief effort is largelyover and it is focused on reconstruction, but the UnitedNations has said the scale of the devastation means the reliefphase after Cyclone Nargis struck on May 2 is likely to lastsix months.
In some of the bluntest comments by Washington on Myanmar'sresponse to the cyclone, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gatessaid tens of thousands had died due to the militarygovernment's refusal to allow foreign aid.
Nearly a week after junta leader Than Shwe promised toallow in "all" legitimate foreign aid workers, 45 remainingU.N. visa requests had been approved on Wednesday, but red tapeis still hampering access to the Irrawaddy delta.
U.S. and other Western naval ships cruising nearby havealso not been allowed to deliver aid directly to the devastatedareas.
Locals and aid workers said on Friday 39 camps in theimmediate vicinity of Kyauktan, 30 km (20 miles) south ofYangon, were being cleared as part of a general eviction plan.
"We knew we had to go at some point but we had hoped formore support," 21-year-old trishaw driver Kyaw Moe Thu said ashe trudged out of the camp with his five brothers and sisters.
They had been given 20 bamboo poles and some tarpaulins tohelp rebuild their lives in the Irrawaddy delta, where 134,000people were left dead or missing by Cyclone Nargis on May 2.
A government official said at one camp where people hadbeen told to clear out at short notice that it was for theirown good.
"It is better that they move to their homes where they aremore stable," the official said.
SURVIVING ON FISH AND FROGS
U Kyi, who fled with his wife to a camp in Kawhmu, south ofYangon, days after the storm, said he would prefer to go home.
"Unfortunately, almost the entire village is still maroonedand we cannot go back," said the 70-year-old.
One senior U.N. official in Yangon said the pace of theclosures had caught many agencies by surprise.
"We knew it was going to happen, but we didn't expect it tohappen so fast," said the official, who declined to be named.
The United Nations could not confirm rumours that theevictions were occurring in state-run camps across the delta,but U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe told reporters in New York"any forced or coerced movement of people is unacceptable."
The evictions come after official media lashed out atoffers of foreign aid, criticising donors' demands for accessto the delta and saying cyclone victims could "stand bythemselves" and did not need "chocolate bars" from foreigncountries.
A Friday editorial in the New Light of Myanmar said:"Myanmar people can easily get fish for dishes by just fishingin the fields and ditches" and that "large edible frogs areabundant".
The media is believed to reflect the thinking of the topgenerals, who until now have shown signs of grudging acceptanceof outside assistance after the cyclone.
Official papers on Saturday carried a commentary on a tripby Senior General Than Shwe to the delta area, with photographsof Shwe comforting cyclone victims, including one besides neatlooking rows of tents it said were in a relief camp in Pyapon.
A positive aspect of the relief effort so far was thatthere did not appear to have been a major outbreak of diseasessuch as cholera, said a spokeswoman in Yangon for the charityCARE.
"We are teaching people how to treat water and make itsafe. But they are used to dealing with polluted water anddifficult conditions, and they pretty much know what to doalready.".
CONTRAST WITH ACEH AND BANGLADESH
In Singapore, the visiting U.S. defence secretarycontrasted Myanmar's reluctance to accept aid from the U.S.military with the willingness of Indonesia and Bangladesh toaccept help after the 2004 Aceh tsunami and a cyclone inBangladesh last November.
"With Burma, the situation has been very different -- at acost of tens of thousands of lives," Gates told an annualgathering of Asian security and defence officials.
Gates said Washington had tried as many as 15 times to getthe junta to accept more aid in the current crisis.
"It has not been us that have been deaf and dumb inresponse to the pleas of the international community but thegovernment in Myanmar," he said, referring to internationalpleas to allow in more foreign aid and relief workers.
Four weeks after the disaster, the United Nations saysfewer than half of the 2.4 million people affected havereceived help from the government, or international or localaid groups.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Gray, Jan Dahinten andMelanie Lee in Singapore)
(Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Valerie Lee)
