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Riot police in cyclone-hit area, US hits out at government

Article published on the 2008-05-31 Latest update 2008-05-31 14:51 TU

An aerial view of an area affected by Cyclone Nargis in the Irrawaddy Delta May 22, 2008. ( Photo: Reuters )

An aerial view of an area affected by Cyclone Nargis in the Irrawaddy Delta May 22, 2008.
( Photo: Reuters )

Armed riot police have been stationed in the cyclone-hit regions of Myanmar, according to a journalist with the French news agency AFP, as the military government claims that the emergency phase of rescue efforts is now over. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has accused the junta of causing the loss of "thousands of lives" by its reluctance to accept international aid offers.

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An AFP reporter travelling in the Irrawaddy delta said that armed riot police are stationed along the road between the towns of Kungyangon and Dedaye, which were both devastated by Cyclone Nargis.

Human Rights Watch and Refugees International said that they have received reports of people being forced out of government-run emergency camps.

They described such actions as "unconscionable". The United Nations has been unable to confirm the reports.

Meanwhile, at the International Institute for Strategic Studies security forum in Singapore, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates compared the Myanmar government's slowness to accept aid from abroad to the behaviour of Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami and Bangladesh after last year's cyclone there.

"With Burma, the situation has been very different, at a cost of tens of thousands of lives," he said.

French Defence Minister Hervé Morin, who is in Bangkok as part of an attempt to boost military equipment sales to Asia, said that Myanmar's behaviour was "the reaction of a regime that by its nature fears foreign influence".