Govt Officials: Stop Helping Survivors!
Posted on May 27, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under International.
Burmese government officials handed out leaflets this weekend ordering people to stop donating to survivors of the cyclone. The UN estimates that 2.5 million people are still in need of help. Yet the junta wants Burmese people to stop donating aid directly to survivors in order to “save the prestige of Myanmar people.”
The text reads:
ANNOUNCEMENT TO DONORS
We have now completed the emergency rescue and relief operations to the storm victims and we are now continuing rehabilitation work and reconstruction of houses for families.However, donors are currently distributing relief supplies to people along the roads. As a result, kids and elderly people who are not storm victims are waiting along the roads for handouts. This kind situation has caused the local people to be less inclined to resume their business.
Therefore, donors are requested not to give away their supplies to random people. They should instead go to storm relief committees in townships, wards and villages.
Doing this will help save the prestige of Myanmar people so that locals and foreigners do not look down on them.
For the sake of convenience, donors can contact and donate through the Dagon Ayar Highway Bus Terminal in Hlaing Thayar township
Township Peace and Development Council.
