Cyclone Giri - Two Years On - Burma Action Ireland

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Cyclone Giri: Two Years On Q: How many family members do you have A: We have six family members, including my wife and I. We were very lucky that no family member died during the cyclone. Q: Did you receive any support after the cyclone A: Yes, we did receive some rice, some roofing materials from local donors, but not from the government and NGOs. The problem is that we only got some support for a few weeks. Since then we have had to manage to survive by ourselves. It’s really bad that we didn’t receive any support from the government. Q: Did you get any support for rebuilding your house and buying fishing equipment damaged by the cyclone A: We didn’t get any support from the government and NGOs for rebuilding our house or to repair our fishing boats and equipment. Therefore, we still have a lot of difficulties in rebuilding our family livelihood, since we don’t have any capital to buy fishing equipment. This also means we are not able to send our children to school. As parents, we feel ashamed that we are not able to send our children to school. We’ve got no choice, but worry terribly for the future of our children. 6. Gender: Male Place of Interview: Kahntoutgree Village, Mraybon Township Age: 45 Date of Interview: 15 November 2010 Profession: Fisherman Type of interview: Video Q: Who gave you this tent A: It was given by a general. And the UN also provided these kinds of tents. Q: Is it true that you have to give compensation if this tent is destroyed by fire A: It’s absolutely right that we have to give 450,000 kyat (US$ 450) as compensation. Q: When will they take it back from you A: They said we can use it until we can build our own houses. 7. Gender: Male Place of Interview: Kahntoutgree Village, Mraybon Township Age: 47 Date of Interview: 15 November 2010 Profession: Fisherman Type of interview: Video Q: Who gave you this tent A: We received this tent from the army. Q: We heard that you will have to give compensation if the tent is damaged. Is that true A: Yes, it’s true that we have to give 350,000 kyat (US$ 350) as compensation. We were told that it can’t be torn or damaged by fire. So we only use it at night for sleeping. We dare not smoke and eat betel nuts inside the tent. We don’t allow family members to enter the tent during the day time. We are afraid of paying compensation of 350,000 kyat (US$ 350), especially in our current situation, where we don’t even have enough food. 8. Gender: Male Place of Interview: Ngarachai Village, Pauktaw Township Age: 52 Date of Interview: 15 November 2010 Profession: Fisherman Type of interview: Video Q: How many households does this village have A: There are about 130 households in our village. And there are about 30 households outside. Q: How many houses were damaged 65
Arakan Human Rights and Development Organisation A: Almost all of the houses were destroyed. There are about 3,000 thiho mango trees, which were all destroyed. We received no support from the government even though we informed them about this. These trees have been an important part of our livelihoods our whole lifetime, but now they are all gone. Now our village monk is trying to replant some of the trees. It’s not possible without any support from the government or others. We know that the government obstructed foreign donors. It’s reckless. Now we only receive relief supplies from the people of Sitetway, the capital of Arakan state. The Western Commander told us that he would provide 300,000 bamboos to our village. He also said that he would provide other relief supplies, but we received nothing. He didn’t keep his promises. It’s nonsense. Then, he insisted that we will have to rebuild our livelihoods by ourselves. You can’t sit and live without doing anything. He reiterated that he’s already ordered 300,000 bamboos: 100,000 for Phonthar Chaung and 100,000 for Laymro Chaung. But I sincerely doubt that we will receive any bamboo. 9. Gender: Male Place of Interview: Mraybon Township Age: 37 Date of Interview: 3 November 2010 Profession: Fisherman Type of interview: Video “Initially we were provided tarpaulins for temporary tents, but they were taken back from us after we slept one night there. The Western Commander visited us and said ‘is there any possibility to make bricks with which you can build buildings and live there Only then you can be protected from natural disaster of cyclones’. He insisted that we build houses by ourselves in this area, because there is lots of wood nearby. The local library was used as a rescue centre. The village leaders usually slept there and initially took good quality relief supplies for themselves, giving the rest of the relief supplies, which are very low in quality, to others.” 10. Gender: Male Place of interview: Ngarachai Village, Pauktaw Township Age: 42 Date of interview: 1 November 2010 Profession: Fisherman Type of interview: Video Q: Was your house damaged A: Yes, my house was completely destroyed. Q: What did the Western Commander give to you A: He distributed some tarpaulins, blankets, a few longyis, 1 some packages of Mar Mar noodles, some packages of noodles, a few packages of Arakanese traditional noodles, some cooking oil, some cooking pots, a few bowls, etc. Q: How did he distribute them A: We had to make a lottery to get them, due to the shortage of relief items in our village. I only received one tarpaulin through the lottery, but I didn’t receive any other relief items. The problem is that most of the relief items were lost on the way to our village. The village headman has created lots of problems while distributing relief items. When the donors didn’t leave relief supplies in the village headman’s house and actually distributed them directly to the villagers, all of the relief items were fairly distributed among the villagers. However, if they left them in the village headman’s house, the relief items were not equally distributed and most of the relief items were kept in his house. When relief items were equally distributed the villagers were very pleased and appreciated what they received. Unfortunately, the Western Commander and most of the donors did not oversee the distribution and they just left the relief supplies in the house of the village headman, which caused many problems in the village. Only a few villagers received most of the relief items, but most of them didn’t get all of the items that were donated. Q: Other than ourselves, which organisations distributed sacks of rice to you 66
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Arakan Human Rights and Development
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[ P A R T I ] Arakan Human Rights a
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Arakan Human Righ
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PRELIMINARY REMARKS Arakan Human Ri
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Giri affected futureless children A
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Table 2.2: 2010 Health Indicators o
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