Cyclone Giri - Two Years On - Burma Action Ireland

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
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