Burma closing UN camps for cyclone victims, dumping people

RANGOON, Burma (AP) — Burma's military government is forcing cyclone victims out of refugee camps and "dumping" them near their devastated villages with virtually no aid supplies, the United Nations said Friday.

Eight camps set up earlier by the government for homeless victims in the Irrawaddy delta town of Bogale were "totally empty" as the clear-out continued, UNICEF official Teh Tai Ring told a meeting of aid groups.

"The government is moving people unannounced," he said, adding that authorities were "dumping people in the approximate location of the villages, basically with nothing."

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