Refugees living in village school face eviction

There were still mathematical equations chalked on the blackboards of the classrooms of the number 8 middle school in Hlaing Tha Yar Sunday, but the only lesson being given was one of survival.

Since the cyclone hit, the school, in a village near Rangoon, has been turned into an impromptu refugee centre, with some 2,040 of the displaced crammed inside. About 17 families were camped in each classroom, including many nappy-less babies laid on the desks.

Mai Paw, her husband and their six children had sought refuge in the school as soon as the high winds flattened their shack. Sunday they, and their 50 or so noisy roommates, batted away swarms of flies as they each ate the scoop of rice handed out by the charity World Concern. "We have lost everything. We have no house and no jobs," said Mai.

They planned to stay in the school for as long as it took for the relief effort to rebuild their neighbourhood. Instead a government officer told them yesterday to expect an eviction, to make way for a polling station. Burma's ruling elite has rescheduled the referendum for May 24.

In Hlaing Tha Yar there were no government lorries helping with the reconstruction effort. It was a different story in downtown Rangoon Sunday, where the streets were lined with army trucks. But rather than attending to the most pressing concerns, soldiers swept leaves in an ill-placed show of civic pride.

One Indian aid worker returned from a town near the Pyapon river. He was one of the few foreigners to breach the strengthened checkpoints which have popped up in the south - anyone with too fair skin was being turned back.

"We spoke to one woman who told us how, when the wave hit, she was with three of her young children ... As the water rose she had to make the terrible decision which of her children to save," said the aid worker, who did not want to be named for fear it jeopardise his charity's mission. He added: "This government is good at controlling and killing people, but it has no experience of humanitarian relief."