KYAUKTAN, Myanmar--A woman whose village was devastated by Cyclone Nargis early this month whispered about food shortages out of earshot of a government official.
I visited an evacuation camp in the village of Kyauktan, about 30 kilometers southeast of Yangon, on Monday afternoon, accompanying the Japanese government's inspection team.
While Myanmar's ruling junta is apparently proud of this camp, pointing to it as an example of the success of their relief activities, the living conditions of the people there seemed to prove that assistance for cyclone victims in the Southeast Asian country has been far from sufficient.
The Japanese delegation reached the tent community on a hill near a tributary of the Yangon River after driving for about an hour on the rough road from Yangon in cars flying Japanese flags.
The evacuation camp was established about a week after the cyclone battered the village on May 3.
About 190 people who lost their houses were staying in about 40 green tents donated by China.
Bamboo was laid on the floor inside the nine-square-meter tents and wooden benches were used for beds.
"People can get enough aid materials, including food, that have come from inside and outside of the country," an administrator of the evacuation center said.
But a middle-aged woman who was living with five family members in a muggy tent told me otherwise while the administrator was away.
"The government distributed rice to us and sweets to children at first," she whispered.
"But recently we haven't received much food to eat. Food is running short," she added.
A Laotian medical team was working at the camp. The administrator claimed that fewer than 10 people suffered from diarrhea.
The villagers also appeared to be short of clothing.
Many men were naked from the waist up, their bare feet covered in mud from the sodden ground of the camp.
The woman did not know about the international conference held in Yangon on Sunday, at which 51 nations pledged to support her cyclone-devastated country.
The Japanese delegation was allowed to visit the camp since it was believed to be a "model case."
Osamu Uno, vice minister of foreign affairs, who leads the delegation, asked the cyclone victims whether they had enough food.
One of them answered he had plenty of food--after the administrator shouted something in the Myanmar language. The delegation was allowed to visit the camp just for 15 minutes.
Many fallen trees remained on the roads from Yangon to the evacuation camp, three weeks after the cyclone hit the area.
Myanmar's ruling junta claims the relief period is over and a reconstruction period has started, but its assertion seemed to be divorced from reality.
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