Donations for Kyauktaw IDP camp’s fire victims to be distributed via junta-formed committee

By DMG 18 May 2022

DMG Newsroom
18 May 2022, Kyauktaw 

The Mahamuni camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Kyauktaw Township, which lost more than half of its homes in a recent fire, has announced that aid will be donated to the fire victims through a committee formed by the military council. 

The Mahamuni IDP camp announced on May 9 that it had formed a working committee for the rehabilitation of the fire victims. More than half of the 432 makeshift shelters in the displacement camp were destroyed in the blaze, though no casualties were reported. 

The rehabilitation committee is chaired by Kyauktaw Township Administrator U Maung Win, with Secretary Major Aung Zeyar Thein of the Myanmar military and 15 other members including the manager of the IDP camp. 

U Maung Win said contributions from donors were being sent directly to the affected people at the Mahamuni IDP camp. 

The fire at the Mahamuni IDP camp on May 9 destroyed 262 homes and left 1,073 people in need of emergency assistance. 

The new committee has been tasked with overseeing the resettlement of fire victims in reconstructed buildings, and ensuring that donations from volunteers reach the IDPs and are not misused. 

“Donations to the displaced people have dwindled. We were asked if this organisation would be in control of everything. We have been told that if this organisation controls it, we should consider donating,” said U Than Htay, chairman of the Mahamuni IDP camp. 

Civil society groups say the current relief committee, which includes members of the military council, may face some difficulties amid questions over who is best equipped to handle aid distribution. 

“The military council does not have to do this. Under the supervision of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, civil society organisations should provide support to the affected people. I think it will be difficult to get around if food supplies are controlled. Other aid groups are also expected to be in crisis,” said Daw Khin Myint Zaw, director of Women Generation, a local civil society organisation. 

“We were worried that we would be in trouble if the military council took the lead in overseeing the donations,”  said Ma Nwe Nwe Than, an IDP from Mahamuni IDP camp. “If camp officials make arrangements, it will be fine. From the beginning, it made most sense to help the people in charge of the camp to distribute the donations.” 

Most of the Mahamuni IDP camp’s inhabitants fled fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) in 2019. 

The fire victims who have lost their homes are being temporarily housed at the religious edifice of Mahamuni Pagoda Hill and at a primary school in the camp.