New Delhi – In what is a likely move to indicate that the emergency relief phase is over in cyclone hit-regions, the Burmese military junta authorities have ordered refugees to vacate several camps in the Irrawaddy and Rangoon divisions, local aid workers and refugees said.

An aid worker, who has just returned from Kun Chan Kone Township in Rangoon division said, authorities have driven away refugees from several camps in the township. They were forced to return to their villages with assurances of some aid.

"I saw refugees from two schools and a monastery in Kun Chan Kone leaving for their villages. Those who did not want to leave were being forcibly removed to an open field," said the aid worker, who requested that he and his organization not be named.

A local resident of Rangoon, who returned from Dae Da Ye township in Irrawaddy division on May 31, said several camps, which were temporarily built by the government for refugees, have been vacated with refugees being forced to return to their villages.

"I did not see anymore refugees in the camps, where they were taking shelter. All of them have been sent back to their villages," the local said.

Burma's military rulers have long declared that it had passed the phase of emergency relief for refugees and is now concentrating in re-building and re-construction.

But the United Nations, the refugees and local aid workers, who had been helping the cyclone victims, all said the emergency relief phase is far from over.

The UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon, who in May visited Burma's Irrawaddy delta, the worst hit by Cyclone Nargis, said the 'emergency relief phase' will continue for at least six months, while reconstructing and rebuilding carries on side-by-side.

The local aid worker said while aid is now moving in to places in the Irrawaddy delta, there are still several areas that aid agencies, both domestic and international, cannot reach.

"While we were there in Kun Chan Kone, a few people from the villages came and asked us to supply their village with aid. They said they have not seen any form of aid coming to their village," the aid worker said.

He added that several villages cannot be reached due to lack of routes for communication and transportation.

"It is impossible to reach these villages because there are no roads, and the only way to get in is along the water way or by aircraft," he added.

But efforts by the World Food Programme to use helicopters for supplying aid to remote areas has been delayed by government procedures, said WFP's Executive Director Josette Sheeran, who visited the cyclone-hit areas in the weekend.

Meanwhile, the authorities have also forced farmers in the cyclone hit areas to begin work on their fields, which are still inundated with flood water, as the monsoon rain starts pouring.

A farmer in Kun Chan Kone, who lost all his cattle, said, "Authorities promised to give us two tractors per village but till now we have not got any. And we are finding it difficult to start work."

The farmer said, working in the fields has been their passion but being forced to return to work without any support and implements is meaningless and a torture after the trauma of the cyclone that killed so many families and near and dear ones.

"But we will have to get back to the fields and start working," the farmer said.

According to an Emergency Analyst in the New Delhi based UNDP's Disaster Management section, lands that have been inundated with seawater will suffer from infertility and cannot be immediately used till the salinity is reduced or washed away.

G. Padmanabham, the UNDP's Emergency Analyst, earlier told Mizzima, "Land cannot become fertile again for cultivation and it could affect productivity in that region because of the high percentage of salt having been condensed in the land."

Burma's Deputy Defence Minister Aye Myint, during an Asian security meeting in Singapore during the weekend, said the authorities have promptly provided relief to all cyclone victims and that it is concentrating now on reconstruction and rehabilitation work.

But leaders from other countries attending the forum were not convinced with French delegates threatening that they will push the French government to propose a UN resolution that could hold the Burmese government liable to be brought before the International Criminal Court.