A massive evacuation to clear low-lying camps ahead of a cyclone has run into a potentially deadly snag: many members of the displaced Rohingya minority living in the camps have refused to leave because they are distrustful of Burmese authorities.
About 140,000 people, mostly Rohingya, have been living in cramped tents and makeshift shelters in Rakhine state since last year, when two outbreaks of sectarian violence between the Muslim minority and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists forced many from their homes.
Nearly half of those displaced are in coastal areas considered highly vulnerable to storm surges and flooding from cyclone Mahasen, which is expected to make landfall early on Friday.
Outside the state capital of Sittwe on Wednesday, one community of several hundred Rohingya refused to budge, despite coaxing from soldiers.
"When we told them the storm was coming, they didn't believe us," said army Lt Lin Lin. "They're still refusing to move."
Inside the camp, rickshaw driver U Kyaung Wa said his people were tired of being ordered around by the Burmese authorities. He said they were forced to move into the camps because they were Rohingya.
"Now they say, 'You have to move because of the storm,'" he said. "We keep refusing to go … If they point guns at us, only then will we move."
The cyclone moving through the Indian Ocean appears to have weakened but could still bring "life-threatening" conditions to more than 8 million people in coastal parts of India, Bangladesh and Burma, the UN said on Wednesday.
Mahasen has been downgraded to a category 1 storm, said the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Heavy rains and flooding in Sri Lanka were blamed for eight deaths earlier this week, said to Sarath Lal Kumara, spokesman for Sri Lanka's disaster management centre.
The brunt of the cyclone was heading towards Chittagong, Bangladesh, but could, depending on its final trajectory, "bring life-threatening conditions for 8.2 million people in north-east India, Bangladesh and Myanmar", the UN office said in a storm update issued on Friday.
Much attention was focused on western Burma because of fears that heavy rains would swamp low-lying Rohingya camps.
Burma's government had planned to relocate 38,000 people within Rakhine state by Tuesday but it was unclear how many people had been relocated, the UN office said, adding that Muslim leaders in the country had called on people to co-operate with the government's evacuation.
The issue has been complicated by widespread anti-Muslim sentiment in Rakhine. Rohingya have suffered decades of discrimination in largely Buddhist Burma, which does not consider them citizens.
Tensions are still running high in Rakhine state nearly a year after unrest that killed at least 192 people and left hundreds of Rohingya homes in ruins. The violence has largely segregated Rakhine state along religious lines, with prominent Buddhists including monks urging people to boycott Muslim businesses.
International rights and aid agencies have urged that the evacuations be stepped up.
"If the government fails to evacuate those at risk, any disaster that results will not be natural, but man-made," said Brad Adams, the Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
Weather experts have warned the storm could shift and change in intensity before hitting land.
Burma's southern delta was devastated in 2008 by cyclone Nargis, which swept away entire farming villages and killed more than 130,000 people. Two days before hitting Burma, Nargis weakened to a category 1 cyclone before strengthening to a category 4 storm.
