Myanmar

In the middle of the night, in the worst-hit areas of the cyclone, villagers hear voices from the fields.

“Hey …. help us, Hey … help us,” the voices say. But when villagers search the fields with their torch lights, no one can be seen.

“We believe it must be the ghosts of those who died, because they died unnaturally in the cyclone,” said a villager from Peinneakone village in Laputta Township, Irrawaddy Division, where Cyclone Nargis struck May 2-3.

Most Buddhists believe that the spirits of those who died in accidents are restless and continue to dwell near their loved ones.

“I heard people say they see their friends and family who died in the cyclone still sitting beside them,” said a social worker who visited Kun Chan Kone Township in Rangoon Division.

“The spirits just stayed and move around their children as if they were still alive.”

Many survivors were traumatized after they lost parents, children and belongings before their eyes.

A volunteer physician in Rangoon who is helping cyclone survivors in the Delta region said, “I think the survivors of the Cyclone have been mentally traumatized and they tend to lose control and see things and images and hear sounds. It might seem normal in the daylight but when night falls, people tend to hear the voices of their loved ones and see them.”

“So, they might think it is spirits or ghosts,” said the doctor.

Many dead bodies were floating on the water while survivors tried to escape from villages to get food and water near the township.

Burmese believe the ghosts cannot harm them, only haunt them.

One of the ghost stories being told goes like this: A soldier had a dream last week that the ghost of a woman slapped him, complaining that the soldier took her body away before her family had a chance to see it, and to confirm that she was dead. She also complained that the soldier took her body away without any clothing – in full view of the public.

Additional reporting by Min Khet Maung, writing by Nem Davies

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