KYI BUI KHAW, MYANMAR - The saffron-robed monks who spearheaded a bloody uprising last fall against Myanmar's military rulers are back on the front lines, this time providing food, shelter and spiritual solace to cyclone victims.

The military regime has moved to curb the Buddhist clerics' efforts, even as it fails to deliver adequate aid itself. Authorities have given some monasteries deadlines to clear out refugees, many of whom have no homes to return to, monks and survivors say.

"There is no aid. We haven't seen anyone from the government," said U Pinyatale, the 45-year-old abbot of the Kyi Bui Kha monastery, sharing almost-depleted rice stocks and precious rainwater with 100 homeless villagers huddled within its battered compound.

Similar scenes are being repeated in other areas of the Irrawaddy delta and Yangon, the country's largest city, where monasteries became havens after Cyclone Nargis struck May 3 -- and the regime did little.

The government has not announced an official order for monasteries to stop housing survivors; the policy appeared to be applied selectively.

"They don't want too many people gathering in small towns," said Hla Khay, a delta boat operator. The regime "is concerned about security. With lots of frustrated people together, there may be another uprising."

Larger monasteries were being closely watched by troops and plainclothes security men -- "invisible spies" as one monk called them.

Such diversion of manpower at a time when 1.5 million people are at risk from disease and starvation reflects the regime's fear of a replay of September, when monks led pro-democracy demonstrations that were brutally suppressed.