I've been side-eyeing their situation over the week, and could
not help wondering why their stupid Junta is being so paranoid when
the people they ruled over are dying from a calamity???
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Myanmar junta has seized all aid material
Fri, May 09, 2008
AFP
BANGKOK - A UN official says Myanmar's junta has seized all the
food and equipment that the World Food Program had flown into the
country for cyclone victims.
WFP spokesman Paul Risley said on Friday that all 'the food aid
and equipment that we managed to get in has been confiscated'.
The shipment included 38 tonnes of high-energy biscuits.
Mr Risley said it is not clear why the material was seized. It was
also not clear if the shipment seized was the one that was flown in
Thursday or another one.
The UN's World Food Programme said on Friday it was suspending
aid flights into cyclone-hit Myanmar because of 'unacceptable'
restrictions imposed by the country's military rulers.
'Yes, WFP is suspending the flights,' its Myanmar country
director Chris Kaye said. 'The restrictions on us are
unacceptable.'
'Two flights landed this morning with food, which has not been
taken out yet,' he said, without specifying why the supplies had
not been unloaded.
'We have made a request to the Social Welfare Ministry,' Mr Kaye
said. 'We have to find a way to resolve the problem as soon as
possible.'
Earlier on Friday, Myanmar said it was not ready to let in
foreign aid workers, rejecting international pressure to allow
experts into the isolated nation where disease and starvation are
stalking cyclone survivors.
One week after the devastating storm killed tens of thousands,
Myanmar's ruling generals - deeply suspicious of the outside world
- said the country needed outside aid for those still alive, but
would deliver it themselves.
The foreign ministry announcement came as a top UN official
warned time was running out to move in disaster experts and
supplies to prevent diseases that could claim even more
victims.
Instead, the ministry said some relief workers who arrived on an
aid flight from Qatar on Wednesday had been deported.
'Currently Myanmar has prioritised receiving emergency relief
provisions and is making strenuous efforts to transport those
provisions without delay by its own labours to the affected areas,'
it said.
'As such, Myanmar is not ready to receive search and rescue
teams as well as media teams from foreign countries.'
The military regime that rules this impoverished country, once
known as Burma, has long been wary of any influences that could
threaten the iron grip on power it has maintained for almost half a
century.
Even with the country battered by tragedy, the generals insist
they will hold a constitutional referendum on Saturday, brushing
off criticism they are ignoring the plight of the homeless while
devoting resources to the vote.
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy said the junta should delay the vote on a document her
party says will merely enshrine military rule.
'With this situation, it is not the appropriate time to hold the
referendum,' NLD spokesman Nyan Win said.
The extent of the catastrophe unleashed by Cyclone Nargis has
also put the regime under intense international pressure to
postpone the vote and open up the country, where only a handful of
outside aid groups are allowed to operate under strict
controls.
The United Nations estimates more than one million people have
been left homeless by the disaster and, as each hour passes without
clean water and food, they are at ever greater risk of starvation
and disease.
'The situation is getting critical and there is only a small
window of opportunity if we are to avert the spread of diseases
that could multiply the already tragic number of casualties,' said
Noeleen Heyzer, the top UN official for the Asia-Pacific.
Rotting bodies of people and animals are piled up in many places
across the remote southern Irrawaddy delta, where the storm's high
winds and waves washed entire villages away.
In many places, the stench of death is overwhelming. Houses have
been demolished, roads and bridges are damaged and huge swathes of
land are still underwater a week after the disaster hit.
The United States has said the death toll could be around
100,000, but the regime on Thursday increased its official death
toll by 17. It gave figures of 22,997 dead, 1,430 injured and
42,119 missing.
Compounding the disaster, the worst-hit area was the major
rice-growing region, wiping out the main local food source until
the government is able to deliver supplies.
'Now I do not have money to buy essential food items,' said
75-year-old Thant Aung, who said his whole village in the Kyaklate
delta district was destroyed.
'We have less food to eat. I am borrowing money from my friends
to keep my family going.'
The World Food Programme said another plane laden with energy
biscuits, emergency medical tents and other gear landed on Friday
in Myanmar's main city Yangon, which is several hours' drive from
the worst-hit areas.
In its statement, issued before the latest plane, the foreign
ministry said 11 aid flights had landed so far and the world could
help by sending cash and emergency supplies, rather than aid
workers.
'The donors and the international community can be assured that
Myanmar is doing its best,' it added.
Other nations are divided on whether they have the right to
force Myanmar, whose most powerful ally is China, to open up to
humanitarian intervention. -- AFP
