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U.N. HALTS BURMA AID IN SEIZURE ROW !
The World Food Programme has halted aid shipments to Burma after it says two plane-loads of food were impounded on arrival by the military authorities. The UN body says the Burmese government seized tonnes of aid material flown in to help victims of Cyclone Nargis, which has killed tens of thousands. The WFP said it had no choice but to halt aid until the matter was resolved. A Burmese government spokesman told the Associated Press the UN claims were "baseless accusations". Ye Htut said the government had taken control of the aid to distribute it "without delay by its own labour to the affected areas". The country's ruling generals have faced mounting criticism over their handling of the crisis. The UN fears more than 1.5 million people have been affected by the cyclone, with tens of thousands made homeless and vulnerable to disease. The World Health Organization says access to clean drinking water and outbreaks of communicable diseases such as dengue and malaria are a major concern.
Burmese state media say 22,980 people were killed, but there are fears the figure could rise. Britain's ambassador to Burma, Mark Canning, said authoritative sources were now speaking of between 63,000 and 100,000 people dead or missing. Hundreds of thousands of people have no food, water or shelter. International aid agencies on the ground say seven tonnes of high-energy biscuits have been distributed in the delta region, but they have reached only 10% of those that need help. Despite this, Burma's foreign ministry issued a statement on Friday saying it was not ready to allow foreign aid workers to enter the country. The junta said it was happy to accept aid, but insisted it would control the distribution itself. WFP spokesman Paul Risley said two flights of "critically-needed food aid" - including 38 tonnes of high-energy biscuits - arrived in Burma on Friday but was confiscated.
"This is extremely disturbing news for us," he said. "We are very concerned that this food is not reaching - on day six after a cyclone - the very victims of that cyclone. "We have appealed to the minister for social welfare to release that food as quickly as possible so that it can continue on its way south to the victims of the cyclone. "Three flights were scheduled for Saturday but now we have no choice but to suspend food aid until the food in the warehouse is released for WFP to distribute it," he told the BBC. "It is sitting in a warehouse, it is not in trucks heading to Irrawaddy Delta where it is critically needed." The WFP said that although flights were suspended, it would continue to pack up and prepare further supplies and negotiate with the Burmese authorities in the hope of releasing the aid and getting further flights in. The BBC's Jonathan Head in neighbouring Thailand says that given how little aid is getting into Burma, this was a disappointing setback.
He said the military leaders appeared to be putting their pride and entrenched suspicion of foreigners before the lives of their people. One aid official told him the Burmese government was "murdering their own people by letting them die". Tim Costello, from World Vision Australia, said aid workers in Burma were experiencing feelings of guilt about not being able to do enough and felt fear and frustration as a result of that. "But their job is to work with the situation and keep hope alive and keep going," he told a Disasters Emergency Committee news conference in London. The BBC's Paul Danahar, in southern Burma despite restrictions on journalists, says the survivors need more than food. He says they have been cut off and helpless for seven days and are surrounded by tens of thousands of rotting corpses. What they really need, he says, is the corpses to be moved, clean water, shelter, and efforts to start rebuilding the devastated infrastructure. The UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, says two trucks with shelter supplies are due to cross the border from Thailand on Saturday. Spokeswoman Vivian Tan said the agency had assurances from the government that it would be allowed to monitor the distribution process. "It is a small drop in the ocean given the needs on the ground," she told the BBC. "But given the scale of the crisis we need to explore different delivery routes." Thailand's Foreign Minister, Noppadon Pattma, said he would be asking his Burmese counterpart to be more flexible regarding the admission of aid and aid teams. "Myanmar (Burma) should be more responsive to international assistance but we cannot force Myanmar to do it, we have to respect her own decision," he told the BBC. "But the Myanmar people should be at the centre of considerations." BBC NEWS REPORT. | |||||||
It is sitting in a warehouse it is not in trucks heading to Irrawaddy Delta where it is critically needed 
