| 16 weeks 5 days 22 hours ago UN halts aid to Myanmar after junta seizes supplies
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YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar's junta seized U.N. aid shipments
headed for hungry and homeless survivors of last week's devastating
cyclone, prompting the world body to suspend further help on
Friday.
The U.N. said the aid included 38 tons of high-energy biscuits
and arrived in Myanmar on Friday on two flights from Bangladesh and
the United Arab Emirates.
"All of the food aid and equipment that we managed to get in
has been confiscated," U.N. World Food Program spokesman Paul
Risley said. "For the time being, we have no choice but to end
further efforts to bring critical needed food aid into Myanmar at
this time."
Myanmar's government acknowledged taking control of the
shipments and said it plans to distribute the aid "without delay
by its own labor to the affected areas."
In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press, government
spokesman Ye Htut said the junta had "clearly stated" what it
would do and denied the action amounted to a seizure.
"I would like to know which person or organization (made these)
these baseless accusations," he said.
The WFP's regional director, Tony Banbury, directly appealed to
Myanmar's military leaders in an interview with Associated Press
Television News.
"Please, this food is going to people who need it very much.
You and I, we have the same interests,"
Banbury said. Those
victims - those 1 million or more people - who need this assistance
are not part of a political dialogue. They need this humanitarian
assistance. Please release it."
At least 65,000 people are dead or missing and entire villages
are submerged in the Irrawaddy delta after Saturday's cyclone. Many
of the survivors waiting for food, clean water and medicine were
crammed into Buddhist monasteries or camped outdoors.
Aid groups warned the area is on the verge of a medical disaster
and that thousands of children may have been orphaned. The U.N.
estimates 1.5 million people have been "severely affected" and
has voiced "significant concern" about the disposal of dead
bodies.
"Many are not buried and lie in the water. They have started
rotting and the stench is beyond words," Anders Ladekarl, head of
the Danish Red Cross.
About 20,000 body bags were being sent so volunteers from the
Myanmar chapter of the Red Cross can start collecting bodies, he
said.
In the village of Kongyangon, someone had written in Burmese,
"We are all in trouble. Please come help us" on black asphalt, a
video from the Norway-based opposition news network, the Democratic
Voice of Burma, showed. A few feet away was another plea: "We're
hungry."
In Yangon, the price of increasingly scarce water has shot up by
more than 500 percent, and rice and oil jumped by 60 percent over
the last three days, the Danish Red Cross said.
The U.N. has grown increasingly critical of Myanmar's refusal to
let in foreign aid workers who could assess the extent of the
disaster with the junta apparently overwhelmed. None of the 10 visa
applications submitted by the WFP has been approved.
"The frustration caused by what appears to be a paperwork delay
is unprecedented in modern humanitarian relief efforts," Risley
said. "It's astonishing."
The junta said in a statement Friday it was grateful to the
international community for its assistance - which has included 11
chartered planes loaded with aid supplies - but the best way to
help was just to send in material rather than personnel.
It is not clear how much of aid has been delivered to the
victims in the Irrawaddy delta.
"Believe me the government will not allow outsiders to go into
the devastated area," said Yangon food shop owner Joseph Kyaw,
"The government only cares about its own stability. They don't
care about the plight of the people," he said.
One relief flight was sent back after landing in Yangon on
Thursday because it carried a search-and-rescue team and media
representatives who had not received permission to enter the
country, the junta said. It did not give details, but said the
plane had flown in from Qatar.
According to state media, 22,997 people died and 42,019 are
missing from Cyclone Nargis. Shari Villarosa, who heads the United
States Embassy in Yangon, said the number of dead could eventually
exceed 100,000 because of illnesses.
Grim assessments were made about what lies ahead. The aid group
Action Against Hunger noted that the delta region is known as the
country's granary, and the cyclone hit before the harvest.
"If the harvest has been destroyed this will have a devastating
impact on food security in Myanmar," the group said.
The U.N. was putting together an urgent appeal to fund aid
efforts over the next six months. Spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told
reporters that the exact amount of the appeal would be specified
later Friday.
The International Organization for Migration says it is asking
for $8 million as part of the appeal. The U.N. refugee agency says
it needs $6 million to fund the immediate shelter and household
needs of 250,000 people.
France was sending a navy ship loaded with 1,500 tons of
humanitarian aid to Myanmar, President Nicolas Sarkozy's office
said Friday.
Private donations also were flowing to aid organizations,
including a luxury river cruise liner donated by a British travel
company to transport relief and 25,000 shoes sent by a U.S.-based
group.
But Myanmar has snubbed a U.S. offer to help, refusing to take
advantage of Washington's enormous ability to deliver aid quickly,
which was evident during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed
230,000 people in a dozen nations.
Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej told reporters Friday that
he will try to go to Myanmar on Sunday to persuade the junta to
accept U.S. help.
But the junta told Samak his Myanmar counterpart is too busy to
meet with him, said a Thai army general, speaking on condition of
anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Myanmar-How to help
