5/9/08

current event
title:U.N. halts Myanmar flights after aid 'seized'
who:Authorities
what:Authorities in cyclone-ravaged Myanmar have seized United Nations aid intended for victims of the disaster, prompting the organization to halt future relief flights, a U.N. World Food Program official said. The organization, which insists on distributing its own relief supplies, says two aircraft-loads of food, medicine and equipment, were seized by the army in Myanmar's main city Yangon.
"This is another example of them actively getting in the way of relief getting to the victims," said Tony Banbury, Asia director of the World Food Program.
Asked whether the move would jeopardize future U.N. aid flights, he said, "absolutely, from our perspective, it shuts them down."
The powerful cyclone, which swept through the country's low-lying river delta regions last weekend killed 22,000, according to Myanmar officials. Foreign observers say 100,000 may have perished, while many more are at risk of disease and starvation.
when:5/9/08
where:BANGKOK, Thailand
why:Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the ruling military junta in Myanmar has behaved "appallingly" by declining visas to relief workers.
On Saturday, the United Nations had been planning three further aid flights, from Dubai, India and Cambodia. It would bring biscuits, emergency meals, and logistical support and equipment, such as boats, to reach isolated areas.
The United Nations -- which has had a program in Myanmar, where there are 15 international and 225 local staffers -- normally takes responsibility for its own food distribution.
Paul Risley, a WFP spokesman, told CNN the agency has never encountered such resistance to offers of help in such a major humanitarian crisis. "This has never happened before," he said.
To complicate matters, Myanmar's embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, was shut Friday for a three-day weekend, further delaying visa applications as time was running out for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable cyclone victims.
how:The Australian prime minister told a radio interviewer Friday that Australia, the United States and other countries will urge China to pressure Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.
"The obscenity of this is that the people who pay the price are the Burmese people," he said, according to a transcript that Rudd's office published Friday. "The people of Burma don't deserve this."
Meanwhile, a coalition of opposition groups have blasted the regime in a statement Friday and urged the United Nations or foreign governments to intervene -- with or without the government's permission.
Myanmar state media has claimed that shipments from Bangladesh, China, India, Singapore, Italy and Thailand arrived Thursday at the Yangon international airport and were being distibuted. He also urged Myanmar to delay Saturday's scheduled referendum on a constitution backed by the junta. The government has postponed the voting in areas affected by the cyclone.