Myanmar junta impounds food aid

YANGON, Myanmar, May 9 (UPI) -- The World Food Program said Friday it stopped shipping aid to cyclone-ravaged Myanmar after the government impounded the program's first delivery.

The U.N. unit said the military junta seized tons of aid sent to help victims of Cyclone Nargis, which killed tens of thousands, and left millions homeless, the BBC reported.

"It is sitting in a warehouse. It is not in trucks heading to Irrawaddy Delta where it is critically needed," WFP spokesman Paul Risley said.

The aid included high-energy biscuits that could feed 95,000 people, WFP said.

"It should be on trucks headed to the victims," said WFP regional director Tony Banbury told The Daily Telegraph. "That food is now sitting on a tarmac doing no good."

Myanmar's foreign ministry said in a statement Friday it was not ready to allow foreign aid workers to enter the country. Government leaders said they would gladly accept aid, but insisted they would handle the distribution.

The reclusive military government of the country formerly known as Burma has been criticized for its handling of the crisis.

John Holmes, U.N. emergency relief coordinator, said the situation of trying to provide relief to Myanmarese was becoming "increasingly desperate."

"Frustrations have been growing that this humanitarian response is being held back because of difficulties of access in different ways," he said, noting that many visas are pending. Holmes said in a U.N. news release he would appeal to the junta authorities to "step up their own relief efforts" and "to change their attitude completely to the efforts that we are making."

Copyright 2008 by United Press International