Above: Villagers walk near a building damaged by Cyclone Nargis in Irrawaddy delta, Myanmar in this handout photograph taken May 9, 2008. REUTERS/Joe Lowry/International of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies/Handout (MYANMAR).
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The United Nations said it would resume aid flights to cyclone-struck Myanmar despite the military government's seizure of food supplies on Friday, and Washington said Myanmar had approved one U.S. aid flight.
The U.N. World Food Program initially said it was suspending flights after Myanmar impounded food shipments for survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which has killed tens of thousands and left perhaps 1.5 million needing food, water and shelter.
The reclusive Myanmar junta has had little direct contact with the outside world, but stated its preference through state-run media to accept "relief in cash and kind" but not foreign aid workers, many of whom are waiting for visas in the Thai capital, Bangkok.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged Myanmar's generals to accept aid and humanitarian workers "without hindrance", saying the survival of their people was at stake.
He said he had so far not been able to contact Myanmar's senior general, Than Shwe, to ask him in person to remove restrictions on aid workers.
"I am still trying to talk with them (the generals) as well as with leaders in neighboring countries," Ban told reporters during a visit to the Carter Center in Atlanta.
The prime minister of neighboring Thailand, who had been asked by Britain and the United States to try to persuade the junta to admit foreign aid workers, cancelled a visit planned for this weekend after Myanmar made its opposition clear.
WORST CYCLONE SINCE 1991
Myanmar has not updated the official toll since Tuesday, when it said nearly 23,000 were dead, with 42,000 missing. Even those numbers, predicted by Western aid workers to rise sharply, make Nargis the worst cyclone to hit Asia since 1991.
State-run TV said a senior Foreign Ministry official had told a U.S. diplomat Myanmar would not turn away assistance.
"Myanmar's stance is that it will accept all aid regardless of the country," Kyaw Thu, a second minister at the Foreign Ministry, told U.S. charge d'affaires Shari Villarosa, who has said the death toll could reach 100,000.
The United States said it had received permission to send in a planeload of relief supplies on Monday, but that a U.S. aid team had not been granted visas.
The U.N. World Food Program said in a statement that it had decided to send in two relief flights as planned on Saturday, "while discussions continue with the government of Myanmar on the distribution of the food that was flown in today, and not released to WFP".
The impounded WFP shipments contained 38 tonnes of high-energy biscuits, enough to feed 95,000 people. They were meant to be loaded on trucks and sent to the inundated Irrawaddy Delta, site of most of the destruction.
Planes loaded with food and equipment from several Asian countries have also landed in Yangon in the past few days.
FENDING FOR THEMSELVES
Survivors have been mostly fending for themselves after winds of up to 190 kph (120 mph) whipped up a massive wall of seawater last Saturday, inundating the low-lying delta.
The saltwater has not only destroyed homes but also ruined freshwater wells, grain stores and rice fields. The survivors are desperate.
"There are no NGOs here. No U.N. Only me," farmer Tei Lin told Reuters near the delta town of Labutta.
The junta broadcast a message on Friday, urging citizens to do their patriotic duty and vote on Saturday for an constitution drafted by the junta. It made no mention of the cyclone, or even the fact that voting in the affected areas has been postponed.
The junta's opponents have suggested the reason for the delays in allowing in aid workers could be that the generals do not want an influx of foreigners before the referendum.
The U.N. weather agency forecast more strong winds and rain for the coming week, adding more urgency to the international drive to start a full-blown disaster relief effort of the kind that was seen after the Asian tsunami in 2004.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said France was sending a naval ship with 1,500 tonnes of aid and capable of carrying heavy-lift helicopters, even as it waited for visas and authorisation.
The navies of France, India and Britain are conducting exercises off the east coast of India and the U.S. Navy is taking part in joint exercises in Thailand.
Source: Reuters
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