The United Nations World Food Programme
(WFP) on Friday suspended relief flights to Myanmar after 38 tons of aid were
impounded by authorities in the cyclone-struck Asian country.
"We are in discussions with the government in Myanmar and we hope to find
a resolution soon," WFP Director of Communications, Brenda Barton, told
Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
"It's possible that it is only a customs-related problem," she said
on the decision to impound the aid.
Before Friday's decision, the Rome-based WFP had planned to send a further
eight flights carrying aid to Myanmar, she said
The UN aid efforts have also been hampered by difficulties in obtaining visa's
from Myanmar's military government.
The military regime has been condemned for failing to waive visa restrictions
for humanitarian workers in the wake of the devastating storm.
The junta has appealed for international material aid but not extended that to
personnel.
More than 22,000 people have been killed and 41,000 are missing with more than
a million in urgent need of assistance since Cyclone Nargis struck on Saturday.
WFP spokesman Paul Risley had earlier said food assistance was held up in a
warehouse and was not put onto lorries to take them to the people who needed
assistance.
"It is sitting in a warehouse, it is not in trucks heading to Irrawaddy
Delta where it is critically needed," Risley told the BBC, adding that the
WFB now had no other choice than to stop further aid flights.
Richard Horsey, spokesman for OCHA, the group coordinating UN aid efforts in Myanmar, also warned about a stoppage of aid deliveries.
"If it's not clear that UN agencies will be smoothly cleared through
customs then we won't let the flights depart, since that would imply that the
goods aren't going to delivered to the UN or might start to pile up at the
airport," he told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa
in Bangkok.
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