“relief in cash and kind”
The UN was surprised to see the government in Burma confiscate the help relief they sent.
In a statement in the official media after Burma turned back a team of Qatari rescue workers coming in on an aid flight this week, the fcreign ministry said Burma would accept “relief in cash and kind” but not foreign aid workers.
Incredible.
YANGON — Burma’s junta impounded two U.N. food aid shipments at Yangon airport today, officials said, triggering more outrage at the military government’s refusal to accept a major international relief operation.
And check it out, it’s a lot of food even if it’s nowhere near enough for all those who are bereaved…
The two shipments, 38 tonnes of high-energy biscuits, were enough to feed 95,000 people — a tiny fraction of the estimated 1.5 million destitute survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which ripped into the southeast Asian nation six days ago.
“It should be on trucks headed to the victims. You’ve seen the conditions they are in. That food is now sitting on a tarmac doing no good,” Mr. Banbury said.
I shouldn’t be surprised to see a government screwing up it’s population this way, but I am.
Incredible.
May 9th, 2008 at 23:20
They sure are bizarre people that rule Burma. I hear today that they have approved another UN flight into Rangoon with more relief supplies. Good you may think? No they aren’t allowed in ’til Monday.
May 10th, 2008 at 1:03
Of course they’ll accept cash…Plenty of cash…But food and relief workers? No way! The government doesn’t care. Those people were starving BEFORE the disaster. Amazing that what is called “an act of God” (natural disasters) reveals the cruelty of the Burma junta. We might never have known.