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BANGKOK - The UN food agency said Saturday that Myanmar's military regime had released a plane-load of cyclone aid into its custody, but that two previous shipments remained impounded.
"The supplies are in our hands, they've been handed over to us," said Marcus Prior, a spokesman for the World Food Programme (WFP), about the shipment which came on a flight from Cambodia.
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He said there had been a "misunderstanding" regarding earlier comments about the status of goods that landed in Myanmar's main city of Yangon on two UN aid flights on Saturday.
Prior said he was not aware of the status of the cargo on Saturday's second plane, a UN refugee agency flight from Dubai carrying high-energy biscuits.
The Bangkok-based spokesman said that two initial shipments which were seized on Friday were still in the hands of the government, and that the WFP was in talks with the Myanmar regime to have them cleared.
"They were impounded and we are hopeful... they will be released," he told AFP.
The WFP flight from Cambodia included shelter materials as well as communications and office equipment intended to set up a relief headquarters.
The military has refused to allow in foreign aid experts to direct the relief effort and said that, although it will accept money and aid, it must distribute all supplies itself.
That stance has been sharply criticised by aid organisations and foreign governments, which have urged it to open its doors to a full-scale foreign relief effort, with time running out for the storm's neediest survivors.
- AFP /ls
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