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YANGON - Myanmar's ruling military has tightened access to the cyclone disaster zone in the country's south, frustrating aid groups trying to bring help to survivors, reporters and aid agencies said Wednesday.
Relief groups are furious over the regime's refusal to allow foreign experts into the country to mount a full-scale disaster response, and say they face even more constraints in bringing help to some two million survivors.
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Reporters and aid workers arriving at the worst-hit Irrawaddy Delta region said that authorities had elevated security at roadblocks on the main routes in from Myanmar's largest city Yangon.
"There were even more checkpoints making sure that no foreigners got into the affected areas," said Chris Kaye, the Myanmar director of the UN's World Food Programme.
"There is absolutely no progress in getting foreign experts out into the field," he added.
One reporter who was turned back at a roadblock was told by police: "The government has given us orders to keep foreigners out. We are sorry."
A Myanmar national who attempted to get in was requested to provide the names and addresses of the people he said he was going to visit.
The military, which keeps an iron grip on every aspect of life in this poor and isolated country, has been condemned by world leaders for refusing to allow in foreign disaster experts to coordinate the response to Cyclone Nargis.
The regime again said Tuesday that there was no need for them "so far", even though up to two million people are still in dire need of water, food and shelter 12 days after the massive storm struck.
Delivering life-sustaining supplies into the country's remote southern flood plain, which is littered with broken roads and blocked waterways, is a huge logistical challenge.
The relief effort "is constrained by the fact that we can only use a certain size truck," said Kaye, who is dispatching aid through a team of 25 to 30 Myanmar staff.
"We have asked for government approval for additional trucking and air lift capacity," he said.
The military is ferrying aid into the delta with six one-tonne payload helicopters, but that is not nearly enough, he said. "We need bigger helicopters. That is under negotiation."
Medical charity MSF said earlier this week that in some areas like the devastated delta town of Bogalay, the regime had imposed "increasing constraints" that impaired its ability to bring help to survivors.
"In Bogalay for instance, the MSF team is unable to provide as much assistance as they could to respond to the enormous needs in terms of food and medical care," said MSF spokeswoman Veronique Terrasse.
- AFP /ls
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