UN to resume Burma aid

GB says the WFP has already delivered two plane loads of food assistance to Burma but getting the military government to release the food is another story: our practice is we normally hand out the food that we deliver, we don’t normally hand over aid to the governments under any circumstances. So this is the difficulty we’re having now. (What is wrong with leaving the aid at the door?) I think it’s an important humanitarian principal. We have the expertise to identify the most vulnerable people, the knowledge of how to get it in difficult areas and set up distribution systems. This is where we have our expertise. (The Hunta’s concern is paranoia, that organizations with a political axe to grind will come in now and put the pressure on. Would you agree with that?) I think we recognize that there is a certain anxiety about foreign intervention by the government and we need to convince them that are motives are entirely humanitarian. There seems to be a great appetite for us to pick a fight with the government and we will not be focused on that. (The negotiations must be very difficult.) There is the possibility of negotiations being cut off and our experience is that we have to avoid the possibility of being shut out and abandoning the people we’re trying to assist.