Cyclone Nargis in Burma: would the military junta prefer to see its people suffer than accept aid?

The UN has suspended all aid flights to cyclone-hit Burma after the ruling military junta seized two shipments of food supplies.

"We're going to have to shut down our very small airlift operation until we get guarantees from the authorities," a furious World Food Programme regional director Tony Banbury said .

The shipments 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 south-east 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," Banbury added.

Despite the desperate needs of the survivors, the generals are adamant that only they will distribute the emergency aid that is going in after the worst cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people were killed in Bangladesh. Suite...

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