The UN agency in charge of fighting hunger issued a plea Thursday for the world not to neglect providing food aid to the people of Burma, even as countries step up sanctions against its ruling junta for its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
Some 5 million people in Burma are chronically short of food, and the World Food Program has been seeking to provide supplies to 500,000 of them each month, the organization's Asia regional director, Tony Banbury, said after an inspection tour of the isolated country last week.
However, the agency is now reaching only about 200,000 of them, he said.
The UN estimates that more than a third of Burma's children suffer from malnutrition, and about 100,000 of them die each year.
"In a food surplus country like Myanmar [Burma], no one should go hungry—but millions are," Banbury told reporters in Bangkok, explaining that under the junta's existing restrictive policies, some farmers are forced to sell the government their crops at below-market prices, which discourages production.
Speaking to reporters in Bangkok, Banbury warned that tightening of government controls in the wake of the recent protests could further restrict the distribution of food to the needy, who represent about 10 percent of the country's 54 million people.
Banbury also charged that countries worldwide have been quick to endorse sanctions to punish the military regime, but at the same time have failed to increase humanitarian aid for ordinary people, who are suffering.
"Unfortunately, there have been some verbal commitments to expanding aid, and WFP, at best, has not seen it," he said, not naming those who failed to honor their pledges.
He said that Australia, which donated A $300 million (US $270 million) to WFP, was the only country to provide such aid since the protests were quashed.
To meet its three-year goal of providing aid to 1.6 million people a month by 2009, the WFP says it needs US $51.1 million. Banbury said it lacks about 70 percent of the funding needed to do so.
Some 5 million people in Burma are chronically short of food, and the World Food Program has been seeking to provide supplies to 500,000 of them each month, the organization's Asia regional director, Tony Banbury, said after an inspection tour of the isolated country last week.
However, the agency is now reaching only about 200,000 of them, he said.
The UN estimates that more than a third of Burma's children suffer from malnutrition, and about 100,000 of them die each year.
"In a food surplus country like Myanmar [Burma], no one should go hungry—but millions are," Banbury told reporters in Bangkok, explaining that under the junta's existing restrictive policies, some farmers are forced to sell the government their crops at below-market prices, which discourages production.
Speaking to reporters in Bangkok, Banbury warned that tightening of government controls in the wake of the recent protests could further restrict the distribution of food to the needy, who represent about 10 percent of the country's 54 million people.
Banbury also charged that countries worldwide have been quick to endorse sanctions to punish the military regime, but at the same time have failed to increase humanitarian aid for ordinary people, who are suffering.
"Unfortunately, there have been some verbal commitments to expanding aid, and WFP, at best, has not seen it," he said, not naming those who failed to honor their pledges.
He said that Australia, which donated A $300 million (US $270 million) to WFP, was the only country to provide such aid since the protests were quashed.
To meet its three-year goal of providing aid to 1.6 million people a month by 2009, the WFP says it needs US $51.1 million. Banbury said it lacks about 70 percent of the funding needed to do so.
