Myanmar exports rice despite food needs

THILAWA, Myanmar, May 10 (UPI) -- Rice exports were flowing through Myanmar's main port even as its military regime was restricting outside aid to cyclone victims, a report said Saturday.

Four of the five berths at the port of Thilawa were empty recently, but sacks of rice bound for Bangladesh were being loaded for export, said drivers of at least 10 trucks waiting to deliver more rice to the docks who were interviewed by the Los Angeles Times.

The decision by the military junta in Myanmar, formerly Burma, to bar foreign aid workers from helping distribute food and relief supplies in the wake of last week's cyclone has caused an outcry from the United Nations and humanitarian groups. However, that stance hasn't stopped the government from continuing to market its rice for export, despite a desperate need for food in the hard-hit Irrawaddy River delta, the newspaper said.

The report quoted villagers near the port as saying government authorities "had handed out rations of rotting rice, apparently from ruined stocks in the port's massive warehouse." The storm destroyed nearly half the stored rice at Thilawa, the chief driver at the facility said.