Aid Slowly Reaches Burma Ahead of Referendum

The UN's World Food Programme says two more plane-loads have been impounded by the authorities, who say they welcome aid but want to control distribution.

Correspondents in the country say aid is reaching survivors, but not enough.

Burma's leaders are under fire for holding a referendum while 1.5 million people are affected by the disaster.

"The government wants total control of the situation although they can't provide much and they have no experience in relief efforts," he told the Associated Press, but did not want to be named.

"We have to report to them every step of the way, every decision we make. Their eyes are everywhere, monitoring what we do, who we talk to, what we bring in and how much."

Myanmar's military regime distributed international aid Saturday but plastered the boxes with the names of top generals in an apparent effort to turn the relief effort for last week's devastating cyclone into a propaganda exercise.

The United Nations sent in three more planes and several trucks loaded with aid, though the junta took over its first two shipments. The government agreed to let a U.S. cargo plane bring in supplies Monday, but foreign disaster experts still were being barred entry.

Despite international appeals to postpone a referendum on a controversial proposed constitution, voting began Saturday in all but the hardest hit parts of the country. With voters going to the polls, state-run television continuously ran images of top generals including junta leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, handing out boxes of aid at elaborate ceremonies.

"We have already seen regional commanders putting their names on the side of aid shipments from Asia, saying this was a gift from them and then distributing it in their region," said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, which campaigns for human rights and democracy in the country.

The military junta that rules Myanmar held a planned referendum on a new constitution Saturday despite the widespread devastation caused by last week's fatal cyclone.

The government has postponed the voting in cyclone-affected areas, but U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has urged the government to delay the referendum altogether so it can focus on cyclone relief efforts.