New Delhi – Burma's military rulers imposed new restrictions on foreign and Burmese aid workers trying to enter the country's cyclone-hit Irrawaddy Delta. They have also banned journalists and the use of cameras.

The secret order was told to Burmese businessmen – who are assigned to help with the reconstruction of Rangoon and the Irrawaddy Delta – on Tuesday by Prime Minister Lt-Gen Thein Sein during a meeting at the Rangoon Military Command.

A source close to the military told Mizzima, "Thein Sein yesterday stated that no foreigners will be allowed to go to the delta. Even for these [Burmese] companies, no cameras will be allowed."

A bus driver who had just returned from Bogale town in Irrawaddy division said the government has set up check points along the road and interrogated passengers.

"Foreigners are asked to show permits that allowed them to go into the region, and for Burmese nationals they are asked their personal addresses or of their relatives in Bogale," the driver said.

Similarly, a group of 20 Burmese donors from Rangoon, who wanted to help cyclone victims in the Irrawaddy Delta, were turned away by the regional army battalion, and were sent back without getting a chance to donate.

A source close to the donors said the army battalion nos. 66 and no. 77 stopped the donors on the road to Bogale from Rangoon. The donors were carrying drinking water, medicine, rice, sugar and oral re-hydration packages.

"The army said they would only be allowed to pass if they had special permits from the regional military commander and send them away," the source told Mizzima.

The UN office in Rangoon said aid agencies are still facing difficulties sending aid to the delta due to the restrictions and the prohibition on international aid workers.

"Only local staffs could work there but foreign staff are not permitted," Aye Win, the UN spokesperson in Rangoon, said. However, the government has promised to ease visa procedures for UN international staff, he said.

"A government official has promised that to the UN on Tuesday," Aye Win said.

The Burmese regime has only granted a handful of visas to UN staff in the past week, including at least nine people from International Federation of Red Cross. More than 60 key UN personnel are still waiting for approval to travel to Burma.

Official statements from the regime say Burma welcomes aid from anywhere but only the government would be allowed to distribute emergency supplies.

"Access is indeed a problem," said Terje Skavadal, the regional head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

According to confidential UN reports, WHO and FAO foreign staff have indeed not been granted permission to travel to the worst-affected areas in lower Delta area.

The European aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) also distributes its emergency aid through its own staff. But it is facing "increasing constraints" imposed on its workers in the delta, said a spokesman for the organisation.

"In Bogale, for instance, the MSF team is unable to provide as much assistance as they could to respond to the enormous needs in terms of food and medical care," the aid group said.

The people on the streets of Rangoon are angry at the regime's failure to act to help the victims. "They are a disgrace to Burma, they are a disgrace to Buddhism, and they are disgrace to themselves," a Burmese intellectual told Mizzima by e-mail.

Reporting by Solomon, Huaipi, Larry Jagan and Rangoon correspondent. Writing by Mungpi.