Aid ship is prevented from docking

Myanmar’s military government kept a French navy ship carrying relief supplies waiting outside its maritime border.

The ship, loaded with food, medications and fresh water, was given the now familiar red light, a response that France’s U.N. ambassador, Jean-Maurice Ripert, called “nonsense.”

The government flew 60 diplomats and United Nations officials to the Irrawaddy River delta to see camps, aid and survivors of Tropical Cyclone Nargis. The diplomats were not swayed.

“It was a show,” Shari Villarosa, the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar, said after returning to Yangon. “That’s what they wanted us to see.”