Myanmar steps up pressure on aid agencies

The military-run nation is becoming increasingly aggressive and intrusive towards global aid agencies in a bid to control their activities, the independent organisation said in a report released on Friday.

Apart from the junta's pressure, overseas pro-democracy groups were also stepping up efforts to restrict and micro-manage humanitarian aid flows, it said.

"Aid agencies have come under renewed pressure from both the military government and pro-democracy activists overseas who seek to curtail or control assistance programs," Robert Templer, the director of the group's Asian program, said in the report.

The United Nations estimates Myanmar has some 1,100 political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, the 61-year-old Nobel peace laureate, who has been under house arrest in Yangon for most of the past 17 years.

"Undermining of aid by protagonists on all sides not only goes against international humanitarian principles but could also rekindle a new cycle of conflict, making any prospect of positive political change even more remote," he said.