The United Nations is criticizing Burma’s military junta over what it calls an “unprecedented” refusal to allow in desperately needed aid. It’s been nearly one week since Cyclone Nargis killed up to 100,000 people and left more than a million homeless. But UN officials say the Burmese junta is refusing to allow free entry to dozens of aid workers. UN Emergency Coordinator John Holmes appealed to the junta to lift its restrictions.

UN Emergency Coordinator John Holmes: “We are simply trying to help the government of Myanmar to carry out their responsibilities to aid these people in desperate need and increasingly desperate need, as we can all see from the reports we are seeing. We are simply trying to help people. There are no other political motives in this, and therefore we really do — I do appeal very strongly indeed to the government of Myanmar both to step up their own relief efforts to help people on the ground and to change their attitude completely to the efforts that we are making to get these relief supplies in.”

At least one UN relief flight was sent back Thursday because the junta said its personnel had not received permission. In the Burmese capital Rangoon, the price of water has shot up at least 500 percent. A survivor of Cyclone Nargis described the damage to his home.

Survivor: “Heavy wind started blowing, and that damaged our houses. After that, the tide water rose. When the water started coming up, we could no longer stay in our homes, so we moved out. There is only one home left without damage in this village, so we all stayed together in that house.”