Aid organisations say the increase in petrol prices only served to worsen the living conditions in the already impoverished nation. The UN’s World Food Programme has called for donations from across the world to help Myanmar's hungry masses.

The country has 52 million inhabitants -- one in ten doesn't have enough to eat, said the Regional Director for Asia, Tony Banbury. He also said that the situation had got worse because of the military junta’s political oppression and the aid organisations’ lack of means:

"Humanitarian assistance from WFP and other aid organisations can only be a band aid. And the sad thing is -- or one of the many sad things is -- that right now, the world’s not even willing to pay for that -- not even willing to pay for that band aid."

Banbury added that right now the World Food Programme could only provide food to approximately 250,000 people -- but at least half a million needed food, including many children.

Access to prisons

The International Red Cross, for its part, has complained that it can't get access to the prisons to monitor the circumstances, in which those detained in the protests are living. Florian Westphal from the Red Cross in Myanmar told an Australian radio broadcaster that there were no exact figures for those detained:

"We are certainly seeking access to the people recently detained, in order to assess the conditions they’re held in and the way they’re treated -- as a purely humanitarian exercise aimed at evaluating the conditions, and also helping them to resume contacts with their families, which is obviously very important."

Violations of international law

The International Red Cross already protested when the junta denied them access to the prisons in June, before the demonstrations in Yangon even took place: "We went public with some very specific criticisms about violations of international law which had been committed against people in detention and against certain civilians by the authorities."

"The reason for going public was really that these were very serious violations and that, unfortunately, there was simply no possibility to discuss this with the authorities any longer. On top of that, we'd been prevented from actually helping the people in question -- so that really left us with little choice but to go public."

In their appeal, aid organisations are asking the junta to improve the working environment for local and international organisations in Myanmar so as to prevent a humanitarian disaster.