http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/2107-burmas-rural-economy-on-verge-of-collapse-economist.html
by Mungpi
Monday, 11 May 2009 22:48
New Delhi (Mizzima) - Unless Burma’s military rulers inject cash into the rural credit system, the country’s rural economy will likely collapse as farmers in rural areas face a “chronic shortage of credit”, an economist told Mizzima.
Sean Turnell, an Economics Professor at Macquarie University in Australia, said that because of a lack of a proper economic policy to uplift Burma’s rural economy, the rural credit system is “completely dried up” and in desperate need of cash assistance.
“I am getting report after report that there is a chronic shortage of credit in cash,” said Turnell, adding the rural economy is suffering despite the ruling junta having significant foreign reserves derived from the sale of natural gas.
Turnell said the estimate of the junta’s foreign reserves from the sale of natural gas during fiscal year of 2007-08 is about US $5 billion. However, these reserves are not spent on developing the rural economy, which is on the verge of collapsing with the credit system “completely drying up”.
Meanwhile, a report by the Financial Times, citing a new International Monetary Fund report on Burma, said natural gas exports have swollen the country’s foreign exchange reserves to a record high of US $3.6 billion – despite investment into social welfare remaining minimal.
The as of yet unpublished IMF report, which the Financial Times cited, said unless the Burmese government makes improvements in its business climate, the future of the country is “bleak”.
The IMF argued Burma's economy was hit hard by the global economic slowdown and the devastating cyclone of May 2008, which killed 140,000 people and caused the growth in gross domestic product to slow to about 4.5 percent last year, down from 5.5 percent a year earlier.
The country’s ruling military generals, however, do not include all of its gas revenue in the annual public account, instead reporting only a portion of the foreign revenues, which are calculated at the 30-year-old official exchange rate of six kyat to a dollar, according to the report. Currently, a US dollar on the black market fetches approximately 1,050 kyat.
Turnell, agreeing with the report’s calculation, said the Burmese junta’s practice of accounting for foreign exchange revenue at the old and obsolete exchange rate in effect captures less than one per cent of the total budget revenue from the sale of gas for fiscal year 2007-08, as opposed to the 57 percent it would account for if valued at the market rate.
He estimates that Burma’s generals will earn between US $3-3.5 billion from the sale of gas for fiscal year 2008-09.
But, at the same time, farmers are facing an acute shortage of investment funds, he said. Many farmers are forced to sell their products immediately after harvest and to buy the same food that they are selling for consumption.
Turnell, who has closely followed Burma’s economy for several years, said the global economic slowdown has indirectly impacted Burma’s agriculture sector, which largely depends on exports to neighboring countries.
With the declining price of rice, farmers, particularly in the Cyclone Nargis-hit Irrawaddy delta, will find it extremely difficult to plant paddy in the upcoming monsoon, as they are heavily indebted and will try to reduce cost, he maintained.
In the absence of a rural credit system being implemented by the government, farmers will again be dependent on local money lenders, who usually demand high interest rates, up to 20 percent, leaving farmers with an insurmountable debt obligation.
Turnell said that to come out of this crisis, in the short term the Burmese government could inject some of its gas revenue into a rural credit system through the Myanmar Agriculture Development Bank (MADB) or another existing institution.
Alternatively, he said the junta could simply remove restrictions that forbid commercial banks from lending to farmers.
“It’s so bizarre. I can never understand this particular law, which actually outlaws the commercial banks from lending to the farmers,” he added.
He also warned that unless the government comes in to help the farmers in the rural areas, “food shortages could be on the card in later the year.”
Burma’s rural economy on verge of collapse: economist
Burmese junta should answer for crimes against humanity concerning cyclone victims
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=14630
This is the charge of an NGO, which accuses the military junta of exploiting labor - including that of minors - confiscating humanitarian aid, and forced evictions. The report is based on interviews with volunteers and victims involved in cyclone Nargis. In Laputta, there is a shortage of drinking water and the risk of disease is high.
Yangon (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The Burmese government should appear before the International Criminal Court to face human rights charges; the dictatorship committed abuses and crimes in the months following the tragedy of Nargis. This is the harsh condemnation from a humanitarian association that has documented the violations committed by the military toward victims of the cyclone.
"The charge of crimes against humanity is a very grave and serious one," says Chris Beyrer, director of the U.S.-based Center for Public Health and Human Rights, an NGO. "But in the context of a relief effort like this, where you have evidence of forced labour, forced relocation and confiscation of relief aid, these are documented violations that need to be taken seriously."
"After the Storm: Voices from the Delta" is the first independent report - free from censorship by the Burmese military dictatorship - recounting the drama of cyclone victims. It is based on material collected in 90 interviews with volunteers and survivors. It details obstacles and threats directed against volunteers, cases of the disappearance of humanitarian aid that was later resold, and the use of forced labor for reconstruction, including the exploitation of child labor.
For 20 villages in the area of Laputta, in the Irrawaddy delta, there is also the risk of a shortage of drinking water, because of contamination of collection basins and sources. The NGO Emergency Assistance Team says that many people are forced to use drinking water mixed with sea water. Families in the villages are allowed two bottles of drinking water a day - at fifty cents each - and about 4 liters of non-potable water for personal hygiene and laundry purposes. The arrival of summer and the lack of desalination facilities could lead to the deterioration of the situation; cases of diarrhea have emerged among children, and there are fears of widespread disease.
A recent report drafted by the UN and ASEAN - the association that unites 10 countries of Southeast Asia - estimates that 700 million dollars will be needed over the next three years to guarantee reconstruction work in the areas hit by Nargis. The cyclone caused the death of about 140,000 people, but it is estimated that more than 2.4 million Burmese suffered damages of various kinds, and the devastating effects of the cy
Burmese regime blocked international aid to cyclone victims, report says
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/27/regime-blocked-aid-to-burma-cyclone-victims
• First independent research into disaster details host of abuses
• Study urges junta be referred to international criminal court
Ian MacKinnon, South-east Asia correspondent guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 February 2009 12.43 GMT Article history
Burmese people beg for food in the rain as aid begins to arrive following cyclone Nargis. Photograph: Getty Images
International aid for cyclone victims in Burma was deliberately blocked by the military regime, the first independent report into the disaster has found.
The junta's wilful disregard for the welfare of the 3.4 million survivors of cyclone Nargis – which struck the Irrawaddy delta last May, killing 140,000 people – and a host of other abuses detailed by the research may amount to crimes against humanity under international law.
The teams of Burmese volunteers and experts from a US university that conducted the research urged the UN security council to refer the regime to the international criminal court.
The report After the Storm: Voices from the Delta outlined how the Burmese authorities failed to provide adequate food, shelter or water for the survivors.
The storm surge coupled with intense winds swept away homes, fields, livestock and rice stores, leaving little or nothing for survivors.
But the military regime, which was at the time preparing for a national referendum on its plans to hold elections in 2010, insisted it could cope with the disaster despite its scale and shunned most international relief for weeks.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University in the US and Burmese volunteers from the Emergency Assistance Team (Eat-Burma) spent months interviewing survivors and relief workers about the cyclone's aftermath.
Their study found that the Burmese army obstructed private cyclone relief efforts even among its own concerned citizens, setting up checkpoints and arresting some of those trying to provide help.
Supplies of overseas relief materials that were eventually allowed into Burma were confiscated by the military and sold in markets, the packaging easily identifiable.
"I went to some of the markets run by the military and authorities and saw supplies that had been donated being sold there," a former Burmese soldier who fled to Mae Sot across the border in Thailand told the researchers. "The materials were supposed to go to the victims. I could recognise them in the market."
The researchers were repeatedly told that surviving men, women and even children were used as forced labour on reconstruction projects for the military.
"[The army] did not help us, they threatened us," said one survivor from the town of Labutta. "Everyone in the village was required to work for five days, morning and evening without compensation. Children were required to work too. A boy got injured on his leg and got a fever. After two or three days he was taken to [Rangoon], but after a few days he died."
Professor Chris Beyrer, director of the centre for public health and human rights at Johns Hopkins, said the Burmese regime's response to the disaster violated humanitarian relief norms and legal frameworks for relief efforts.
The systematic abuses may amount to crimes against humanity under international law through the creation of conditions where basic survival needs of people are not met, "intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health", he said.
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