Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Sun, 8 Nov 1992 02:38:53 PST
From:         "(Coban Tun)" <tun@QUARK.SFSU.EDU>
Subject:      Burma: Economy under SLORC

Taken from B.U.R.M.A , Bangkok based NGO's publication...


ECONOMICS
Foreign investments continue to prop up the Burmese military
junta which has ruled the country since the coup in 1988.
Despite a great influx of money from the outside, the lives of
the majority of the Burmese continues to deteriorate at an
alarming rate.
According to an article in the International Herald Tribune of
March 31, 1992, U.S.-Burmese trade has doubled since 1988.
Although the US Congress has authorized president Bush to impose
trade and investment sanctions on Burma, he has refused to do so
accept for a trade embargo on textiles.  Private investments by
US companies in Burma go on unhindered.  According to the deputy
assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs, Kenneth
Quinn, the Bush administration's policy in East Asia is to oppose
economic sanctions.
At the same time, large amounts of foreign currency are entering
the country through logging concessions sold to companies from
Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan.  These investments
provide the military junta with about US$112 million annually.
Japan not only has resumed its development aid worth about US$134
million in 1991, but has also exported to Burma more than 15,000
Isuzu, Nissan and Toyota trucks.  These trucks are reported to be
used only by the Burmese military.
Theoretically, the economic situation in Burma should be
improving.  In 1988 foreign currency reserves were reported to be
around US$12 million.  In 1991 these reserves jumped to US$900
million.
In a country so rich in natural resources and capable of
producing such vast amounts of food, Burma should therefore be
facing a good future.  A UNICEF report made on March 16 of this
year, however, presents a very sad situation for the Burmese
people, especially the children.  The report gives the following
statistics concerning children in Burma today:

The infant mortality rate at 98 per 1000 live births is more than
double what had been reported for two decades;

About 175,000 children under five die each year, mostly from
readily preventable or treatable diseases -- mainly due to lack
of essential drugs and essential information;

An appallingly high 10% of children under three suffer from
severe malnutrition -- comparable to the situation in Sudan,
Burundi, Pakistan and Mali.  This is primarily the result of
untreated infections and infestations, progressively eroded
purchasing power and forced resettlements;

Maternal deaths of 58 women per week is 40% attributable to
illegal abortions, which in turn are caused by unwanted
pregnancies and lack of affordable contraception;

Less that 20% of primary-school age children complete all 5 years
-- comparable with Bangladesh and Nepal;  but unlike these two
countries, there is no second chance for Burma drop-outs or adult
illiterates, since non-formal education programs do not exist;

Safe water supply in rural and urban areas (31% and 38%
respectively) is half that for the developing world as a whole,
and population  increase outstrips current program expansion.
Even urban water supplies remain untreated;

Many children are orphaned, abandoned, trafficked, exploited in
the labor force, institutionalized or jailed.  Some are used in
drug running, while others are targets of ethnic discrimination.
In the civil war children have become victims or participants in
armed conflicts, at times used as porters, human shields or human
minesweepers.

The UNICEF report summarizes its findings in very stark words.

"These problems all have one thing in common, namely a chronic
and malignant failure by the State to provide for the survival,
protection and development needs of children.  This failure is
directly linked to the long drawn-out civil war.  These problems
also reflect the Government's persistent refusal, since 1962, to
allocate any part of its foreign exchange earnings to the non-
military social sector.  In other words, the import component of
social sector programs in heal and nutrition, water and
sanitation, education and social welfare for all those years was
exclusively financed by donor contributions from governments and
international organizations.
This UNICEF report highlights the fact that foreign investments
under the present regime can never benefit the people.  Despite
relatively large amounts of foreign currency entering the
country, malnutrition, early death, and a multitude of other
problems will continue to plague the people and will, in fact,
increase.
It has been no secret that since the military coup in 1988, the
Burmese military has been busy upgrading its weaponry, and
increasing its numbers.  This is where money gained through
foreign investments is going.  Companies which are establishing
department stores in Rangoon, building hotels, drilling for oil,
or producing soft drinks like Pepsi are not able to improve the
lives of the majority of the people.  The Burmese people,
especially the children, do not need Pepsi or modern consumer
goods.  They need medicines, good food, and better education.
One member of the opposition fighting against the military regime
stated it this way, "They (foreign investors) are sleeping in bed
with the dictators.  Because of them, our people must suffer even
worse than before.  We will one day rid our country of the
military dictatorship, and then it will be necessary to cancel
all these foreign contracts and ask them to leave our country."
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