Asia, the Pacific and the Middle East
Crisis for Asian Tigers
1997 was a year of turmoil in Asia. In terms of its speed, unexpectednesss and its potential effect on the lives of people all over the world, the East Asian economic crisis was the crisis of 1997.
Triggered by the collapse of the Thai baht in July and the plummet of the Korean won, varying degrees of mayhem ensued in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore. Even in Japan, the original Asian tiger, and Hong Kong, which reverted to Chinese rule in July, the strongest of the Asian money markets faltered.
The effects of the crisis will be far-reaching. CAFOD's partners are particularly concerned that the promises of the IMF aid to bale out ailing tigers like Korea, Thailand and Indonesia will lead to increased cuts in education and health services, massive movements of migrant labour back to the poorer areas of Asia, and the further marginalisation, exclusion and exploitation of indigenous peoples and minority groups. There is also much fear about the political destabilisation and social unrest that may follow the economic crisis.
ASIA/PACIFIC/MIDDLE EAST
(Development and Emergency Grants 1996/97)Questions of human rights and democracy continued to be unresolved in two of CAFOD's focused countries, Burma and East Timor. These were highlighted in two CAFOD lectures prepared by Nobel prize winners in 1997, Bishop Carlos Belo in May and Aung San Suu Kyi in November.
CAFOD increased its support to development programmes through the Catholic Church in both these areas, alongside basic needs projects in its other priority countries: Bangladesh, Philippines, Cambodia and Sri Lanka. Throughout Asia CAFOD works with and supports networks such as the Asia Partnership for Human Development and the CIDSE Programme in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
Strange climatic events, mostly attributed to the "El Nino" weather phenomenon, caused a major famine catastrophe in North Korea and a drought and frost emergency in Papua New Guinea. CAFOD made substantial grants to these countries in collaboration with the Caritas network.
Development Emergency Country (�000's) (�000's) Asia Partnership(APHD) 165.00 - Asia General Grants 51.0 - Bangladesh 426.0 28.0 Burma/Myanmar 139.0 32.0 Murma/Thailand 45.0 15.0 Cambodia/Laos/Vietnam 184.0 - East Timor 75.0 - Philippines 147.0 - Sri Lanka 130.0 - India 22.0 10.0 Indonesia 4.0 - Nepal 2.0 - Pakistan - 6.0 North Korea - 40.0 Pacific Region 10.0 6.0 Iran - 1.0 Lebanon 20.0 - West Bank 37.0 6.0 Total Grants 1,457.0 144.0
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Bangladesh,
Bangladesh: Twenty-Five Years on
Bangladesh Map and Statistics (CIA World Factbook 1997)
Bangladesh saw a somewhat improved situation in 1997 as its self-styled "government of the minority communities" took up programmes for the benefit of the country.
These included peace talks between the government and the tribal peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, where human rights violations have been going on for over 20 years. Tribal refugees began returning home from India in November. However, the opposition, alleging that Bangladesh's interests were being sold out to India, called for protests in which several people were killed.
CAFOD's main partner in the Country, Caritas Bangladesh, marked its twenty-fifth anniversary of working for those who have least, irrespective of caste or creed. CAFOD has worked in close partnership with Caritas throughout these 25 years.
Caritas organises landless and marginalised people into small self-reliant groups through awareness building and training. Group members are encouraged to save, to learn new skills for earning money and to stand by each other in difficult circumstances. Caritas then helps to draw the groups together in federations or sanganthans - people's organisations whose aim is ultimately to become self-managing.
Other programmes run by Caritas and supported by CAFOD include an integrated development project for women which has reached 30,541 beneficiaries since 1992; a forestry programme which has seen the planting of some 1.77 million saplings over the last twelve years and the building of 166 cyclone shelters since 1988.
Sri Lanka: Supporting the Poorest
Sri Lanka Map and Statistics (CIA World Factbook 1997)
The violent civil war between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government army continued with renewed ferocity as Sri Lanka approached the fiftieth anniversary of its dependence in early 1998. CAFOD promoted efforts for peace talks and continued to support the work of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka.
The offer of the new constitutional package by the government, aimed at answering the Tamil people's desire for self-government, failed to halt the war. By the end of 1997 an estimated one million people were displaced and dependent on either the government or aid agencies for food and shelter. The national economy was crippled by war expenditure, yet groups on both sides of the conflict continued to make a profit from the war whilst the people suffered untold misery.
CAFOD's focus during 1997 was on the development programmes collected under the umbrella network, the People's Platform for Development Alternatives (PEFDA). In the tea estates of the Central Province mountains, PEFDA assists Tamil plantation workers in developing alternative skills to help them survive the downturn in tea exports.
In the coastal areas, where fishing is in serious decline due to environmental mismanagement and the growth of hi-tech fishing methods, PEFDA assists small fish workers' groups in developing better marketing skills, getting access to cheap credit and challenging the government fisheries policy which favours big fishing conglomerates.
In the main peasant farmers sector, PEFDA encourages small farmers to return to organic cultivation and lobbies the government and the international financial institutions to stop indigenous subsistence farmers from being sidelined by the demands of export-oriented industry.
PEFDA also supports women's groups in their vital contribution to grassroots development. Whilst focusing on small income-generating and credit schemes, the PEFDA women's network is becoming increasingly vocal in demanding equal status and respect for women.
Philippines: Strategies for Peace
Philippines Map and Statistics (CIA World Factbook 1997)
One of the least developed of South East Asian countries, the Philippines' short period of economic growth was brought to a sudden end with the general economic crisis in Asia.
The Filipino economy depended on both the export market and investment from its ASEAN neighbours and with the collapse of that network President Fidel Ramos' dream of tiger economy status has evaporated. The Philippines peso followed the massive fall of the other currencies in the region, a disaster which will bring unemployment and economic depression in its wake.
In CAFOD's main focus area, the island of Mindanao, a 1996 peace agreement has so far failed to halt historic conflict between the Christian-dominated central government and the indigenous Muslim communities. Poverty and anarchy underlie continued kidnapping and armed insurrection in Muslim-dominated areas.
CAFOD continued to work closely in Mindanao with the Tri People's Partnership for Development and Peace (Tri-Peace), a collection of local organisations including Muslim, tribal and Christian settler populations. In 1997 Tri Peace ran a number of conflict resolution programmes, helping churches and independent groups to develop their own strategies to reduce violence.
Tri-Peace helps small communities to establish a sustainable livelihood in a generally unfavourable economic environment. Their revolving loan scheme assists both rural and urban groups, and direct small grants were made in 1997 to improve crop yields and encourage crop diversification. Fact-finding missions investigated the environmental damage wrought on by open cast mining, and Tri-Peace supported local bishops in an appeal to stop the exploitation of the ancestral lands belonging to indigenous peoples.
Burma: Message From Captivity
Burma Map and Statistics (CIA World Factbook 1997)
Burma's ruling military junta, the State Law and Order Restoration Council, transformed itself into the State peace and Development Council in November 1997. This was yet another attempt to improve its international image, after being accepted into the ASEAN trading bloc in July.
Very little was changed by these moves; with a deteriorating human rights record and continuing harassment of the ethnic minorities and democracy movement by the SPDC, the suffering and the frustration of Burma's people remains.
CAFOD continued to support the Catholic Church assisting people displaced by forced relocations in the Shan, Karen, and Karenni areas. CAFOD also approved grants for the second phase of an education and health programme in the Wa States in the north, and for two new projects aiding the marginalised Lisu people in Lashio Diocese and indebted landless rice farmers in Pathein Diocese in the Irrawaddy Delta.
A highlight of CAFOD's Burma work in 1997 was the Pope Paul IV Memorial Lecture, written by Aung San Suu Kyi and delivered by her husband for CAFOD in early November to a packed London theatre.
Suu Kyi reflected on the Buddhist values of loving, kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity as being the heart of a successful development work. Drawing parallels with Christian social teaching, Suu Kyi made a strong case for collaboration between the faith commentates, especially in Burma where religion is so often used as a divisive and oppressive force.
East Timor: Church Partners
Indonesia Map and Statistics (CIA World Factbook 1997)
The awarding of the 1996 Nobel Prize to longstanding CAFOD partner Bishop Carlos Belo of the Diocese of Dili and Jose Ramos Horta of the international Timorese resistance movement, raised international awareness of the problems of East Timor throughout 1997.
CAFOD was delighted that Bishop Belo was able to deliver a special Millennium Lecture in June '97. Whilst in the UK, Bishop Belo spoke of the importance of international solidarity between churches, a significant factor in showing the Timorese that they are not alone in their struggle against injustice. He again appealed to Britain and other arms trading countries to think carefully before selling weapons to governments known to repress genuine democratic development.
Within East Timor the occupation by Indonesian forces continues, with no solution yet in sight for the United Nations-sponsored negotiations between Indonesia and Portugal, still recognised in international law as the administering power over East Timor.
CAFOD has continued close co-operation with Caritas Dili, really out to the extremely poor indigenous communities. Its TB treatment programme has made an effective start with the task of eradicating endemic TB in the population. Caritas Dili also trains staff and local parish volunteers to encourage the improvement of subsistence agriculture in an often hostile environment.
To bring about the best kind of support for development programmes of the Church of East Timor, CAFOD is also working closely with other church funding agencies.
Cambodia: Through Thick and Thin
Cambodia Map and Statistics (CIA World Factbook 1997)
Cambodia's fragile democracy was severely shaken in July 1997 when second Prime Minister Hun Sen disposed his co-Premier, Prince Ranarridh, in a bloody coup. Fierce fighting broke out between the troops loyal to the two Prime Ministers. Prince Ranarridh, outside the country when fighting began, was joined by 23 opposition MPs, and thousands of people, mostly foreigners, fled the country.
ASEAN suspended Cambodia's impending membership; the United Nations left Cambodia's seat vacant and the USA suspended all but humanitarian aid. Attention is now focused on the next elections scheduled for mid-1998.
Staff of CAFOD's partner, CIDSE, were thankfully unharmed during the fighting, and in August they journeyed to reassure project beneficiaries in the villages that CIDSE would continue its work with the poorest of the poor.
People in Muk Kampoul, Kandal province, were particularly concerned about their credit programme. CIDSE has helped the villagers set up credit groups of five members who save regularly each month towards a group emergency fund. CIDSE then makes small amounts of credit available to individual group members for income-generating activities. The group guarantees everyone's loan and sets interest rates.
With the shortage of agricultural land, access to credit is a lifeline for people like Mrs Om Yin. A widow with a daughter to support, she was often in debt to moneylenders before the programme. Now, as a credit group member, she uses her loan to make and sell banana and rice cakes, giving her ready cash to purchase food and one day build a stronger house.
Since the credit programme began in Muk Kampoul in 1994, over1,300 people have benefited. CIDSE made available just �9,756 for credit support in 1997.
This is just one example of the integrated rural development programmes running in Kandal, Kampot, Ratanakiri and Svay Rieng provinces. Small scale projects being run by village leaders with CIDSE assistance include establishing basic health services and education; creating buffalo, cow, fertiliser and seed banks; building and renovating community schools; digging wells and ponds and repairing irrigation structures; and providing agricultural training for farmers.
Papua New Guinea: Drought Emergency
Papua New Guinea Map and Statistics (CIA World Factbook 1997)
Reports began to reach CAFOD in September 1997 of severe drought and frosts in Papua New Guinea which were destroying food crops and putting half a million people at risk of famine and disease.
CAFOD made an immediate solidarity grant of �3,125 to Caritas Papua New Guinea who were distributing relief goods through their diocesan networks. In December, CAFOD sent a team to Papua New Guinea to assess the effects of the frost and drought and to facilitate a training workshop for diocesan workers on dealing with emergencies. As a result of the visit, CAFOD made a further grant of �60,000 to Caritas.
Further assistance has been accessed from the European Union for a food distribution programme in the Mount Hagen area. In December the first substantial rains in over a year started to fall, leaving a further 4-8 months before planted gardens produce any food.
CAFOD Review of the Year 1997
