Kampuchea fights for recovery

Press, 9 April 1980, Page 5

Kampuchea fights for recovery

NZPA-Reuter Bangkok’ As Kampuchea struggles to rebuild its economy after more than 10 years of war, revolution, famine, and yet more war, glimmers of hope are rare. However, an international expert has provided one witli a prediction that this fertile country could recover from its battering and become self-sufficient in its two main food items, rice and fish, within two or three years. And the Vietnamesebacked Government, in a morale-boosting move, has decided to reintroduce currency into a barter economy where goods are bought mainly by rice, gold, and Vietnamese or Thai money.

However, the harsh reality of Kampuchea today is that it is heading inexorably towards severe food shortages for the rest of the year, and that it will need a dramatic infusion of rice seed very soon if it is to avoid being dependent on international charity in 1981. Already, the ill-fated country is feeling the pinch of fresh hunger after managing, with outside assistance, to over-

come famine last year. Empty stomachs again threaten, the stirrings of economic revival, centred on agriculture and fishing, but including the reactivation of light industry, especially in and around Phnom Penh. The numbers of people coming to the Thai border either to settle or to collect international relief supplies are showing definite signs of increasing as the rainy season draws closer. Diplomats believe that many will choose to stay in makeshift settlements along the border rather than return to their villages after May, when heavy rains will place an even greater strain on internal relief distribution. Inside Kampuchea, the perpetual movement that has characterised the country since the Khmer Rouge regime was ousted from Phnom Penh in January last year is continuing as people search for food and lost relatives. Members of international organisations who have visited Kampuchea recently have . noted streams of people heading into urban areas, particularly Phnom Penh. “One reason is certainly because of the prospect f shortage of goods and actual shortages of food in some cases/'; said. Mr John Saunders, head of the Unicef mission in Kampuchea. “People you see in the streets of Phnom- Penh and round the station in some cases are physically hungry, and in some cases have not eaten well or sometimes at all,” he said. “There may be other reasons in that efforts are being made to restore the factories and general commercial activities in the of city of Phnom Penh, probably, several people are coming simply to find jobs ’’ Mr Saunders . said that small businesses such as sidewalk selling were growing, “so that in many ways the city seems to offer the prospect of cash, .perhaps security, perhaps food.” Unicef would have to bring in between 270,000 and 300,000 tons of food aid this year — at least 50.000 tons more than was

originally projected. The extra amount needed to avert starvation is caused by the almost total failure of the small mid-year dry season harvest.

In the aftermath of the Vietnamese-led seizing of the Government 15 months ago, little rice was planted and the year-end harvest was poor. People were on the move, either fleeing the continued fighting, heading for Thailand, or searching for members of families

broken up during the shattering revolution. Famine raged during the second half of last year, sending thousands of human skeletons towards Thailand. Many did not survive the journey, succumbing either to starvation or malaria. An international rescue mission was mounted by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (1.C.R.5.C.) as well as various non-Governmental organisations, according to ro rhw Phnom Penh Government, Vietnam and the Soviet Union gave 300,000 tons of food and medical aid. After a long period in which food piled up in warehouses at the two main ports of Phnom Penh and Kongpong Som, relief

agency officials reported recently that big amounts were being transported to the interior and distributed. Hundreds of thousands are being fed by an unofficial “land bridge” from the Thai border. However, problems of port facilities and transport — Kampuchea’s roads are in a bad state — will almost certainly continue, and distribution will be even more difficult during the heavy rains.

Distribution of food and medical aid stands at the corn of Kampuchea’s economic revival. because people engaged in rebuilds ing agriculture or industry must be strong enough to work. While international agencies have already begun pushing quantities of rice seed across rhe Thai border and are planning an airlift to Phnom Penh, there are few signs that Kampuchea can hope to get the 60,000 tons of seed experts consider necessary to ensure a good end-of-year main harvest. The official Pnhom Penh radio frequently broadcasts reports that people in the provinces are preparing land for agriculture and developing irrigation. One of the tragic ironies is that Kampuchea was once one of South-East Asia’s biggest rice producers. It also has the greatest fresh-water' fish resources in the region, and recent visitors report production heading towards normal around the great inland lake of Tonle Sap. Against this background of a predominantly agricultural society trying to build up its resources, the Government in . Phnom Penh last month announced it was reintroducing currency abolished by the Khmer Rouge in 1975. President Heng Samrin said that the riel would be restored to stimulate the economy and that all Government and party workers would be paid salaries in currency rather than rice. The decision has a symbolic as well as a practical side. The abolition of money was part of the Khmer Rouge effort to create a new society — an experiment that went disastrously wrong and caused untold suffering. Its restoration strongly implies that Kampuchea wants to become a normal society. On the practical level, it could help to give rice its proper place as . food, rather than as currency which can be smuggled and stockpiled. However, the immediate question is whether the riel can become a genuine currency unless it is backed by something. One possibility is that it could be fixed against the Vietnamese

dong, but recent visitors to Kampuchea say that in spite of a significant Vietnamese presence the dong is acceptable currency only in the eastern part. Elsewhere, they say, vendors prefer gold, rice, Thai baht, or even cigarettes. The Khmer Rouge, still fighting a guerrilla war, has branded the reintroduction of currency as a Vietnamese trick. The Khmer People’s National Liberation Front of Mr Sonn Sann, the biggest of Kampuchea’s non-com-munist guerrilla movements, said that it was aimed “only at profiting from the pssessions of the Cambodian population and from the possessions of the