Burma Situation Update: 28/05/008
The cyclone in Southern Burma is now beginning to have a more wide ranging influence throughout the country. Already the economic effect has been felt in areas not affected directly through the junta’s forced collections. Citizens in neighboring states have been forced not only to donate money to the relief effort, but also goods. Some traders have had to donate seeds and rice that will go toward re-establishing the rice crops in the devastated delta. Existing crops, seed stores, granaries and machinery, both mechanical and animal were heavily damaged if not destroyed in the storm.
On top of the SPDC taxing its own population to rectify the problems in the south, the market mechanism throughout Burma has begun reacting to the imbalances created by the cyclone. With the enormous damage wrought by the cyclone to the delta’s rice producing capacity, supply has been severely hit causing the skyrocketing of prices in the north of the country for this essential staple. In Myitkyina Township, the capital of Kachin State, prices are two and a half times what they were in January. And rice is no the only basic good that has risen steeply in price in the last three weeks. In Kachin state. Most salt is imported from lower Burma and as a result the price of salt has nearly tripled from 150-200 Kyat, up to a current price of 500 Kyat.
The effect of the rising price has had a dramatic impact on the income of many houses that hover near the poverty line. With the beginning of the school term about to begin, many households are facing the prospect of not sending their children to school. Normally families would pay for their children’s tuition fees in full before the school year begins, however with the soaring prices of staple in Kachin state, many families can no longer afford to do this and have begun to use money saved for tuition fees to buy rice, salt and other staple goods.
Yet more reports are emerging from the south of the country as to the state of refugees. It appears as though there are still areas that have yet to be visited by an organized relief operation by the authorities. Many civilian volunteer groups have been loading up normal vehicles and traveling down through the delta region to isolated regions in an attempt to help deliver essential supplies to survivors. The plight of survivors seems to be worsening as the military have issued directives to keep people from begging on roadsides for aid. Refugees have also been evicted from some camps and have been ordered to return to villages that, in many cases, are still under water. How the government expects these people to rebuild houses in areas that are under three feet of water has not been explained.
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