Dairy project aims to boost post-war cooperation in Sri Lanka

By Megan Anderson: Pacific Media Centre

In the wake of three decades of devastating civil war in Sri Lanka, aid workers are struggling to help rebuild the communities shattered by the conflict.

International organisations and governments - including United Nations agencies, Red Cross, Oxfam and NZ Foreign Minister Murray McCully - called for a ceasefire before the final end to the war – in a bid to save civilians caught in the crossfire, with no access to humanitarian aid and a lack of clean water.

After 26 years of fighting - coupled with the tragedy of the 2004 tsunami - NGOs now hope peace will give Sri Lankans a chance to rebuild their country.

New Zealand Red Cross communications advisor Kelly Mitchell says: “Obviously there are still civilians who need assistance, and there is a role for ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) and partner organisations to assist.”

TEAR Fund executive director Stephen Tollestrup is travelling to Sri Lanka to oversee a cooperative dairy initiative, begun two years ago.

He will monitor and evaluate the programme, which he says is already a success.
The dairy project aims to bring both Sinhala and Tamil ethnic groups together in an enterprise towards peace and sustainable economic growth.

The venture focuses upon providing proper chilling facilities and transportation for the milk produced, water ponds, as well as strengthening five farmer-managed societies through consolidation, microcredit schemes and a focus upon local ownership and solidarity among farmers.

The initiative was implemented in conjunction with World Concern, an NGO, in response to the disastrous effects of the tsunami and the conflict in the region.

The 2004 December tsunami left 443,000 Sri Lankans displaced, killing approximately 31,000 people and crippling the economy.

‘Wrecked lives’
“Lives were wrecked,” says Tollestrup.

In May last year the Sri Lankan Government issued a call for New Zealand aid to help with its dairy industry, which is struggling from the effects of the war and the tsunami.

Fonterra already is the third milk-collecting giant in the country, holding more than 53 percent of the total dairy market.

Tollestrup, however, says the problem is not so much a lack of food, but an inability for people to afford it.

A World Concern report from 2005 said the people who were displaced and resettled after the tsunami were now in need of proper food security, with many suffering from high food prices.

Tollestrup says inadequate refrigeration facilities for storage and transport, combined with a lack of water and solidarity among farmers, has meant milk farmers are relying on local middlemen to distribute their goods – which has meant also some hefty fees.

“There’s a need for good prices for milk,” he says.

“It’s quite a fraught situation up there.”

Tense situation
The tense situation in Sri Lanka has also made it dangerous for aid workers hoping to assist in restoring stability to the region.

Mitchell says, “We have to work closely with the government so our workers can get there.”

“A lot of negotiation does go on behind the scenes.”

The Red Cross also has security teams, which Mitchell says are “constantly monitoring the situation”.

However, aid workers have still suffered at the hands of the war.

In 2006, 17 French aid workers from Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger) were shot dead in a massacre widely condemned in the eastern town of Muttur, with accusations coming from both sides - the then warring Sri Lankan government and separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Sixteen of the 17 victims were Tamils.

At the beginning of this month, a third staff member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was reported killed in the conflict zone.

Many other killings of aid workers have gone unreported, notes Tollestrup.

He says war also makes things difficult for aid workers, “simply because of the security which makes movement hard.

“People get isolated, which is very dangerous for everybody.”

Displaced families
At present, aid organisations are working to assist those displaced by the war; but this is proving difficult.

A press release from Oxfam called upon the Sri Lankan government to assist aid organisations in dealing with the people in these camps.

While Oxfam is implementing programmes to provide first aid, clean water and sanitation to those displaced from the conflict area, these efforts are struggling against the sheer numbers of people housed in the camps.

Oxfam media coordinator Jason Garman says: “The situation is still tense and Oxfam’s focus is on delivery of urgently needed supplies to people affected by the conflict.”

For those without need of immediate, emergency relief, Tollestrup says it is important for aid to be “empowerment-based”, helping lift communities into sustainability and capacity.

He says the worst thing aid can do is “create dependence”.

“You want people to respond to that challenge themselves.”

Tollestrup says the establishment of such a programme in itself is not so difficult. He notes: “The difficulty really is about local peoples’ energy and willingness to develop and build something.”

TEAR Fund focuses upon working with people in the community in order to establish what they want to achieve.

“When they share their envisioned future we talk to them about it to help them make it reality”.

TEAR Fund particularly works with young widows, many of whom have husbands killed in the war. Tollestrup says 20 percent of the households in their target community are led by women.

Women the key
“Women are a key factor in reconciliation,” he says.

In the farming communities, TEAR Fund works with 30 percent of the members who are women, with two out of five office holders.

Part of the focus of the dairy project is also on a microcredit scheme, where loans are able to be issued to those who want them on behalf of the farmer-managed society, which are then paid back into the society itself with very little interest.

These loans are then passed on to other farmers.

Tollestrup says such schemes “have had great success – we use it all around the world.”

For all the grief caused by the war, Tollestrup thinks things can only get better for Sri Lanka’s economy.

“I think it will get better because I think the Sinhalese feel they have been misrepresented by the media and NGOs. I think they’re going to want to show reconstruction and goodwill.”

Mitchell, from NZ Red Cross, says: “We can’t predict the future. We would like to think the situation will improve.”

“Whatever the situation is, our aid workers do make the effort.”

Megan Anderson is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University. Pictured: TEAR Fund's Stephen Tollestrup (Megan Anderson).

• Oxfam
• Red Cross
• TEAR Fund

Burma's armed conflict cripples food supplies

Villagers who have fled their homes in eastern Burma keep moving. Many areas are dangerous because of landmines, military checkpoints and patrols.

By Violet Cho: Pacific Media Centre

Burmese civilians and internally displaced people in eastern parts of Burma are suffering severe food shortages due to the ongoing armed conflict and an increase of state militarisation.

“The food shortage is a serious problem among internally displaced civilians and they now heavily rely on eating bamboo shoots and other food sources that they can collect in the jungle for their survival,” says Saw Steve, an executive member of Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP).

The Burmese civil society group, based on the Thai-Burma border, is working to assist communities effected by the crisis.

Burmese rights organisations are expressing deep concern for the civilians who are suffering direct consequences from the conflict between state military and ethnic resistance groups.

They also condemned the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the ruling military regime in Burma, which has intensified their military operations in ethnic minority areas.

Local rights groups claim the food crisis is a direct result of systematic militarisation and exploitation by the regime.

Saw Albert, a leading member of the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), has been working on a recently released report on the crisis.

“The food crisis has been gradually worsening since the beginning of the SPDC's Northern Offensive in late 2005” he says.

“With increased attacks on village communities and an intensified forced relocation campaign over the last three and a half years, food insecurity is at an all-time high.

“In military-controlled areas, villagers struggle to both meet the constant demands of the SPDC and their allied military groups and provide food for their families.”

No hiding places
Because of the ongoing conflict and repression in the area, it is very difficult and dangerous to meet affected villagers and provide relief.

Villagers who have fled their homes never have a permanent place to hide – they are constantly moving so local NGOs cannot know where to find them. Many areas are dangerous because of landmines, Burmese military checkpoints and patrols and active combat with insurgent armies.

Despite these risks, CIDKP field staff secretly distribute much needed supplied to small communities hiding in the forests.

If caught with supplies like food and medicine, field staff can be killed by Burmese troops, who use a strategy of cutting supplies to insurgent groups.

It is even more risky to carry equipment like cameras and recorders, as they are only used by activists documenting abuses. KHRG staff secretly collect testimonies from villagers in hiding and photograph abuses, which they use for their reports and advocacy.

One villager explained the extent of the food crisis to an anonymous KHRG field worker: “Only two villagers out of 10 have enough rice. They are borrowing from each other just to stay alive.”

Another villager from Nyaunglebin District, in northeastern Burma, explained that villagers do not have a proper time to do their own work for their survival.

“The SPDC army camp is located beside our village, so we always have to do loh ah pay [forced labour] for them. We do not have much time to do our own work. Now we are doing their work, such as cutting bamboo poles and delivering them to their [SPDC] camp.”

Villagers in displaced areas are sharing limited food supplies with each other just to stay alive. Because they are on the run, they cannot plant crops like rice, which is their staple food.
Instead they rely on collecting food from the forest.

Paddy plants
A villager who is displaced by the on-going military offensive said that “every time when the Burmese [SPDC] soldiers have arrived at our villager, we have had to flee. So, we haven’t had time to take care of our paddy plants in the fields. They [the fields] are covered with weed. If the SPDC did not disturb us, we would have enough food every year.”

Burmese populations in eastern parts of Burma can be categorised into two groups: those living in the SPDC controlled areas and those who hide in the jungle, refusing to live in forced relocation sites under military watch.

Due to the combination of military demands in the form of forced labour, arbitrary taxation, looting and ad hoc demands for food, money or other supplies, have placed a dangerous burden on villagers' livelihoods.

The practice of land confiscation, restriction of movement (villagers are not freely allowed to go to their farm or plantation areas) and forced relocation exacerbate poverty and dramatically increase food insecurity.

Meanwhile, in areas not under the military control, the SPDC troops are forcing villagers into relocation sites through their common practice of attacking villagers and destroying food stores, burning rice fields and livestock.

Villagers who managed to escape the military attacks are facing further threats of food insecurity their unstable living condition in hiding side in the forest, according to the KHRG report.

The report also documented the regime government’s shoot-on-sight policy, planting landmines and restrictions on villagers to trade with each other also created an extreme difficult for villagers to leave their hiding site in order to collect hidden food stores, to work in their former fields or purchase food supplies.

A villager interviewed by KHRG staff, complained that they felt like they were not treated as human beings. “The SPDC doesn’t see us as villagers. They identify us as their enemy. So when they see us, they shoot to kill us all.”

By documenting the food crisis, KHRG is providing recommendations for the international community on actions that can be taken to ease the current crisis and prevent future abuse and malnutrition in rural Burma.

The recommendations include increased support for cross-border aid and local civil society organisations, which can access affected populations and support the local food security protection measures that villagers in rural Burma have already developed.

Humanitarian aid
KHRG spokeswoman September Paw called for increased humanitarian aid to villagers in rural Burma: "Villagers in Karen State are faced with a serious food crisis as the direct result of military abuse.

She explained how Burmese villagers have been trying their best seeking various ways to address this food crisis, to maintain their livelihoods and to resist military abuse. “Despite these strategies, there is a great need for humanitarian aid to be scaled up to reach these people.”

However, She confirmed that, “the locally-driven protection measures developed by villagers themselves should first be taken into account in order to effectively address this crisis.”

Like civilians in eastern part of Burma are now suffering form food crisis, Burmese people in western part of Burma, Chin State has been plagued by a severe food shortages due to the reduction of local harvest and food production.

The crisis was started in 2006 when a new cycle of bamboo flowering that occurs about every 50 years in the region.

This bamboo flowers are eaten by rats and triggering the explosion of rats population, which destroyed the crop.

This has caused serious food shortages for Burmese villagers, as they are primarily dependent on subsistence farming through shifting cultivation.

Violet Cho is from Burma and is the Asian Journalism Fellow with the Pacific Media Centre. She is is studying on the Bachelor of Communication Studies (Honours) programme. The picture of displaced Burmese villagers is from the Karen Human Rights Group report.

Food crisis: The accumulative impact of abuse in rural Burma