[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 76 (Tuesday, May 25, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1077-E1078]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HUNGER'S SILENT VICTIMS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. TONY P. HALL

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 25, 1999

  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring to our 
colleagues' attention a humanitarian crisis in Asia, one half a world 
away from the glare of television lights and public concern--but one 
every bit as worthy of our attentions as the crime scene that is 
Kosovo.
  I recently visited rural villages in Cambodia, and was surprised to 
see that Pol Pot's legacies--serious malnutrition and illiteracy--
persist two decades after he was run from power. I am especially 
concerned that our country is focusing too much on political issues, 
and ignoring the tremendous humanitarian problems in Cambodia.
  One aspect of these problems--hunger and malnutrition so severe that 
it is stunting the bodies and brains of more than half of Cambodia's 
children--was explained in a superb article recently in Time Magazine's 
Asian edition. We all know the tragic of Cambodia; this article 
describes a future sure to be needlessly sad.
  Cambodia is a fertile land at the crossroads of a thriving regional 
economy. Its people are hard-working and innovative. With a little 
peace, and a little humanitarian assistance, they can again be the 
stable, growing rice exporter they were in the 1960s.
  I would respectfully request that Time's article, and my own 
statement on the situation, be included in the Congressional Record. 

                     [From Time Asia, May 17, 1999]

                        Hunger's Silent Victims

                           (By Nisid Hajari)

       Cambodia is accustomed to the thunder of artillery, to 
     death tolls thickened by war and disease. The quiet of peace, 
     however, has begun to allow more subtle killers a hearing. 
     The latest crisis: food security, or its shameful absence 
     among the country's malnourished poor.
       The problem is hardly new, only newly appreciated. Earlier 
     this year a joint survey published by UNICEF and the United 
     Nations World Food Program (WFP) found that in Cambodia's 
     poorest rural areas, nearly half the children under age five 
     are physically stunted, while 20% suffer acute malnutrition.
       According to a separate U.N. study published last December, 
     Cambodia has the highest malnutrition rates in East Asia, 
     with an average daily intake of only 1,980 calories, even 
     lower than that of famine-stricken North Korea (2,390 
     calories) ``Malnutrition in Cambodia is chronic,'' says the 
     WFP's acting country director, Ken Noah Davies. ``You could 
     call this a silent emergency, or you could call this a 
     national crisis.''
       The scope of the problem bears out that dire warning. 
     Although hunger is especially acute in the countryside, even 
     Cambodia's relatively affluent urban population suffers 
     disturbingly high rates of malnutrition. The most recent data 
     released by the Ministry of Health reveal that in 1996, 
     nearly 34% of children below the age of five in this upper 
     income group were moderately underweight and 21% severely 
     stunted. The results suggest that not only income, but also 
     socio-cultural factors may contribute to the underfeeding of 
     children. For traditional cultural reasons--breastfeeding 
     from birth is seen as taboo--Cambodian women are often 
     reluctant to suckle their newborns immediately, waiting 
     several days and thereby depriving infants of highly 
     nutritious colostrum, or first milk.
       Much of the difficulty in feeding kids properly stems from 
     the devastation wrought by the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot's mad 
     attempt at transforming the country into a vast agrarian 
     commune destroyed its irrigation system, which had made 
     Cambodia a net rice exporter in the 1960s.
       Since most farmers no longer hold formal title to their 
     land--eliminated at the time, along with private property--
     their fields are vulnerable to takeover by soldiers and local 
     thugs. And the sundering of countless families has disrupted 
     the passage of traditional

[[Page E1078]]

     knowledge from mother to daughter. In some outlying 
     districts, many women have 10 or more children; some are 
     either unaware of birth control techniques or unable to 
     afford condoms. ``Nobody comes to explain to them about 
     health care,'' says Kao Chheng Huor, head of the WFP 
     office for the provinces of Kampong Thom and Preah Vihear.
       But in Kampong Thom, which according to the joint UNICEF/
     WFP survey suffers the highest rates of child malnutrition in 
     the country, it quickly becomes apparent that the heart of 
     the problem is mind numbing poverty. ``I had no choice, I had 
     no other way except to send my children away,'' says Hol Ny, 
     her eyes wet with tears. The 40-year-old widow, bereft of 
     land or cattle, recently allowed three of her six children to 
     go work for other families, some of them total strangers; the 
     $15 she received per child must feed her and her three 
     youngest for the next year. In her village of Srayou Cheung, 
     at least six other families have similarly sold their 
     children into bonded labor; some say they have had to forage 
     in the forest for food. Hol Ny's neighbor, a 41-year-old 
     divorcee named Pich Mom, sold her two sons for two years 
     each. ``I was sick and couldn't earn any money,'' she says. 
     ``It's hard for me to live without my children, but I think I 
     did what was best for them.''
       For the past four years, Cambodia has actually recorded a 
     small rice surplus estimated to reach 30,000 tons this year. 
     This bounty, however, is distributed poorly, and many farmers 
     simply cannot afford to buy what is available. (In a country 
     with a per capita income of only $300 a year, about 36% of 
     Cambodians live below the official poverty line; last year 
     the WFP assisted 1.4 million people, 15% of the population, 
     with its food-for-work program.) Even those who have rice 
     often have little else--perhaps a little salt, or the 
     fermented fish paste called ``prahoc''--to round out the 
     dish. That little is not nearly enough: rice, while high in 
     calories, has relatively few nutrients.
       The WFP says Prime Minister Hum Sen was shocked by the U.N. 
     surveys, and he now insists that eliminating malnutrition is 
     a top priority. ``Now that the fighting is over, we expect 
     everyone to work on this issue,'' says Nouv Kanun, the 
     energetic secretary general of the newly created Council for 
     Agriculture and Rural Development.
       A conference of Cabinet ministers and provincial 
     authorities last month endorsed a 10-year, $90 million plan 
     to tackle the root causes of malnutrition, focusing on crop 
     diversification and awareness campaigns about nutrition, 
     health and hygiene. Still, the damage that is already evident 
     will plague Cambodia for years to come. ``If you are 
     malnourished from six months until you are five, you are 
     going to be handicapped for the rest of your life,'' warns 
     Davies. ``You will never be able to develop your full mental 
     or physical capacity.'' Perhaps now that warning can be 
     heard.
                                  ____


POL POT'S LEGACIES--ILLITERACY AND MALNUTRITION--HAVE NOT YET FOLLOWED 
                          DESPOT TO THE GRAVE

       Washington.--U.S. Rep. Tony Hall, D-Ohio, today detailed 
     his impressions of humanitarian conditions in Cambodia and 
     warned that problems of desperate poverty--especially severe 
     malnutrition, scarce schools, and wide swaths of mined land--
     are undermining the victory over those responsible for the 
     death of nearly two million Cambodians. Excerpts of Hall's 
     remarks follow.
       ``I visited Cambodia's capital and two rural provinces 
     April 8-11 to get a firsthand look at the problems of 
     poverty, and particularly the terrible malnutrition that has 
     left Cambodia's rural villages populated by stunted people--
     and one in 10 wasted by hunger.
       ``What I saw in Cambodia's rural villages reminded me of 
     the time I spent in Thailand 32 years ago as a Peace Corps 
     volunteer. People in Cambodia seem to be frozen in time, and 
     you cannot escape the nagging feeling that Pol Pot and the 
     Khmer Rouge have won, that they took the people backward in 
     time and stranded them there.
       ``I was surprised to learn that in Cambodia, malnutrition 
     is not the result of a lack of food. It is caused by the 
     failure to teach mothers that they don't have to wait three 
     days after giving birth to breastfeed the baby; that children 
     should be fed more than just rice; that fish or fruit or 
     vegetables won't make toddlers sick; and that without basic 
     sanitation, disease will undo all the good of proper 
     nutrition and care.
       ``People need more traditional education too--four in five 
     rural Cambodians can't read or write, and just 20-30 percent 
     of children are in school. That means they can't take 
     advantage of their position at a crossroads of the regional 
     economy. And education is only the beginning of Cambodia's 
     problems.
       ``Without roads, it is impossible for rural people, who are 
     85% of the population, to get their products to market. 
     Without irrigation, most can only raise enough food to keep 
     their families alive. With even a few more roads and water 
     systems, Cambodia could feed itself and earn enough to fund 
     some progress.
       ``Malaria, TB, dengue fever, and the growing rate of AIDS 
     infections need to be fought more seriously. It is appalling 
     that Cambodian children still die from measles and other 
     easily prevented illnesses. Even the most basic things, such 
     as iodizing salt to prevent mental retardation, are not being 
     done.
       ``The country desperately needs economic growth. The 
     government's plan to demobilize 55,000 soldiers and 23,000 
     police will put a lot of young men with guns into a society 
     that is very fragile. Aid cannot create an economy, and I 
     hope the government will invest the money it now spends on 
     the military on improving its people's opportunities.
       ``Cambodia's people need peace--and a period to find their 
     way forward after 30 years of civil war. It is hard to 
     imagine the trauma of the generation that endured the 
     `killing fields,' or their children--who now are raising 
     children of their own. One aid worker told me that the 
     pictures children draw almost always feature guns or 
     weapons--because violence and war are so familiar to them.
       ``For peace to last, it will take more than the trial of 
     war criminals. Two decades have passed since the Khmer Rouge 
     were run out of power, but Cambodians remain among the 
     poorest people in the world. It is in their lack of education 
     that you can see that, even though Pol Pot's military is 
     defeated, he achieved his hideous goal of turning Cambodia 
     into a primitive place.
       ``After the mid-1997 coup, the United States cut its 
     funding for private charities working inside Cambodia--from 
     $35 million to $12 million. That is unacceptably low, given 
     the election last year, and it is only hurting poor 
     Cambodians who already have suffered unimaginably. Whatever 
     Congress and the Administration think of Cambodia's 
     government, we need to find a way to help its poor, and I 
     intend to press the United Nations, the United States, and 
     other countries to do that.
       ``The overwhelming majority of Cambodians, whose lifespan 
     is just 47 years, don't know what peace is. If the areas long 
     held by the Khmer Rouge aren't opened with roads and other 
     basic infrastructure, if the people do not have an 
     opportunity to get some basic education--if ordinary 
     Cambodians don't see progress in meeting their basic needs, 
     the peace that is holding now may not last.
       ``We have an opportunity today that has not existed in 
     three decades, a chance to introduce Cambodians to the fruits 
     of peace. The international community should make the most of 
     this chance by investing in Cambodians and their future--and 
     the United States should lead the way.''

     

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