Saturday 26 December 2009by: Marwaan Macan-Markar | Inter Press Service
Bangkok - Questions that have dogged the tsunami recovery effort through 2006 coalesced in a crop of media stories and critical reports as affected countries remembered in prayer and reflection the over 220,000 people killed in that December 2004 natural disaster.
The Dec. 24 headline in the lead story of a Thai English Language daily, "The Nation," could not have expressed this concern more bluntly. "Where did our tsunami cash go?" it asked, referring to a letter written by seven Western countries to Bangkok's authorities, alleging that money sent to help this South-east Asian nation's victims "had been stolen".
See also: Tsunami Brings Sea Change in Coastal Lives
That tone was echoed Wednesday in the editorial of a Sri Lankan English language daily, "The Island." It accused "corrupt elements in the garb of public servants" having profited from the unprecedented death toll across the South Asian island following the walls of sea water that smashed the coastline on the morning of Dec. 26, 2004.
"The government's failure to bring those who have robbed the tsunami funds to book has led to a severe erosion of confidence of the public as well as the international donors who answered Sri Lanka's desperate call for help," the paper argued. "The distribution of tsunami relief is seriously flawed."
In India, the government was taken to task on the week before the tsunami memorials by the international development agency ActionAID for failing to build houses promised for the victims. "Across tsunami affected areas of India, just 28 percent of the total 98,447 required houses have been built. In the Andaman and Nicobar Island, where 9,174 homes are needed, reconstruction so far is less than one percent," the British-based agency revealed.
The tsunami, which was triggered by a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 9.3 on the Richter, off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, flattened the coastlines of 11 Indian Ocean countries. Indonesia's northern province of Aech was among the worst hit, with 165,000 deaths, followed by Sri Lanka where over 35,000 died, then southern India, where 12,405 died, Thailand, where 8,212 died and the Maldives, which recorded 82 deaths. READ MORE ....
The Dec. 24 headline in the lead story of a Thai English Language daily, "The Nation," could not have expressed this concern more bluntly. "Where did our tsunami cash go?" it asked, referring to a letter written by seven Western countries to Bangkok's authorities, alleging that money sent to help this South-east Asian nation's victims "had been stolen".
See also: Tsunami Brings Sea Change in Coastal Lives
That tone was echoed Wednesday in the editorial of a Sri Lankan English language daily, "The Island." It accused "corrupt elements in the garb of public servants" having profited from the unprecedented death toll across the South Asian island following the walls of sea water that smashed the coastline on the morning of Dec. 26, 2004.
"The government's failure to bring those who have robbed the tsunami funds to book has led to a severe erosion of confidence of the public as well as the international donors who answered Sri Lanka's desperate call for help," the paper argued. "The distribution of tsunami relief is seriously flawed."
In India, the government was taken to task on the week before the tsunami memorials by the international development agency ActionAID for failing to build houses promised for the victims. "Across tsunami affected areas of India, just 28 percent of the total 98,447 required houses have been built. In the Andaman and Nicobar Island, where 9,174 homes are needed, reconstruction so far is less than one percent," the British-based agency revealed.
The tsunami, which was triggered by a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 9.3 on the Richter, off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, flattened the coastlines of 11 Indian Ocean countries. Indonesia's northern province of Aech was among the worst hit, with 165,000 deaths, followed by Sri Lanka where over 35,000 died, then southern India, where 12,405 died, Thailand, where 8,212 died and the Maldives, which recorded 82 deaths. READ MORE ....
http://www.truthout.org/1227093
