Arugam Bay Information

Tsunami Hotel all set to ride the surf again
Published: Tuesday, 27 December, 2005, 09:30 AM Doha Time
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s ‘Tsunami Hotel’, destroyed by its namesake a year ago, reopened on Christmas Day, hoping that the surf will bring back much needed holidaymakers.
Lee Blackmore, British co-owner of the Tsunami Hotel in the eastern coastal village of Arugam Bay, is hoping tourists will return to the surfing paradise and help revive the tsunami-hit community.
Only the hotel’s name board stood upright after towering waves, some as high as 40 feet, lashed the island’s coastlines, claimed 31,000 lives and left a million people homeless a year ago yesterday.
“The word tsunami is something I always associated in a positive way with surfing – the energy, the biggest wave – and that’s why I named the place Tsunami Hotel in 1999,” Blackmore, 33, said in a telephone interview from Arugam Bay.
“I’ve spent many years in the Far East and its a Japanese word, rather exotic and unusual. It had a nice sound and a nice look.”
Mini tsunamis in the Pacific often attract surfers to ride the giant waves, but the tsunami that hit Indian Ocean coastlines on December 26 last year was unprecedented.
“Of course, like most people, we had no idea what the reality of a major tsunami was. The ‘Tsunami Hotel’ was a large and positive part of my life for six years, and it was incredibly disturbing to see this word now associated with so much death and destruction. I thought long and hard about changing the name, but all my friends here thought I should keep it.
“We want to be a symbol of overcoming the tragedy – in a sense we want to stay strong and fight back. Ironically, our name has been the very reason we had to resurrect ourselves.”
He said the effort to rebuild his 13-room hotel had been a challenge. But after a year and spending $50,000, he has managed to get seven rooms ready for occupation that will rent for $25 to 30 a night.
Survivors got little state help after the tsunami and the best foreigners can do to assist them was to spend a holiday in the island, said Blackmore, who went into partnership with a local in 1998 to set up the hotel.
Blackmore was in Hong Kong when the tsunami wiped out the hotel but he said his partner Naleen, staff and guests had a “miraculous escape”. Hundreds of other people, however, were killed in Arugam Bay, one of the worst-hit coastal areas on the island.
Only a handful of resort hotels now remain closed since the tsunami, but hotel occupancy has dropped by more than a third.
Overall hotel occupancy rates have dropped to about 50% across the tropical island nation.
However, along with worries about whether guests would return, Blackmore said he now had concerns about an upsurge in clashes between Tamil separatist rebels and troops in violation of a truce in the ethnic conflict struck in 2002.
But he said the violence had not deterred him from going ahead with relaunching the hotel in what he calls one of the world’s best windsurfing areas.
“Obviously we’re watching the situation to see how it develops in the next few months and some of the investments will be slow, but after something like the tsunami, nothing else can scare us,” he said. – AFP

Peter Apps

in Colombo

MANY residents of Sri Lankan fishing communities have had to start rebuilding inland in case of further tsunamis, but a threatened return to civil war could yet again displace them. Some residents are now closer to ceasefire lines that will become battlefields if the 2002 truce fails, amid a string of attacks on government forces blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels.

After the tsunami, no one predicted a return to war, but many people have been panicked by the gunning down of a pro-rebel politician in a cathedral at midnight mass on Christmas day. The shooting followed a rebel ambush that killed 13 sailors and the first naval clash since the ceasefire.

Sporadic attacks continued yesterday, when the military shot dead two suspected rebels in restive Batticaloa and a policeman and three civilians were shot dead in separate incidents.

The courts blocked an aid-sharing deal with the rebels after the tsunami, and many minority Tamils in the north and east feel sidelined in favour of the Sinhalese southern majority. The UN says inequalities must be addressed.

The rebels have threatened a return to war if they do not win concessions from the government, which has already rejected their demands for a minority Tamil homeland in the north and east.

The two sides cannot even agree on a venue for emergency talks, aimed at averting a return to a war that killed more than 64,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more.

Rebuilding

Many say they are putting off or limiting rebuilding until they see how the next few months pan out. A British former investment banker, Lee Blackmore, said he was worried while rebuilding his hotel in Arugam Bay, an eastern resort, though tourists have never been directly targeted.

“Since the ceasefire, we‘d probably doubled our tourist numbers every year,” Mr Blackmore said. “We will wait and see how things turn out before we put a lot of money in and go crazy.”

The Tsunami, One Year Later: More Than A Million Still Homeless in Sri Lanka PDF Print E-mail
Written by Kannan – Holland
Friday, 30 December 2005
Memorials are being held across the world this week to mark the devastating tsunami that hit South Asia one year ago. It was one of the world‘s worst-ever natural disasters.

On the morning of a December 26 scientists recorded one of the world‘s most powerful earthquakes ever off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Scientists soon realized the earthquake could form a deadly tsunami. But, unlike the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean region had no tsunami warning system. The results were catastrophic. Within hours some 218,000 people had died across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India. Nearly 2 million were left homeless. And the effects will be felt for years.
A new survey from Oxfam found that 80% of the 1.8 million people left homeless by the disaster were still without satisfactory permanent housing. On the Indonesia island of Sumatra, all residents are still living in tents or shelters. Overall Oxfam estimates some 300,000 new houses still need to be built in India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

We begin in Sri Lanka where more than 31,000 people died in the tsunami. The United Nations has reported Sri Lanka alone needs 100,000 homes – only about 6,000 have been built so far.

* Prasad Kariyawasam, Ambassador from Sri Lanka and the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations.
* Sarath Fernando, co-director of the Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform in Sri Lanka.
* Dr. Karunyan Arul, a physician who works with Tamil refugees and other war victims.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

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AMY GOODMAN: We‘re joined in the studio by the Ambassador from Sri Lanka to the United Nations. We are joined on the telephone from California and Sri Lanka: on the phone, Sarath Fernando is with us, he’s the co-director of the Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform in Sri Lanka; also joining us from California is Dr. Karunyan Arul, physician who works with Tamil refugees and other war victims. We welcome you all to Democracy Now! And we begin with the ambassador. Welcome. Can you talk about Sri Lanka today, a year after the tsunami?

PRASAD KARIYAWASAM: First, let me take this opportunity to thank the American public and the international community on this solemn occasion for sharing our grief and for coming readily to our help. We were touched by it, and we felt humanity is alive. As you know, we — the destruction caused by the tsunami in Sri Lanka is enormous and two-thirds of our coastline was affected. One million people were displaced. 90,000 buildings were destroyed. Nearly 40,000 people went missing or killed. In a situation like that, the rebuilding effort, we have estimated, will take between three to five years.

At this point, although everyone is in temporary shelters, and permanent shelters are being built, and we are aware of the slow progress, but we want to build better and build with equity. And because the tsunami touches all areas of the country, in a situation like that, we are constrained by various factors, but we have certain guiding principles. We want transparency, we want equity, all that is there.

We also — the livelihood of people, 150,000 people have lost their livelihood. So we have to rebuild their livelihoods. We have to build protection. But we have set up a blueprint for that, and we have international community support. In fact, I have to thank again President Clinton, U.N. special tsunami envoy, for being a bedrock — giving us bedrock support for the whole recovery process. We think we estimate $2.1 billion are required for reconstruction of Sri Lanka. We have commitment for that. But, of course, we need to make commitments to disbursement. At this point, we have disbursed only $500 million. It’s a process that is going forward.

AMY GOODMAN: We‘re also joined on the ground in Sri Lanka by Sarath Fernando of the Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform. From your perspective there, can you describe the progress, the devastation first, and then where you are today?

SARATH FERNANDO: The degree of devastation is very [inaudible] by the embassy there. 40,000 lives are lost. The quality [inaudible]. The number of houses destroyed was 80,000. About 500,000 people have been displaced. That‘s a really important factor. In the northern east, people who were affected by the war twenty years ago and people who have been living in temporary shelter and camps for as long as twenty years have been also hit by the tsunami. So, they face two disasters at the same time.

Now, regarding the recovery process, what [inaudible] very correct, the number of houses, permanent houses built is very small, it’s about 4,000 on, and about 80% or more of the people have lived now in temporary or what they call transitory houses for one full year. And living in this kind of situation is not very easy, and in Sri Lanka we have had several very heavy monsoons, and there’s a dry period when things become very hot, and these people have been living in this kind of situation for one full year.

Now, if I may say something about the reason for this kind of situation, I would put the blame very much on the government policies and plan. As soon as the tsunami occurred, within about less than ten days, a body was appointed, three task forces were appointed, and one was called the Task Force for Rebuilding the Nation, TAFREN. All people who were appointed to that councils were the top most business operatives, private business operatives in the country. They were government organizations who were also big private business operators. And many of them were owners of the biggest [inaudible] companies in Sri Lanka.

As a result, they prepared plans very quickly. By 15th of January, the first plan was ready. And according to this plan, the biggest priority U.N. missed, not to help the process of recovery of the affected people. I would view concrete results about this, coming from the first plan, the total allocation out of a total allocation of $1.5 billion U.S., the total allocation for housing and townships was $400 million U.S. out of the $400 million U.S. The amount allocated for temporary shelter was $20 million U.S. only. And the amount allocated for permanent housing for destroyed, completely destroyed houses, 80,000, was $80 million U.S. This comes to about $1,000 U.S. per house. Subsequently, the government has declared another figure of $250,000, which is about $2,500 U.S. per house.

But the government asked the question and got a lot of finances. I think the largest contribution of people from all over the world, government and non-governmental agencies and foreign civilians. These are the biggest contributions that came for any disaster of this type. Now, with all of that, the amount that was allocated for housing, temporary housing and permanent housing for destroyed fisher people‘s houses, the amount that the government spent was almost nothing. I‘m saying this because all of the temporary shelter was built by non-governmental organizations. Many international non-governmental organizations came in, and regarding permanent housing, what the government is doing is they have signed memoranda of understanding between [inaudible] international non-governmental organizations and local NGOs to build houses at their expense. Therefore, the government has not spent the amount that they allocated for this kind of thing by the government.

AMY GOODMAN: Sarath Fernando, we are going to go to break. When we come back, we‘ll get response from the ambassador. We‘ll also talk with Dr. Arul, who works with Tamil refugees in Sri Lanka and talk about the politics of the distribution of aid in this year after the tsunami. And then we‘ll look at Indonesia, ground zero, Aceh, for the tsunami.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: As we talk about this first anniversary of the tsunami, particularly looking at Sri Lanka and Indonesia, right now joined by the permanent representative of Sri Lanka to the U.N., Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam, we’re also joined by Sarath Fernando in Sri Lanka, just outside Colombo, of the Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform, and on the line with us from California is Dr. Karunyan Arul, a Tamil physician who works with Tamil refugees. Ambassador, your response to the critique that Sarath Fernando talked about, who gets help and who doesn‘t in Sri Lanka.

PRASAD KARIYAWASAM: Well, first of all, I’m happy that you had one individual from Sri Lanka, who is representing a non-governmental organization, giving his view. The country, ours is a vibrant democracy, and everyone has a right to his opinion. But I must emphasize that government has to work with many players, not only one individual or one organization. In fact, government set up a blueprint for reconstruction and rehabilitation in consultation with twenty government institutions, twenty bilateral and multilateral organizations, eighty national NGOs contributing relevant details, so we have had to coordinate a large number of donors, contributors and individuals.

And we need to — when you coordinate and set up a blueprint and implement that, there could be criticism from some quarters that it is not happening in the way that they individually wanted. And we have to build equity, and we had to build in such a manner that is sustainable. And we need to take into account the local politics of it. So, we understand there could be certain drawbacks in the perception of some people in the way the government is proceeding, but the fact remains things are happening on the ground.

There had been no outbreak of diseases. Everyone is now having temporary shelter. Permanent housing are being built. Plans are there for infrastructure rehabilitation. Donor coordination is transparent. Everything is on our website. We have a very transparent mechanism. We work very closely with the U.N. — United Nations system, in particular with President Clinton‘s office, that is the Office for Tsunami Recovery. I think government is transparent, government is committed. It is — but it could be sometimes there could be various leagues that are not in line with the others.

AMY GOODMAN: Sarath Fernando, your response?

SARATH FERNANDO: Now, about equity, I would like to hear further details. In the plan, I don‘t believe that they consulted all the people. But in the list he mentioned, there were no representative of the affected people. That was one big mistake and the total terror that has led to the present situation, because in our view – these are not my personal views. I talk on behalf of the more than 200 organizations who are campaigning on this issue. They‘ve now appointed a People‘s Planning Commission, comprising of very clear, very eminent people, you know, city providers and others. Now, about equity, in the first plan they allocated for housing this $100 million U.S., but they set apart $300 million U.S. for what they call township building. Now, in the report, in that proposal, they say there will be 12 large townships, 20 medium-sized townships and 30 small townships, all with modernized facilities.

Now, the whole approach, as described by Mr. Mano Tittawella, who was heading that effort earlier, he said that tsunami has given an opportunity for Sri Lanka to become a modernized society that can meet the dreams of the 21st century. Now, a limited very small group of elite, rich elite, had some dreams about a modernized society for the 21st century, but this is a very limited group of people who are not at all affected by the tsunami. The large numbers of people who were affected by the tsunami who are living in the present miserable conditions were not consulted. If they were consulted, they would have said, ‘Before you build all these modernized townships that only the rich people can use these, these are not for tsunami-affected people, because in the plan, they have said that they‘re putting up houses separately, 80,000 houses, at a cost of $1,000 U.S. each.’ That is what the plan says. Therefore, you can understand the type of equity.

Later on in May, when the donors came to Sri Lanka and had further discussions, the total budget increased from $1.5 billion U.S., if I am correct, the figure given by the embassy was different, it was next budget for $3.2 billion U.S. In the plan, in that plan, they have said they will build 15 tourism development zones right down the beaches. So 52 modernized townships and 15 large tourism development zones, one of which is to be Arugam Bay, that alone, the estimated cost is $80 million U.S. You know, the amount allocated or to be allocated for one tourist resort is equivalent to the amount allocated for 80,000 fisher people’s houses.

Now, in the future, in this territory that was affected, they are going to build 52 modernized townships and 15 tourism development zones, there will be no space for fisher people to live anywhere. That is why if you look at the decision to declare the buffer zone, the decision was taken very quickly, within about a week or so after the tsunami, they said no family would be allowed to go between 100 meters and 200 meters on the east coast and live on the beaches. But simultaneously, they said tourist hotels would be permitted to repair and start business. And within a week they started business. Now, they have introduced 15 new tourism development zones which will completely push out the fisher people. In Arugam Bay, the fisher people would be pushed out by eighteen kilometers, no, seventeen kilometers.

AMY GOODMAN: Sarath Fernando, I wanted to bring in our other guest, as well, Dr. Karunyan Arul, to talk about the situation, as well, from the political perspective of what has been happening in Sri Lanka. The government right now in a very difficult period, the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels must resume peace talks immediately to prevent a return to civil war, according to peace monitors. The Norwegian peace envoy said there‘s no time to lose, so at the same time the tsunami has so seriously impacted Sri Lanka, there is a very serious political divide in the country between the Tamils and the government. Doctor Arul, can you talk about tsunami politics and the politics of what is happening in your country, particularly in the north?

DR. KARUNYAN ARUL: Yes. Thank you, Amy, and you know, I, too, like the ambassador, want to thank the generosity of the U.S. people for giving us all of this money. Unfortunately, these funds perhaps may have exacerbated the existing divisions that are in the island and may have contributed to the sad situation where there is essentially a war breaking out, with all of these signs of war breaking out, such as sweep arrests and midnight searches and checkpoints. And what happened is the tsunami hit mainly the Tamil area, 70% of the areas hit were the Tamil area, the eastern province. And substantial portions of these areas are controlled by the rebel Tamils.

And the governments stopped foreign dignitaries, including President Clinton, including Kofi Annan, from visiting to just to see the devastation. In other words, the politics of the country, the division between the government and the Tamils, which has been there for decades, prevented the government of even allowing seeing what the damage was, and this same attitude of the government, of marginalizing the Tamils, which has been in place for decades, has been continued into the tsunami politics. And what has happened is the monies that came in, many of the NGOs and foreign governments realized that the Sri Lankan Sinhalese government state was incapable of delivering what is needed to the Tamils in the northeast who were the most affected by the tsunami, and what they did was, with the help of the Norwegians, they worked out a scheme or administrative scheme to share administrative responsibility in distributing this money. And that was called the PTOMS: Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure.

Unfortunately, the inherent racism that is so prevalent in the south of this country appealed against this, and they used various legal and other methods, and the PTOMS agreement, which was hailed by all countries, essentially was scuttled. Had the PTOMS been there, it would have been a confidence builder between the rebels and the Sri Lankan army to move forward in the peace process that had stalled with the new government coming in. I’m talking the previous government, the Rajapakse government. And thus, tsunami money, the tsunami sadly has only exacerbated the divisions and the inequity.

All of the discussion that Mr. Fernando had is essentially about the south, which is only 30% of the affected land. 70% of the affected land remains untouched, and there is a war there, a war that is impeding tsunami reconstruction and the government in the center, which does not want to give up reconstructive powers to the people. It is the people are being denied that money, and so the confidence of the Tamils and the rebels in the government to deal with them is breaking down, and there‘s war.

AMY GOODMAN: Ambassador, your response?

PRASAD KARIYAWASAM: Thank you. Sadly, good doctor seems to be out of touch with reality. He lives in California, perhaps he does not know what‘s happening. Let me clarify a few things. First of all, two-thirds of our coast was affected, and most people who died in the tsunami was those who belonged to what is called the Muslim community, who has no tract with the Tamil rebels or LTT. And they were in the eastern province. That is the place that has been destroyed most, and reconstruction and rehabilitation is going on very well in that area, and I can vouch for that.

Second, the allegation that the V.I.P.s, like President Clinton and Kofi Annan, did not see the north, and this is not true. I, myself, was in Sri Lanka. I accompanied Mr. Kofi Annan to Trincomallee, and where we see the Tamil refugee camps, we met TRO, we met – so that is again not true. President Clinton, even this time, went to Kalmuni, that is the eastern province, a coastal village. So these are all politics of it.

What is unfortunate is that people who live in this country are living in the past. They are living in a kind of a dream world of their own. And that is preventing us from reconciliation. And we expected — in fact, when the tsunami struck, tsunami did not distinguish between communities. It struck everybody equally. And at that time there was great comity between people. I know stories of soldiers risking their life to save Tamil civilians. It happened in the north and the east. Those are facts. I had my own friend doctors who are living in Colombo, who drove to the north and to the east, rather than to the south — they were Sinhalese doctors — because they said that these people need help. That‘s the spirit.

But we expected after the tsunami, the Tamil rebels, the LTT to change, to change their ways, change their political agenda of total separation. But as has been confirmed by the international community – the international community, including the facilitators of the peace process appealed to the LTT: Change your ways, learn the art of compromise in politics, learn the art of — not the art of violence to achieve your own ends. What they‘re doing today is still the same, more of the same. So that is the tragedy, but the government and the international community‘s committed to reach out to each and every corner in the country, and it is being done, despite all this rhetoric. On the ground rehabilitation is taking place in the north and the east, and that’s a fact, and no one is in despair. No one is having any problem. Now, so that is the reality on the ground.

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Arul, your response?

DR. KARUNYAN ARUL: Mr. Ambassador, you know, apparently we are both living in different realities, and you have a reality [inaudible], but back to the point. Let me make my point. Isn‘t it a fact that the rebel-held area, Mullaittivu, which was very badly hit, was never visited by a foreign dignitary, including — I’m essentially talking Kofi Annan and President Clinton? They visited eastern province, which is under government control. Okay, isn‘t it a fact that the government agreed to share administrative responsibilities to the LTT, and then it is the Sinhalese south and their politics that broke it, and that when they reneged on the agreement? These are facts.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain for one minute just to — just for people who are not familiar with the politics of Sri Lanka, the presidential election took place when? This is since the tsunami, about a month ago?

PRASAD KARIYAWASAM: Yes.

DR. KARUNYAN ARUL: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the policy change, the agreement before the presidential election, and the agreement afterwards from each of your perspectives, Dr. Arul?

DR. KARUNYAN ARUL: Well, in the presidential election, there was a very clear choice in the Sinhal electorate. The Sinhal electorate had two candidates: one who wanted to grant some degree of federalism to the Tamils, who wanted to share power with the Tamils, which has been the basic problem in the political conflict that is going on, sharing power with the Tamils; another candidate who wanted what is called a unitary government where all power resides in Colombo, another government which would not accept the basic identity needs of the Tamils, which are being threatened by the Sinhala government policies over many decades, including the right of self-determination, right of management of their affairs, etc. There was a very clear choice, and the Sinhal electorate voted for the person who said we will not share power with the Tamils. And the Tamils did not participate as much as they did in the other elections, and so the choice was made by the Sinhala people and is very clear.

And so, the current government has taken steps back in the peace process and the assumptions of how the peace should be done, which essentially was by sharing power with the Tamils. And so we are in a quandary, and war is starting, and it is so paramount that there has to be peace. There has to be peace. There is no point putting blame game and pointing who is there and what they did in the past. And I think in order for peace to come back, the first thing to do is the government must meet with the Tamils, not put conditions of where they want to meet, not try to marginalize them, not try to isolate the Tamil community from the international community, not demonize them, but sit and talk with them and first of all implement a cease-fire agreement, which is already in place, and then go towards the political solution, which I think the current president, who is a pragmatic man by many, many — hopefully will work to it. That‘s what I would like to say. There‘s a clear choice. The electorate had a clear choice. They went in one direction. So the Sinhala south has to decide how much of power they want to share with the Tamils.

AMY GOODMAN: Sarath Fernando, you‘re in the south. Your response?

SARATH FERNANDO: I would like to agree very much with what the doctor said about the situation in the north. Now, what I would like to add to what he said is that the entire Sinhala constituency in the south is not a racist group that is crying out against any kind of settlement. There are many organizations here. Now, about discrimination of the people against the people in the north, it is very true. Now, concrete figures, if I use, the amount allocated for the tsunami-affected families and their daily food and expenses and so on, is much higher than the amount allocated for such requirements for war-affected people who have been living in those temporary camps for 20 years. And there [inaudible] that should get less, there are such incidents. Now it‘s not the people who agree. That‘s my point.

For instance, I work with a network of organizations, about 200 organizations, fishery sector organizations, working in the north, east and also in the south, they‘re working really well together with the fisheries organizations in the north, and we have taken positions about the settlement of this issue. We are totally in support of a complete devolution of power. The people in the north, the Muslims that are in that area and the people in the north, the Tamil people in the north, have the complete right to decide on their own about what kind of recovery, what kind of development, what kind of economy they want. They have — they should have the control over the resources in that area, whether it’s the sea or the land. So therefore, it’s very necessary — that‘s the only way a settlement could be reached. A central government wanting to centralize power, whether they are representing the extreme Sinhala in the south or otherwise, the total interest is to have control over all the resources and all people and to do something that would destroy not only the people in the north, but also the people in the south.

AMY GOODMAN: Ambassador, we have just one last 30 seconds. December, the bloodiest month since the Sri Lankan truce came into effect in 2002. You represent the new government.

PRASAD KARIYAWASAM: Well, a government — successor government is committed to democracy. We had democratic elections. Unfortunately, LTT, that is Tamil Tigers, led — some Tamils boycotted the elections. Tamils are in the government. There are Tamil ministers in the government. The government is committed to talk to Tamils. The government is committed for substantial devolution of power. Government is committed to let Tamils run their own affairs in the north and east. It is up to the LTT to respond to that, change their ways and come to the negotiating table and talk. They should not depend on violence. It’s unfortunate, some people still talk LTT language, while LTT is a banned terrorist organization in this country, and because they are bent on violence. We want to talk to LTT. We want to talk to Tamil people who are the government. We are committed for all, but I agree with Mr. Fernando, that actually what Mr. Fernando said is what government has had in mind. We want to talk. We don‘t want war, but LTT does not seem to change their ways. That is our problem.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to have to leave it there. I want to thank you all for being with us. Prasad Kariyawasam is the ambassador of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, representing the new government of Sri Lanka; Sarath Fernando, Movement for National Land and Agriculture Reform, known as MONLAR, in Sri Lanka; and Dr. Karunyan Arul, Tamil physician working in Los Angeles with Tamil refugees. When we come back, we‘ll look at another country, ground zero for the tsunami, one year later. We‘ll look at Indonesia and particularly Aceh.

Washington D.C. 31 December (Asiantribune.com): The United States government has provided $134.6 million in 2005 in assistance to communities in Sri Lanka for relief and reconstruction efforts, economic assistance to restore livelihood, toward infrastructure projects and technical assistance to mitigate the effects of the tsunami devastation, it was announced here by America’s official overseas economic assistance arm the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

While noting that U.S. assistance program in Sri Lanka have addressed a broad range of needs, USAID said that it has funded cash-for-work programs, on-the-job training and small loans which the agency noted that more than 43,630 people have received assistance through economic restoration projects and 17,500 have benefited from small business and livelihood grants.

According to estimates from the Asian Development Bank, Sri Lanka suffered $1 billion in overall damage and losses equivalent to 4 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) due to December 2004 tsunami. USAID has helped Sri Lanka participate in trade shows and mount advertising campaigns in Europe to help revitalize tourism, an important segment of the economy.

A USAID project has replaced a damaged bridge at the mouth of Arugam Bay in eastern Sri Lanka. This bridge is considered critical to the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the eastern coastal communities, which are dependent on tourism and have been underdeveloped due to the prolonged conflict in this island nation.

New projects under way also include rehabilitating community markets and roads and restoring access to drinking water. According to USAID, 187,870 people have received sanitation supplies and more than 220,000 have benefited from water projects. In carrying out these projects, USAID says it has brought people together from diverse ethnic communities to work cooperatively for the common good of the country.

In the deep south Matara district, USAID has provided more than 1,200 small entrepreneurs, farmers and fishermen with technical assistance, working capital, materials and equipment for enterprises in textile production, fish processing, yam cultivation and other cottage industries.

The United States’ overseas economic assistance agency, USAID, recently began a partnership with Geneva Global Foundation, a non governmental organization (NGO), to provide $3 million in funding for at least 65 social and local development projects. The projects will focus on aid to vulnerable families, youth and children, improving health and combating human trafficking and domestic abuse.

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- Asian Tribune -

Sri Lanka to remember tsunami dead with vigils
Monday, 26 December , 2005, 09:36

The government has said it received $3.2 billion in aid pledges from international donors.

Peraliya (Sri Lanka), Dec 26: Sri Lanka‘s President Mahinda Rajapakse today led the nation in paying homage to the victims of the tsunami disaster and pledged to introduce a “new dynamism” in reconstruction work which he admitted was moving slowly.

After observing two-minute silence to show respect to an estimated 31,000 people who perished in the catastrophe that hit the island nation last year, the President said the aid distribution had been less than satisfactory.

“Have we been able to do maximum justice to those who sacrificed their lives as victims of this tragedy? Have we been able to carry forward the great strength our people demonstrated just after the tragedy?” Rajapakse asked. “It is my belief that we are unable to answer both these questions to our satisfaction.”

Launching a new initiative called ‘Jaya Lanka‘ which seeks to bring all reconstruction-related institutions under one umbrella, Rajapakse said he would introduce a “new dynamism” into rebuilding tsunami-hit coastlines.

The main official tsunami commemorative ceremony was conducted at the Jinaratana Maha Vidyalaya School in Peraliya, 95 km south of Colombo, which was also submerged by last year‘s tsunami.

The government also released four commemorative stamps to mark the first tsunami anniversary.

In the eastern coastal town of Arugam Bay, one of the worst affected areas, residents offered free lunch to people still without homes. (Agencies)

Published: Monday, December 26, 2005

THE building, its paint still drying, was brand new – but the battered sign far older. Return to Paradise, it said.

Last Christmas it hung from a flimsy shack on the narrow, sandy archipelago of Ao Ton Sai on Thailand‘s Phi Phi island.

Yesterday the bar owner nailed it back up on his new, sturdy concrete structure. This time he was taking no chances.

“All gone in the tsunami,” he said. “My customers, some staff. This sign was almost all that was left. We rebuild and this time we make it strong. But if tsunami come again?”

It is a silent, unspoken fear hanging over the island and much of Thailand‘s Andaman Coast where more than 8,400 died in the great waves that killed almost 300,000 across 12 countries a year ago today.

Slowly, holidaymakers are returning to this particular paradise.

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But in the days leading to the anniversary – usually the busiest time of the year – the 45 or so guesthouses, hotels and bungalows now reopen for business are only half full.

ON the fine, white beaches, tourists play volleyball and drink cocktails under the sun amid the scars of that day.

A few sickly coconut palms stand where once was lush jungle. Many are only trunks, their heads ripped off by the giant waves that left broken bodies, buildings and boats.

They lean at awkward angles, their foliage blackened and thinned like feathers on a long-dead crow, on a spit of barren sand between two bays.

It is the first thing visitors see and it is a mesmerising reminder.

At night this is a ghostly sandy graveyard of a place but the rebuilding goes on.

The locals, ex-pats and Thais – united by the unspeakable horrors they have seen -need the party to return to Phi Phi. Hundreds will gather on the beach at 10am today to remember the dead with a minute‘s silence and prayers. It is one of seven services on the western coast.

Among them will be Barbara Hart, 54, and daughter Jemma, 15, from Southampton. They were diving when the wave hit.

Barbara said: “We‘re here for all the Thais and all the tourists who didn‘t make it.”

Of the 9,000 or so people on Phi Phi last Boxing Day, around 1,800 died. Of those, 1,000 – mostly Thais – are unaccounted for.

Many superstitious locals believe the undiscovered victims remain as ghosts, bringing bad luck to the waters. Waitress Pat said: “Once you‘ve seen what the sea can do you never see it the same way again.”

While Phi Phi‘s slow recovery has begun, in many other places in Thailand, as well as India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia – where the quake that triggered the tsunami struck off the coast – people feel forgotten, and starved of aid and tourist dollars.

There are no tourists to help in Banda Aceh, northern Indonesia, where I saw the devastation last year. Countless thousands were swept away that day.

A FEW well-built mosques were all that survived amid destruction on a Biblical scale.

There was no birdsong, no animals at all, no traffic, no movement but for the fluttering of a wedding photo album turning in the breeze.

Clothing flapped around girders and concrete – all that remains of hundreds of flattened homes.

When you‘ve seen what the sea can do, you can never again view it as a benevolent giant swimming pool or a rippling mirror for a setting sun.

Here on Phi Phi, it is hard not to glance nervously at the horizon and imagine how it felt the day the earth turned to sea.

BRITON Lee Blackmore reopens his guesthouse in Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka, today under its old name, the Tsunami Hotel. Lee, 34, said: “We want this place to be a symbol of overcoming the tragedy.”

THE RECOVERY EFFORT

1 MALDIVES

DEAD: 108 people, with two-thirds of the capital Male flooded

AID: More than 1,000 islands affected, relief proved a massive challenge. All homeless now rehoused

2 SRI LANKA

DEAD: Approx 70,000. One and a half million people displaced from their homes

AID: A lack of planning, poor communications and destroyed roads has made distribution difficult

3. INDIA

DEAD: Approx 18,000. Worst-hit region, Ta mil Nadu, where almost 8,000 died

AID: Vast areas of coastline still devastated

4. INDONESIA

DEAD: Approx 160,000 with 655,000 left homeless

AID: Most aid has been distributed in the worst-hit Banda Aceh region. Efforts hampered by a lack of organisation

5. THAILAND

DEAD: Approx 14,000, including 6,000 tourists. Resorts of Phuket and Khao Lak were badly hit

AID: Tourist areas were repaired and re-opened within months, but other areas still need aid

6. MYANMAR

DEAD: Approx 600, with 30,000 homeless

AID: Most of the damaged buildings are being rebuilt, but many remain homeless

7. ANDAMAN/NICOBAR ISLANDS

DEAD: One fifth of the population, around 7,000, are said to have lost their lives

AID: Agencies have struggled to help the remote islands

mirrorfeatures@mgn.co.uk

Washington — One year after the devastating December 2004 tsunami and earthquake that struck the Indian Ocean region, the United States has provided emergency services as well as economic assistance to restore livelihoods to the people in affected South Asian countries.

The U.S. government has provided more than $150 million in assistance to communities in Sri Lanka and India for relief and reconstruction efforts, according to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

SRI LANKA

U.S. assistance programs in Sri Lanka have addressed a broad range of needs. The United States obligated $134.6 million toward projects for infrastructure, technical assistance to revive livelihoods and good governance.

A USAID project has replaced a damaged bridge at the mouth of Arugam Bay in eastern Sri Lanka. This bridge is critical to the reconstruction and rehabilitation of coastal communities, which are dependent on tourism and have been underdeveloped due to local conflict.

New projects under way also include rehabilitating community markets and roads and restoring access to drinking water. According to USAID, 187,870 people have received sanitation supplies and more than 220,000 have benefited from water projects. In carrying out these projects, USAID says it has brought people together from diverse communities to work cooperatively for the common good.

Psychological and social programs have become extremely important for communities still living in transitional shelters. More than 11,000 children, teens and adults in Sri Lanka have benefited from programs supported by USAID.

One such program involves 50 tsunami-displaced communities on the east coast. These communities have formed child well-being committees that administer specially designated “child-centered spaces” in the camps to provide psychological and social support for young people. More than 400 volunteers have been trained on problem identification, communication, stress and working with children, USAID reports.

According to estimates from the Asian Development Bank, Sri Lanka suffered $1 billion in overall damage and losses equivalent to 4 percent of its gross domestic product due to the tsunami. USAID has helped Sri Lanka participate in trade shows and mount advertising campaigns in Europe to help revitalize tourism, an important segment of the economy.

USAID has funded cash-for-work programs, on-the-job training and small loans. According to the agency, more than 43,630 people have received assistance through economic restoration projects and 17,500 have benefited from small business and livelihood grants.

In the Matara district, USAID has provided more than 1,200 small entrepreneurs, farmers and fishermen with technical assistance, working capital, materials and equipment for enterprises in textile production, fish processing, yam cultivation and other cottage industries.

“USAID also assisted 36 local governments, whose capacities were stretched to the limits, with information technology and telecommunications equipment and training,” a USAID fact sheet said.

Turning to governance, USAID has funded community participation programs in 10 areas to train local government officials, community representatives and staff from civil society organizations.

USAID recently began a partnership with Geneva Global Foundation, a nongovernmental organization (NGO), to provide $3 million in funding for at least 65 social and local development projects. The projects will focus on aid to vulnerable families, youth and children, improving health and combating human trafficking and domestic abuse.

INDIA

USAID has budgeted $17.9 million for its programs in India where it is focusing on providing shelter, water, sanitation, cash-for-work programs and coastal management plans to mitigate the effect of future disasters.

“While permanent homes are being built, many of those displaced remain in temporary settlements,” a USAID fact sheet reports. “USAID works to keep the conditions in the settlements decent and healthy. This includes improving latrines, clean water and solid waste management as well as providing better ventilation, weatherproofing and recreational services.”

Through USAID reconstruction programs, more than 100,000 people have better access to clean water and shelter.

In the area of revitalizing livelihoods, a USAID project has helped more than 300 fisherman in the coastal district of Nagapattinam repair more than 170 boats, 232 boating engines and 200 fishing nets through a cash-for-work program. With these newly restored resources, the fishermen have been able to start fishing again, USAID reports.

USAID also is funding numerous training and educational facilities in India as part of its program for economic recovery. One such center has been erected in the Pondicherry district, where villagers including 36 young girls have been able to obtain diplomas in computer applications.

With USAID support, the Dalit community in the village of Thenapattinam in the Nagapattinam district has developed livestock commerce as an alternative source of income after the tsunami devastated agriculture. Previously, the community depended on agricultural labor for income but heavy sand deposits from the tsunami left their land unsuitable for farming.

With help from a local NGO, women‘s groups have formed a revolving fund to finance livestock-related activities. Livestock is bought and distributed among the members and each member has been given a small grant to cover shed, fodder, vaccination and insurance costs. The women have started selling milk from their cows to the local cooperative, providing much needed income.

“Villagers and local authorities are working with USAID to improve disaster preparedness in over 22,000 of India‘s most vulnerable coastal villages,” a USAID fact sheet reports.

USAID also helped establish city-to-city partnerships with Florida cities, recently recovered from similar catastrophes, to bring U.S. city managers and their Indian counterparts together to identify where they best can contribute to municipal recovery operations, the agency reports.

For additional information on U.S. assistance efforts, see U.S. Response to Tsunami.

Created:30 Dec 2005 Updated: 30 Dec 2005

By Sanjoy Majumder BBC correspondent in Weligama

Jayanta Gamage says business has not picked up

Early morning in the heart of the southern Sri Lankan town of Galle, it’s business as usual in the main fish market.

Fish sellers call out to prospective customers to take a close look at the fresh catch laid out on stone blocks – lobster, jumbo prawns, kingfish and tuna.

It’s busy, noisy and far removed from the scene in December 2004, when the entire market was buried under a pile of rubble.

But not everyone is happy and not everything normal.

“Business is not good at all,” says Jayanta Gamage, a fish seller.

He explains that although the market has been rebuilt, the infrastructure supporting the industry is only slowly coming back to shape.

It took me two months to get a boat back to sea SH Ranjith Fishing boat owner

“Many fishermen who used to supply fish to us from further down the coast simply sell their stock on the highway, because they are unable to get it across to us in time,” he says.

There are relatively fewer refrigerated trucks which transport the fish along the coast to the lucrative markets in Galle and Colombo.

As for the wholesalers and middlemen who form the crucial link between supplier and buyer – many of them are still to get back on their feet after the tsunami.

Rebuilding the trade

A drive further down the supply chain, to the fishing village of Weligama, illustrates the problem.

The catch is unloaded at dawn in Weligama…

SH Ranjith, 40, has been a fisherman since he was 15.

Owner of a fleet of boats, he lost six of them in the tsunami.

“It took me two months to get a boat back to sea,” Mr Ranjith, who lost his mother in the tsunami, says.

It took him considerably longer to repair and rebuild the remaining two boats that he owned.

“I got some help from NGOs and the government who supplied me some nets and the engines for the boats,” he says.

“The rest of it was financed by my life savings and money I borrowed.”

He shades his eyes against the early morning sun as one of his boats, Sea Princess, comes in.

The 10 man crew quickly unload the cargo – small prawns and sprats.

But there is no lucrative tuna to supply to the restaurants and hotels in Galle and beyond.

Little help

“Many of us have begun selling directly to consumers instead of going through middlemen,” Mr Ranjith says.

The catch is not valuable enough and highly perishable.

…but is far from impressive

So many of the fishermen sell the fish along the highway, where cars pull up to conduct the trade.

“We lost 10 million rupees ($98,000) worth of boats and other material,” says KA Lakshman, 41, a member of the local fishing union which has 250 members.

“The government aid of 5,000 rupees ($49) a month obviously was never going to be enough,” he adds.

Government officials acknowledge that the effort to organise the industry and rebuild it has been disorganised but point out that their priority lay in housing the victims.

“It’s only now that we have managed to look at livelihood programmes,” says MGS Dhammasena, the district tsunami rehabilitation coordinator.

HAVE YOUR SAY Tsunami has created a permanent tragedy for many lives Vythilingam Siva, Toronto, Canada Send us your comments

Mr Dhammasena and other government officials also point out that the tsunami had left the entire administrative machinery in disarray.

“Many of us also lost family or our homes and possessions,” he said.

“Of course it’s going to take time to get things going.”

Poor catch

Close to the beach, at a small two room building which functions as a club for the fishermen, the day’s catch is poured onto the floor and auctioned.

It’s just not been the same after the tsunami Chandana, fisherman

Wholesalers sift through the fish, putting some aside and rejecting the rest as anxious fishermen watch their every move.

An argument breaks out as a large percentage of the catch is rejected.

“It’s not good enough,” says S De Silva, who makes the run along the coast every morning.

Bitter fishermen throw up their hands in despair and conspiracy theories abound.

“It’s just not been the same after the tsunami,” says Chandana, a fisherman.

“The catch is different – the sea is not the same. The difference in water level means that we only get small fish.”

Others offer a more logical explanation.

“The only boats that are being used at the moment are smaller ones, not the deep-sea trawlers,” says Asoka Jayasekara, the government agent in Galle.

“Obviously the catch closer to the shore is not as good as further out.”

It will take several months for the bigger boats to be brought in and put out to sea.

Until then, Weligama’s fishermen will have to wait in hope.

see the original article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4534868.stm

Die Tourismus-Industrie Sri Lankas hat die Folgen des Tsunamis noch immer nicht verkraftet

A YEAR after giant waves crashed ashore in eastern Sri Lanka and swept away the 13-room Tsunami Hotel, the resort reopened this week under the same name – a testament, its owner says, to the spirit of survival.

On December 26, when the tsunami hit, British-born owner Lee Blackmore was in Hong Kong.

The resort – popular with Western surfers – had eight guests and five staff.

“Everything finished, hotel gone,” he remembers his Sri Lankan partner, Naleens, telling him on the phone.

Arugam Bay – where the hotel sits – is a tiny fishing village. Travellers say it has probably the best surf in Sri Lanka, a country of 19 million, where the toll of 31,000 dead from the tsunami was surpassed only by Indonesia‘s toll.

The killer waves destroyed or damaged 48 hotels and resorts in Sri Lanka, where tourism is the third-largest foreign currency earner.

But Mr Blackmore was luckier than many and quickly resolved to rebuild.
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“I heard that though hundreds had died, all my friends had survived, including all my guests and staff.

“From that point forward, I knew we could come back. We had to come back.”

He raised US$6000 (NZ$9000) from friends and returned to Arugam Bay.

“Building after building is destroyed, the road ripped up, wrecks of cars vans and buses litter the bay.

“I get to our place and find the first six rooms are now just rubble, the rest very badly damaged,” he recalled.

The past year of reconstruction has gone slowly because a river bridge that connects the bay was out of service for months.

There were electricity cuts for days at a time.

“After a year of determined resolve, struggle, the overcoming of countless obstacles, and all the money I had and more, we have reopened.”

The hotel is smaller, at least for now, with just seven rooms.

But one thing has not changed – the name.

“Maybe some people will be put off, but this hotel could be a symbol of overcoming tragedy,” said Mr Blackmore, who first came to Sri Lanka in 1998 and opened the resort a year later.

“We had to fight back and not be beaten.”

He was expecting his first guests on Monday – the one-year anniversary of the tsunami that killed at least 230,000 throughout Asia. – AP

South Coast Register Australia

Memorial for tragedy
By GLENN ELLARD
Thursday, 29 December 2005

A RIP carried a bouquet of flower into the water at Cudmirrah Beach on Monday as a group gathered to quietly reflect on the events of a year earlier as a tsunami wreaked devastation on parts of Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

Included in the group were Malcolm Holland and Peter Harding, who spent several weeks in Sri Lanka following the catastrophe.

They were greeted by scenes of devastation that Mr Holland said would never leave him.

“I think about it every day,” he said.

While they travelled to Sri Lanka primarily to look for and look after family members and relatives of their wives Wascindy and Sandra, the pair ended up performing potentially life-saving work in the coastal village Aragum Bay.

They helped with the clean-up including establishing toilet facilities, as well as providing medical assistance to people in a refugee camp and counselling people afraid to return to the area where their village once stood.

Mr Holland said the village‘s inhabitants were about 10km inland when he arrived, sheltering in a Buddhist temple being used as a retreat.

Some had been killed when the wall of water hit the village, and only three of the homes had survived the devastation.

The immediate aim was to check on family members and make sure they were okay.

“We weren‘t sure until we saw them,” Mr Holland said.

From there the pair used money raised in Sussex Inlet and other parts of the Shoalhaven to hire a back hoe and employ staff to start the clean up operation.

Money was even given to each family in the village, helping them to survive the troubled period and the money also stretched far enough to transport a couple of teenagers, one of whom lost her mother in the tsunami, to Sussex Inlet for winter.

While the two Sussex men had a major impact of the lives of the villagers is such a difficult time, Mr Holland was quick to shrug off any praise.

“We only did a little bit,” he said, explaining that any help he and Mr Harding could offer was only possible because of the generosity of local people.

“All we did was just scratch the surface.”

He said there was still work to be done, as there were “a lot of on-going issues” afflicting the area hit by the tsunami.

While a group went in immediately to clean out wells, Mr Harding said there were still problems getting clean drinking water, and many children were still sick from problems sustained while fleeing the surging water.

Severe infections were rife, while many still did not have permanent housing.

Even more pressing are psychological problems and fear, with many in the village refusing to go back to their past lives based on fishing as they still fear the sea.

Mr Holland said there were reports the Sri Lankan government wanted to take control of the coastal area for tourist accommodation, cutting the villagers off from their traditional livelihood and deepening the wounds left by the tsunami‘s killer waves

KOMARI, Sri Lanka — Thambi Raja Kulandiran looked out on the devastated landscape that surrounds his house late last month and wondered when his neighbors would return.

Last December, the Indian Ocean tsunami tore through his hometown on the nation‘s east coast, forcing him and hundreds of others to seek shelter in makeshift camps run by the Sri Lankan military. Now, a year after the disaster that killed more than 31,000 Sri Lankans, only a handful have come back.

Some are afraid of another killer wave, said Kulandiran, 42, a baker who lost two children that day. Other locals, he said, have grown dependent on handouts from the government and charities. “If the people stop receiving aid in the camps,” he said, “they will return.”

Fear and apathy are not the only obstacles to recovery. Government red tape and ethnic violence also have impeded reconstruction, though the influx of foreign capital has sped up the process in tourism areas.

According to aid workers, a government rule that prohibits new houses from being built near the seaside has been the biggest obstacle to helping disaster victims, many of whom remain homeless. The country needs 100,000 homes for tsunami survivors, according to the United Nations, but only about 6,000 have been constructed.

Sri Lankan authorities last month eased up on the regulation, but officials in the country expect a long rebuilding process.

“You might hear that people will be back in their homes in a year or two years. That‘s just not going to happen,” said James Ackley, who directs the American Red Cross‘s tsunami-recovery rebuilding efforts in the country.

Luckily for Kulandiran, his property is outside the restricted zones and, with the help of an international nongovernmental organization, or NGO, he rebuilt his home and was one of the first Sri Lankans to come back to Komari. He is trying to establish a sense of normalcy and has opened a new, small business – the Komari Super Bakery. But without people to purchase his bread, he is barely making enough money to support his wife and their sole surviving child.

About eight miles to the south, however, the town of Arugam Bay is bustling with economic activity. Thanks in part to a flow of tourist dollars, it has recovered quickly from the tsunami, and the banging of hammers and other sounds of construction echo throughout the area. Even the ironically named Tsunami Beach Hotel has been rebuilt.

Tourists are slowly returning to Arugam Bay, which is famous for surfing, and the influx of charity workers has been a boost to the local economy.

“Everyday NGO, NGO, NGO,” Muhamed Dazd, a 22-year-old Sri Lankan, said of the almost daily arrival of workers for International Relief and other humanitarian groups. Dazd is building two small guest houses to take advantage of the foreigners he expects to arrive.

But his hopes may be dashed by a recent surge in ethnic violence. Last month, Mahinda Rajapakse was elected president and many Sri Lankans anticipate his tough stance against separatist rebels, known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Homeland), to lead to a resumption of the nation‘s 20-year civil war.

After the tsunami, hopes ran high the tragedy would help build a peace between the Tamil minority and the Sinhalese, who run the government. Optimism has eroded with assassination attempts and retribution killings.

The violence at times has prevented aid organizations from doing their charitable work. “Many days I‘ll get a phone call from one of my colleagues on the east coast saying, ‘The town shut down again, there were two people shot last night,‘ ” said Ken Little, Sri Lanka country director for Samaritan‘s Purse, a Christian charity based in Boone, N.C. Politics in Sri Lanka, he said, is “blood sport.”

The situation has become material for a street performer in a tsunami refugee camp outside Trincomalee, a town of 60,000 on the east coast. A bearded man in a blue sarong, squatting before a group of children, asks his sidekick – a gray Languor monkey – to describe politics in Sri Lanka. The primate picks up a plastic toy gun and marches in a circle. The crowd of tsunami survivors laugh.

But in Tiriya, a small Tamil village about 25 miles north of Trincomalee, the situation is no laughing matter. The families in the village have been caught in the crossfire of the civil war for years. Locals say they need help but the government has directed more aid to tsunami victims.

“The tsunami IDPs are receiving everything,” said R.K. Sowendanrayah, the town‘s school principal.

Back in Komari, Kulandiran said he is determined to rebuild by focusing on the good memories. “We try to forget the tsunami,” he said, “but remember the children.”

The massive Indian Ocean tsunami that struck almost without warning a year ago has been described by relief experts as one of the worst natural disasters in recent history. Upward of 250,000 people died and tens of thousands were left homeless. The catastrophe reached from Indonesia in the east to the coast of Africa – some 4,000 miles away – and eight countries suffered major casualties and damage. The rebuilding effort is under way – more successfully in some regions than others. For instance, at least half of the tsunami survivors who had lost their jobs have returned to work, the aid group Oxfam has reported. But environmental groups have noted that nearly nothing has been done to fix the damage done along vast stretches of Asia‘s coastline.

PASIKUDAH, Sri Lanka, Dec 26 (Reuters) – A year after the tsunami swept away his house, building materials for fisherman R. Alagodurai‘s new home have finally arrived. But he fears escalating violence could reignite Sri Lanka‘s two-decade civil war and he might never live there.

Many coastal communities have been moved a few miles inland in case of another tsunami. But residents are now closer to ceasefire lines that will become battlefields if a 2002 truce fails amid a string of attacks on government forces blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels.

“For now, we are going good,” says Alagodurai, who lost 17 family members as the giant waves killed 35,000 across Sri Lanka.

“If war comes, it will be like another tsunami. There are too many soldiers here. If it comes there will be fighting and we will move back to our old village,” said Alagodurai, 41.

After the tsunami, no-one predicted a return to war, but many people have been panicked by the gunning down of a pro-rebel politician in a cathedral at midnight mass on Christmas day. The shooting followed a rebel ambush that killed 13 sailors and the first naval clash since the ceasefire.

Sporadic attacks continued before dawn on Monday, with three civilians shot dead in separate incidents in the northern Jaffna peninsula and a policeman killed in Batticaloa.

While tsunami aid helped cement a peace deal in Indonesia‘s Aceh, in Sri Lanka the courts blocked an aid-sharing deal with the rebels and many minority Tamils in the north and east feel sidelined in favour of the Sinhalese southern majority.

The United Nations says inequalities must be addressed.

The rebels have threatened a return to war if they do not win concessions from the government — which has already rejected their demands for a minority Tamil homeland in the north and east.

The two sides cannot even agree on a venue for emergency talks aimed at averting a return to a war that killed more than 64,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more.

AFRAID TO STAY

On Sri Lanka‘s east coast, the tsunami was so violent that even the foundations of buildings were pounded into rubble. Many new homes being built inland are close to the ruins of houses destroyed in decades of fighting, and some fear they will not be able to stay.

“If the war begins, we will have to leave here,” says 22-year-old Kandisamy Mohana Rasu in Paddiyadichenai, where the German government is building 130 houses a few miles from Tiger territory. “We can‘t go back to our old village. We lost too many people there. We do not know where we will go.”

Aid workers say reconstruction has been delayed by bureaucracy and a coastal buffer zone. But if people displaced by the tsunami begin fleeing because of war fears, they say it may be impossible to keep rebuilding except in the Sinhalese south.

In Jaffna, where some of the worst clashes have taken place, local government officials closed their offices after a suspected rebel front warned them to stop working. Some residents are already moving their businesses south to perceived safer areas.

Many say they are putting off or limiting rebuilding until they see how the next few months pan out.

A British former investment banker, Lee Blackmore, said he was worried while rebuilding his hotel in Arugam Bay, an eastern surf resort, although tourists have never been directly targeted.

“Since the ceasefire, we‘d probably doubled our tourist numbers every year,” Blackmore told Reuters by telephone.

“Since the tsunami, I‘d say tourism has definitely dropped. We will wait and see how things turn out before we put a lot of money in and go crazy.” (Additional reporting by Joe Ariyaratnam in Jaffna)

Sri Lankan Top News

* Update: President‘s address to the nation: Tsunami further united Sri Lanka
Monday, December 26, 2005, 13:12 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

Dec 26, Peraliya: President Mahinda Rajapaksa today said that Sri Lanka bravely stood up to last year‘s tsunami disaster with people uniting without consideration of race, religion or other differences.

Speaking at the ceremony to mark the first anniversary of the tsunami this morning at Peraliya, the President said, �On December 26 last year, the entire Sri Lankan nation was awakened. Our entire community of peoples rose up to the tragedy. They took whatever that could be of use into their hands and went in search of those who had been struck by the tragedy. When I visited Jaffna within a few hours, the people there explained to me how members of our armed services had saved the lives of Tamil people and their children under the most difficult conditions. I learnt from the soldiers how they sacrificed their own meals to ease the pangs of hunger of the Tamil people struck by this tragedy.�

The President also said, In the East, particularly in places such as Arugam Bay, our soldiers had even saved the lives of members of the LTTE. The boundaries and fences put up by each other had fallen down in the face of tragedy. People of all communities lived in the same refugee centres with no differences whatever.�

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