Justpeace Blog

scmp - Saturday, January 29, 2005

REUTERS in Helsinki
Indonesian ministers met Acehnese separatist rebels in Helsinki yesterday to discuss ending three decades of fighting, after the tsunami that devastated the province inspired renewed peace efforts.

It is unclear what is on the table at the closed-door talks, which are being mediated by Finland's Crisis Management Initiative, and are due to end tomorrow.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he was offering "special autonomy status" - which the Stockholm-based leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) had rejected previously.

Asked whether the talks would be fruitless if GAM refused to drop its bid for independence, an Indonesian official said GAM's negotiating position was now weak.

Dr Susilo, who pledged last year in his election campaign to end the conflict, spoke in Jakarta of the "great momentum for us to really think of ending the conflict and to unite as brothers to further rebuild Aceh after being hit by the tsunami".

Dr Susilo believed there had been a "positive response" from GAM.

But Hasan di Tiro, the man GAM considers the rightful head of state of Aceh, said at his home in exile in Stockholm late on Thursday that his aim was independence.

"We have nothing to do with Java [Indonesia], Aceh is different," said the ailing octogenarian, who fled after declaring Aceh independent in 1976.

GAM spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah said his side would negotiate without preconditions.

"We will talk and give our views and then it is up to the facilitator to see where we go from there ... [but] the conflict has been going on for the past 30 years, you cannot solve problems overnight or over the weekend," he said.

About 12,000 people have died since 1976 in fighting in the gas-rich province at the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

The following articles tell some disturbing stories of how the caste system remains intact even in the midst of tragedy.

Caste antagonism in providing relief?
Shankar Raghuraman
Times News Network [Saturday, January 1, 2005 10:45:55 PM ]

CHENNAI/CUDDALORE: The aftermath of the tsunami in Tamil Nadu has thrown up some touching examples of communal amity, but it has also revealed how deep caste antagonism runs.
Travelling across the affected areas, one regularly hears of examples of communal amity. One example that keeps cropping up in conversation with NGO activists working in the area is of the Jamaath, a Muslim organisation, which has been running four relief camps in the Parangipettai
area of Cuddalore district.

The overwhelming majority of the victims are non-Muslims but that has not prevented the Jamaath from giving them three meals a day for over three days. Considering there are an estimated 40,000 people in these camps, that's quite an achievement.

The same NGO activists also tell stories which are depressing, stories of how Dalits are losing out in the relief effort. Some claim they have come across cases where others have prevented Dalits from entering relief camps. I did not personally come across any such case, but I did hear
fisherwomen in several places talking dismissively of the food being provided by relief workers as "stuff that may be good enough for some of the others, but is beneath our dignity to eat". The veiled reference to the Dalits is hard to miss.

Caste is in its new avataar in India
http://www.starofmysore.com/searchinfo.asp?search1=649&search2=specialnewsnew

A sea-change has taken place in society, according to one perception. 'Nothing much has changed', is another viewpoint. That difference and debate on the issue are quite fascinating. Anthropologist Dr. P.K. Misra presented his analysis in his talk on the topic 'Living on a
revolution in Indian society'? In the monthly lecture programme sponsored by Rangsons Group in Ranga Jnana Vinimaya Kendra on Vani Vilas Road, Mysore, on Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2004. Highlights are published here. — Ed.

Indian scenario represented by society nowadays is quite different from what it was before independence in many ways. Discrimination among people on the basis of class and caste have led to ill feelings. The wounds are perhaps healed, but the scars persist. It is neither easy nor right to make any generalisations about India because of wide diversity of its people and their culture.

Travel across the country provides an excellent means of educating oneself about the people of India and their life. India's history is long and piquant. It has been distorted by many. We still seem to live in our history. Value system Evaluation of value system in a society is often done by the factors of good, bad, auspicious, happy or otherwise. Quite often the factor of manners displayed towards one another becomes the tool of evaluation. We always hear that the value systems have changed. The foremost harbinger of change in our value system was adopting of
the egalitarian Constitution, guaranteeing equality and adult franchise, forcing the people's representatives to go to them with folded hands once every five years. Reservation for jobs, school admissions and seats in the Assemblies of States, Parliament and Panchayats not only set
apart a place for the backward classes but also enlarged the social base of the country.

Changes
Joint family system has virtually disappeared. Marriage age of girls, literacy, life expectancy have risen. The housewife is a virtual dynamo in the family. The child is more computer-literate than adults in the family.

Landlordism that prevailed all over the country was got rid of by land reforms, bringing to end the exploitation of the client by the patrons.

In certain pockets, movements were launched to protest the discrimination based on castes. Development activities were undertaken towards providing shelter for the economically weaker sections, education for all and healthcare measures.

Tremendous manpower with higher learning is now available. Advances have been made in communication and transport making connectivity among people and networking of regions quite easy. Structural changes are taking place resulting in much churning, raising the aspiration level of the people at large.

Hostility
Some sort of hostility, openly in some pockets, has emerged between the erstwhile exploiting and the exploited. Traditional occupations of the rural populations have either disappeared or moved to urban areas, leading to large scale migration. Tension in society is also coming
to the forefront.

Loyalty, submission, respectful behaviour towards the male head of the family have diminished. He is challenged for his viewpoint about life and all issues. Decision-making has become more consultative, with women exerting influence. Men have accepted women as bosses.

Network of relationships on the lines of the joint family system continues during special events such as wedding, religious functions and death ceremonies. These relationships reflect caste loyalties.

Marriages are mostly settled on caste basis everywhere in India. They are also performed as per tradition. Dowry — both giving and receiving — is rampant, across all communities and religions. It is even blessed by the clergy in some religions. Begetting of sons is still considered important.

Millions of people are still below poverty line. Gap between the rich and the poor has become enormous. Exploitation is unabated but disguised. The factor of caste has remained alive and is in its new avataar. The concept of inequality pervades. Inter-caste differences have led to
exclusiveness in society. Even those who belong to weaker sections have not accepted the concept of equality.

Unless the value of inequality based on class and caste is frontally attacked, the Indian social revolution will not be complete. One of the reasons for that not to happen is adherence to rituals, tied down to the caste system. This, in spite of tremendous changes that have taken place in Indian society.


Body hunt left to the low caste
Reuters, January 04, 2005 [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11845512â703,00.html]

NAGAPATTINUM, India: They are the "untouchables", the lowest of the low in India's ancient caste system. No job is too dirty or too nasty. So, now they are the ones cleaning up the rotting corpses from last week's tsunami.

The vast majority of the 1000 or so men sweating away in the tropical heat to clear the poor south Indian fishing town of Nagapattinum, which bore the brunt of the giant wave, are lower-caste dalits from neighbouring villages.

Locals too afraid of disease and too sickened by the smell refuse to join the grim task of digging friends and neighbours out of the sand and debris. They just stand and watch the dalits work.
Although it has been a week since the tsunami hit, and the destruction was confined to a tiny strip by the beach and port, the devastation was so fierce that bodies -- located by the stench and flies -- are still being discovered daily.

"I am only doing what I would do for my own wife and child," says M. Mohan, a dalit municipal cleaner as he takes a break to wash off some of the grime of the day's work. "It is our duty. If a dog is dead, or a person, we have to clean it up."

Mohan and other sanitation workers from neighbouring municipalities are working around the clock to clear Nagapattinum, for an extra 64c a day and a meal.

The smell of death still hangs heavily, mixing with the sea breeze and the almost refreshingly tart smell of the antiseptic lime powder that has turned some streets and paths white.

More than 5525 people -- close to 40 per cent of India's estimated 14,488 fatalities -- died along this small stretch of pure white beach, where the huts of poor fishermen were built down to the sand at the top of the beach.

Caste still plays a defining role in much of Indian society. More than 16 per cent of India's billion-plus people are dalits. Despite laws banning caste discrimination, they are still routinely abused,
mistreated and even killed.

They do the jobs others will not: toilet cleaning, garbage collection, cow skinning. For Mohan, illiterate, uneducated and low caste, the only way to get a government job and the security and pension that come with it, was as a municipal sanitation worker.

In the early hours of the tsunami disaster, he and his colleagues worked feverishly to clear the thousands of bodies without gloves, masks or even shoes in some cases. Now, they are better equipped. But no mask ever stops the gagging smell of rotting human flesh, which becomes almost overpowering as the body is dug out, lodging deep in the back of the mouth. Each new body discovered is painstakingly prised free of the wet sand, torn palm thatch and debris, mostly by hand.

It is sweaty, backbreaking work. Shifting sand and rubble make just standing hard. It is done slowly, carefully and patiently with a delicate respect for the victim.

But there is no dignity.

The almost unrecognisable body of a naked woman, one foot still surprisingly wet, clean and white as if she had just stepped from a bath, is carried on a mat to the beach. There, a small bonfire is lit with a tyre and palm leaves. She is heaved on top. Another mat provides a pitiful attempt at modesty. Acrid, pitch-black smoke drifts to the sky. No one knows who she was. With the fear of an epidemic, there is no time to find out.

The following report, sent by friends in India, helps us understand more the affects of the tsunami on the lives of people in India.

Dear friends,

Greetings.

I hope you are aware of the Tsunami attack in Asia which killed thousands of people and left millions homeless. In India the regions of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry are the worst affected regions. In this region alone nearly 5000 people have died and about six hundred thousands of fishermen are rendered homeless.

Unexpectedly on the morning of 26th December myself and Victor, three other lawyers from the Dalit communities were proceeding to Cuddalore to attend a Legal Aid Camp organized by the Dalit Land Rights Federation. While we were proceeding we noticed hundreds of women and children alighting from trucks weeping and crying. We stopped and enquired about them. We came to know from them that they are fisherfolk from the coastal villages of Cuddalore district who have narrowly escaped the wrath of the sea. Having heard their narration of this sorrowful event, we proceeded to Cuddalore Town. By the time we reached Cuddalore we saw number of human bodies being carried in to the Cuddalore General hospital. It was two hours after the
incident and by this time the number of the dead in Cuddalore district alone was 400. We were helpless and proceeded to the villages-with the help of some of our friends living near Cuddalore
we have decided to do some relief. By this time news of devastating Tsunami poured in from Pondicherry and other parts of Tamil nadu. We contacted all our friends living near the coast of Tamil nadu and alerted them to do some immediate relief work. We visited affected villages in Cuddalore district and Pondicherry region and four villages in Villupuram Taluk.

The next day we started to do some relief measures. At the same time we deeply studied the whole situation and decided to intervene with a long term perspective. As we were in the coastal villages I could not send you mail.

These are some of our observations which we could get during our relief work.

First time in the recent history, the fisherfolk have experienced the Tsunami attack. Thousands have died and thousands were left homeless- the attack was so sévère that some villages have been completely washed away.

The Government's figures about the loss of lives and properties are totally incorrect.

All the fisherfolk have lost their sources of livelihood like the Kattumaram, fishing nets, boats and fish processing sheds.

The fisherfolk who had always loved "mother sea" are terribly afraid of the sea. They are all undergoing a trauma.

The relief camps are utterly under sub-human conditions without proper shelter, drinking water and other sanitation facilities. The relief camps are also totally disorganized.

In the name of relief measures, perishable goods like cooked rice packets are flooding from all the corners which are wasted.

We spoke with many number of fisherfolk in their relief camps who are still under the grip of the Sunday tragedy.

Presently Action Aid India with many number ofInternational NGOs has formed a PLATFORM to interne effectively in the rehabilitation process.

With the members of this Platform we spent two days fully with the fisher folk in the different relief camps and had preliminary discussions about the rehabilitation issue. At the end of these
discussions we had a long meeting among ourselves and decided to intervene in the rehabilitation work which should start from the communities themselves. In this rehabilitation process Dalit Land Rights Federation would also play a major role. We are all meeting in Chennai on 1st January 2005 to finalise the approaches and strategies regarding rehabilitation.

In any way if you feel that you can also be part of this process of rehabilitation you are most welcome.

Thanking you,
Sincerely yours,
C. Nicholas.

The following report was received from Forum Asia in Thailand. It contains quite a lot of information on the situation in countries affected by the tsunami.

FORUM-ASIA

Summary Report on the Situations relating to Tsunami Crisis (unedited version, as of Jan. 2, 2005)

The summary report has been prepared by FORUM-ASIA based on the information received from FORUM-ASIA members and partners in affected countries and areas with a view to providing overview of the current situations for action planning.

1. Country-specific Situations

INDIA
• India has declined foreign aid, saying it can cope on its own
• According to a BBC report, 1st Jan, survivors in Andaman Islands have accused the authorities of underplaying the extent of devastation and failing to hand out aid. In a national appeal on
Saturday, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked for donations to boost the government's $232m relief package, However in Port Blair there is concern whether aid will reach on time. Refugees arriving from Campbell Bay said that the situation was desperate in some areas with no food and water
• problem of co-ordination between the different agencies resulting in some areas getting a lot of aid, while some areas getting none

BURMA
• SDPC still refusing to acknowledge that earthquake has affected Burma
• UNICEF and Other UN agencies cannot move in only on SDPC requests. But the SDPC says it can handle the relief by themselves

• MSF says that in Mergui, 5 villages have been badly affected and around 1500 people need medical care. There might be dead people in the Islands inhabited by the sea gypsies. But these islands are inaccessible.
• Irrawaddy Division, southwest of Rangoon, was the most severely affected area. Forty seven people died there, 45 were injured and more than 700 homes were damaged. More than 3,500 people are affected in some way by the disaster. In southernmost Tenasserim Division, 27 people died and about 270 houses were destroyed. Twelve people died in western Arakan State. (The Irrawaddy)
• 800 Burmese workers believed to have died in south of Thailand. Surapong Kongchanthuek, deputy chairman of the Law Society of Thailand's committee on human rights for stateless and displaced people, said he had obtained confirmation that around 200 Burmese workers, mostly fishing boat crewmen, had died in Phangnga's Takua Pa district and about 1,500 others were listed as missing. He had no exact figures of Burmese killed and missing in the five other Tsunami- ravaged provinces. But his rough estimate was about 800 deaths, based on the fact there were 47,501 Burmese workers in Ranong, 36,483 in Phuket, 29,730 in Phangnga, 8,000 in Trang, 3,000 in Satun and 3,000 in Krabi. However, he said only 22,504 were registered with the Labour Ministry.
• Key concerns : i) SDPC be transparent about the damage and loss of life ii) Access be allowed to coastal areas for humanitarian agencies to provide emergency relief and rehabilitation assistance to affected people.

ACEH
• (From Hendra (could contact him online on January 1, 2005)
• There're no coordination regarding how to distribute emergency relief, so a lot of aid is getting piled up in airports in Jakarta
• Problem of how distribution of aid (water, food) because of lack of man power resources as well as inaccessible areas

• The Indonesian government is slow in its response to the situation: evacuating the dead bodies, cleaning the area, set up the camp for the IDPs or the homeless. Foreign volunteers and activists are helping out, but it is the government's duty.
• In matter of distribution of aid:
• People who can pay, get food easily bypassing queues
• Families close to the army are getting preferential treatment
• ARMY is NOT ALLOWING civilians and activists to help in the distribution of aid

Others
• Many more volunteers needed to handle and evacuate dead bodies – which once decomposed, will present a serious threat to health
• No proper flow of information from Indonesian government to people in Aceh
• Skyrocketing prices of food in greater Medan of staple foods and equipment (PBHI)
• The disaster damaged several prisons. There is a need to monitor the prisoner's conditions. (KONTRAS)
• Issue of conflict with the Indonesian Army and its impact on relief work
• Offices of local activists have been destroyed
• Need of government of Indonesia to grant all international humanitarian agencies and persons of concern free and unconditional access to all affected areas in Sumatra and Aceh, and facilitate the granting of visas and other necessary arrangements for them to undertake their crucial work. Asian Human Rights Commission
• 2 IDP camps have been started in Lhokseumawe, and there is a need for clothes, medicines, food, water and all items of basic necessity. NO DOCTOR as of now. Activists from Perampuan Medeka have organised some students to assist the IDPs.
• A thai friend, who is a journalist with the Nation is going to be in Medan till 20th Jan
• Acehnese in exile are returning

Thailand
• Local fishermen (Ban Nam Khem) community feels that villagers are being treated as second class victims and tourists are getting priority because of the interests of tourism

Sri Lanka
• Tamils have alleged that they are being discriminated against in the matter of distribution of aid
• Weligama, in southern Sri Lanka, government aid has still not reached there
• fishermen community – boats have been destroyed
• Debt burden. At Weligama, itself there are some 12000 fishermen. Many of the fishermen took out bank loans to pay for their boats. Now they are concerned not just about asking for a fresh loan but having to finish paying the old one. Bankers say they will be responsive and accommodating. BUT the government should create a rehabilitation fund for the fishermen, from aid money.

2. Common Issues

1) Livelihood and Food security
• Restoration of livelihoods - fishing boats, fishing nets
• Debt relief. As per the BBC news in Sri Lanka – most of the fishermen had taken loans to buy boats. They will need finance now to buy new boats and fishing gear. Relief towards the earlier loan.

COMPENSATION. This would be a common problem with the fishing communities in India, Thailand
• Related to Compensation – bodies are being buried without
identification. So the question of records will arise
• Ensuring that they are not displaced from the coastal areas under the garb of protection (fear expressed by groups in India)

2) Health
• Short term: decomposing bodies may pose a serious threat. ACEH
• Access of displaced people to clean water and sanitation. Water and sanitation facilities have been extensively damaged and may lead to diarrhea and cholera
• Stagnant water may lead to malaria, dengue fever
• Restoration of clean water supplies
• Long term: Issue of trauma

3) Housing
• short term need of providing adequate shelter to the people whose homes have been destroyed
• Long term: reconstructing/ building the houses that have been destroyed

4) Vulnerable Groups
• Children
• Widows
• Single women
• Elderly and the diabled

5) Some Common Challenges
• Lack of co-ordination between different aid giving organisations. As a result some areas are getting a lot of aid, while some are not
• There was no warning system in place. In India – official created more terror by issuing a warning which turned out to be false
• The worst hit are the poor people – and they have very few assets to fall back upon.

3. Humanitarian Work done by International NGOs and UN

1) OXFAM
• Urged donor governments to give long-term aid for rebuilding homes, communities and livelihoods of the affected communities.
• Oxfam has a team in Medan and is about to set up one in Banda Aceh. It aims to distribute non-food items to 10,000 families plus hygiene kits, water tanks and latrine plates.
• There is still little information from the west coast. It seems clear - from aerial assessments - that some of the towns there are up to 80 per cent destroyed.

2) Action Aid
• working in Tamil Nadu, India
• will be helping to recover livelihoods – long term support

3) World Vision
• emergency aid
• help in rebuilding infrastructure

4) Medair
• disposing the dead bodies
• restore clean water supplies
• 188,000 displaced in 118 collective centers in Ampara district, Sri Lanka

5) Care International
• emergency Aid in India, Aceh, Sri Lanka, Thailand
• in Aceh will be Delivering and distributing sodium hypochlorite solution for water purification. have placed an order with the Indonesian manufacturer to produce another 120,000 bottles
by the first week of January. To accompany the purification materials, CARE is distributing buckets with lids and jerrycans in which people can store and safeguard their drinking water.

6) Save the Children
• working to help assist children who have been separated from
their families."

7) Medecine san Frantier (MSF)
• has opened a clinic opens in Aceh, Indonesia .
• A team of eight people, including three nurses and two doctors, arrived in Banda Aceh yesterday (29th Jan) and set up a clinic in a camp for displaced people.

8) HIC – HLRN
• Emergency relief
• Rehabilitation of the displaced and restoration of livelihoods

9) UNHCR
• 31st Dec: More than 400 tonnes of shelter and other emergency supplies will soon be on their way to the tsunami-battered Indonesian province of Aceh as the UN refugee agency starts a series of airlifts from its warehouses in Copenhagen and Dubai this weekend.

Dear friends:

I know all of you are hearing much about the damage caused by the Tsunami that hit many areas of Asia. This is one of the many reports we have been receiving from our network of friends. This report was prepared by ANFREL and their Indonesian partner Sumatra Hope. If any of you are seeking some way to contact groups like Sumatra Hope, the Center for Justpeace in Asia is ready and willing to help make connections. You can contact us at justpeace@daga.org.hk. We will do our best to help you contact any local organizations that can provide you with more information, or suggest ways you can become involved.

--------------------------------------------
Subject: 1st Field Report from Medan: Jan 1, 2005

Information shown here is collected from friends in Medan, Indonesia who just came back from Aceh.

General situation:

There are many food and medical supplies donated from public, government agencies and international community. But most of the things are stuck at the airport. The problem is about the distribution of all donated stuff. The city is COMPLETLY destroyed. No any infrastructure existed. That all things can not be transported from the airport. They need trucks to load all things to distribute to victims. Any organization want to help they have to bring their own infrastructure. For example, have to rent a truck from Medan and have to carry fuel by themselves. Nothing available there.

There are many temporary shelters/refugee camps along the coastline from Lhokseumawe to Banda Aceh. At least 50 camps in Banda Aceh never get anything from outside until today. Each camp is inhabited about 1,500 people. Most of them are children.

Public health situation:

Getting worse day by day. Skin disease already came since lack of clean water to clean them. Many children are suffering with skin disease. Their side effected is itchy and scratchy. Cholera is coming. The only hospital in the province that still function is a hospital operated by military. It names is KeDam –Kesahatan Daerah Militer Hospital. The main and only proper hospital in the province, Zainal Abidin Hospital, is completely destroyed, can’t function. MSF already came with doctors and medical supplies.

Food:

Only instant noodles and dried food are donated to the victims. They need other kinds of food. For example rice, vegetable, meet. That can help them strong enough to cope with the diseases with already came and which are coming. To supply fresh food like that, we have to provide them kitchenware, cooking gas, pot, pan and everything.

Main problem is about food for baby and children. Powder milk for baby is most NEEDED. These means we have to provide hot water too.

Transportation:

Roads in some area are still functions. From Medan can go by road to Lhokseumawe, it takes 5 hours. From Lhok Seumawe to Banda Aceh need another 6 hours. But land transportation from Banda Aceh to Meulaboh, a district on the western coast is impossible. The only way to access Meulaboh is by road from Blangpidi.

About the network to help friends in Aceh:

KKSP –Education and Information Centre for Child Rights is now a center for people network. It is an NGO based in Medan. KKSP already established a system in Lhok Seumawe (LS). The representatives of KKSP in every town of LS are already set up. For LS, if we have foodstuff, medical supplies and money for them to rent a truck they can send the things out right now from KKSP in Medan to KKSP centre in LS then to its representatives in each district. They are trying to set up the same system in Banda Aceh. It is not easy for Banda Aceh because the city is completely destroyed. Many friends are still out of contact.

A friend from KKSP will go to Meulaboh tomorrow, Jan 2, to see the situation and try to set up the system.

The plan:

KKSP now is NGOs collision in Medan for humanitarian Aids for Earthquake and Tsunemi in Aceh and North Sumatra. They have 3-month plan, focus in 3 themes: food, infrastructure and health.

January: priority is food, to make it available to people there.

February: priority is still on food, but will pay more attention on provide them infrastrutre focus on clean water. That they will dig to ground to provide them underground water.

March: infrastructure is priority.

About health condition is not listed as priority for the whole three month. But they will work on it. The problem is they have no idea where can they get doctors. Not only medical supplies, but doctors, nurse and all equipment are needed.

Right now KKSP has many volunteers. Many NGOs, students and general public offer themselves to be volunteers. They might need some allowance for their living and family. The fund can also be given to some profession including doctor, medical staffs and so on. They already have contact. The most needed now is money for administration works and transportation and all supplies to give to the victims

MAY GOD BLESS YOU

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, superficial relationships, so that you will live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people so that you will work for justice, equality and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you will reach out your hand to comfort them and change their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with the foolishness to think that you can make a difference in the world, so that you will do the things which others tell you cannot be done.

Author Unknown