NEW DELHI: Katrina-devastated Florida has much to learn from the people of Cuddalore, coastal Tamil Nadu, for the speed with which permanent shelters were provided to all tsunami survivors, observed former United Nations special envoy for tsunami recovery Bill Clinton while on a visit to southern India early December.

The former United States president heaped lavish praise on the prompt and efficient management in the aftermath of one of the world’s worst natural disasters. “I want to figure out how we can take this model to other places in the world for speedy implementation and make it part of the UN strategy for disaster management,” he said.

The Cuddalore model could have suited the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, about 1,200 km from the east coast of mainland India, where even two years later tsunami survivors still live in temporary shelters, frustrated by official indifference to their plight.

On Nov 16, 2000, women and men in Little Andaman, the fourth largest of the 38-island group, peacefully protesting the slow pace of rehabilitation and livelihood restoration and demanding they should be consulted, were beaten up by the police.

Unlike on the mainland where the government devised a policy framework, defined the objectives, provided a direction for structuring the response and outlined broad delivery mechanisms for achieving the same, this does not seem to have happened in the Andamans, said Anupama Muhuri of ActionAid India who is working there.

Tired of simply waiting for officials to keep their promises, tsunami survivors of Netaji Nagar and Hut Bay, the main town which was completely destroyed, held separate meetings at the end of October to voice their concerns, and submitted a memorandum to the district administration.

The demands were mainly about shelter: that people be allowed to build permanent homes according to their own requirements, which would also be cheaper than the official estimated cost; and allowed to choose their own locations -- not sites like Janata Tekri, within 500m from the sea, which people are scared to move to.

When the government did not respond, a public meeting was held in front of the revenue office. More than 1,000 people participated. And a second memorandum was given to top officials, with a warning that if no action was taken in the next five days, people would go on hunger strike from Nov 15.

Again the government failed to take notice: some 2,500 people gathered in front of the administrative office for a hunger strike. People wanted government officials to dialogue with them, but they responded by declaring the protest illegal, and began arresting the participants.

Soon there was complete chaos, with the police baton-charging the crowd on the claim that someone had hurled a bottle inside the police station. Nearly 200 people were injured, and several had to be hospitalised. Late that night, the police entered the hospital, and further abused the injured protestors. “People’s voices were quashed in a brutal manner,” ActionAid said in a statement. “But when all the voices unite, it just cannot be ignored and silenced, however mighty the people on the other side are,” the activist group warned.

A fact-finding mission to the tsunami-affected areas of the archipelago in February 2006 reported the survivors are “frustrated, depressed and angry.” “There is a pervading sense of neglect and betrayal, and a feeling of fatigue as patience and endurance levels are repeatedly tested and tried,” according to their report.

A strong indictment of the humanitarian organisations, experts in disaster management, an administration with sufficient resources, the report by the Housing and Land Rights Network's South Asia Regional Programme (HLRN-SARP) and HAQ-Centre for Child Rights said there were serious issues that needed urgent attention.

People have been forced into box-like tin structures -- unbearable in the tropical heat. There is an acute drinking water shortage, abysmal sanitation, no privacy for women and girls, particularly. Worse, even information regarding rehabilitation and permanent housing is not easily available.

Survivors have not been consulted and have been forced to settle in areas predetermined by the administration. Their right to humanitarian relief and rehabilitation has been ignored.

Residents of Padauk Tikree, Little Andaman, have repeatedly demanded a road to the shelter. In February, it was still incomplete and difficult to navigate. The nearest bus stop was half a kilometre away. People had to walk up a steep incline to the camp, especially difficult when they were carrying heavy loads.

Lack of planning was evident in everything from the poor location of toilets to the inappropriate position of drains -- not directly under the tin-roofs, so the rain water had no avenue to drain off, and would still collect in front of homes.

S. Narayanamma, a woman in her sixties at the Padauk Tikree shelter, was quoted in the report: “The toilets are very far. It is extremely difficult for us women to access and use them. It’s a long walk away. The path is rocky and steep. There is no water. At night, especially, it is very difficult.” Lack of privacy has forced some families to send their grown up daughters to distant relatives in the capital, Port Blair.

For these victims of the tsunami, still waiting for relief in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, just 150 km from the epicentre of the earthquake, the trauma of Dec 24, 2004, continues. —Dawn/The IPS News Service

COLOMBO: The Sri Lanka’s government on Wednesday accused Tamil Tiger rebels of abducting at least 455 underage boys and girls from government-controlled areas this year to be trained as combatants and asked the insurgents to stop the practice.

“This figure is based on actual police reports that were lodged after parents complained,” military spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe told a news conference. “The figure will be much higher as many parents do not come forward fearing retribution.”

The UN’s children’s agency, Unicef, also said insurgents are known to have recruited 539 underage combatants this year through Nov 30.

Also on Wednesday, air force planes bombed what the military said was a weapons and ammunition cache in the island's north, but the rebels said it was a civilian settlement.

“Our air force has (destroyed) the targets which were the ammunition and weapons dump,” Samarasinghe said. The location was also used by the rebels to assemble anti-personnel mines, he said. No details were available on the damage inflicted by the air strike.

The abduction accusation came after the military said Tamil Tiger rebels kidnapped 16 girls, seven boys and two teachers from a tutorial class in eastern Ampara which is under government control.

It was the latest alleged abduction by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who say they are fighting the Sri Lankan government to carve out a separate state for the country’s 3.1 million ethnic Tamil minority.

The rebels said the teenagers wanted to join their movement and went voluntarily to insurgent-held areas. They were asked to return home after guerrillas learned they were under-aged, rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan said from the group’s headquarters in Kilinochchi.

Ilanthirayan on Wednesday denied the charges of the 455 abductions of underage combatants this year.

“This is a false propaganda being carried out by the Sri Lankan government and the Sri Lankan military to defame our freedom movement,” Ilanthirayan said.

“When Sri Lankan government people and military speak about Tamil children, we laugh as they are the people who are responsible for the plight of Tamils in general and children in particular,” Ilanthirayan said.

On Wednesday, Unicef said that the mainstream rebels are known to have recruited 539 underage combatants this year through Nov 30. The rebel group has released 80 of them, Unicef spokesman Francis Mead said.

Unicef also said that a breakaway faction of the mainstream rebels was responsible for recruiting 186 underage combatants during the same period. The breakaway Karuna group, named after its leader, released 21 of the underage combatants, it said. The mainstream rebels say the breakaway group enjoys the support of the Sri Lankan military, a charge the army denies.

“Our figures come from parents,” Mead said. “Our estimate is that the figures reflect about one-third of the actual cases. ... We have no evidence to suggest that the children are volunteering to join the groups.”

The Tamil Tigers have in the past used thousands of underage combatants in their war against government forces, according to the government, UN agencies and rights groups.

They say they have stopped the practice of recruiting underage combatants.

Although a cease-fire went into effect in 2002, the two sides have resumed almost daily fighting.

The insurgents control a vast area of northeast Sri Lanka where they have their own laws and run their own courts, police and administrative system.

Separately, the rebels attacked a military checkpoint in northwestern Sri Lanka early on Wednesday, killing a soldier before fleeing, Samarasinghe said.

“They threw a hand grenade and opened fire at the checkpoint in Mannar,” Samarasinghe said.

The military has set up several checkpoints to protect a navy base in Mannar, about 220 kilometers (135 miles) northwest of the capital, Colombo.

The rebels accuse the majority Sinhalese of discrimination and want a separate homeland. The government says it can only offer limited autonomy.—AP