Tsunami Women Survivors Still Abused

by Sonny Inbaraj

(IPS) BANGKOK -- While the transition from relief to recovery might be in full gear 100 days after the Dec. 26 tsunami ripped through the Indian Ocean coastline killing over 290,000 people, activists have revealed that governments are not paying much attention to the human rights of survivors.

"The UN guiding principles on humanitarian assistance are not being observed by many governments in the disaster-hit areas. In many cases it has been neglected," said Pichaya Fitts, a consultant with the Bangkok-based regional human rights body Forum Asia.

According to the UN guiding principles, each state has full responsibility to take care of the victims of any emergency that has occurred within its borders.

Fitts is the author of Forum Asia's report 'Tsunami and Human Rights 100 Days After,' launched at the Foreign Correspondents Club here Apr. 5.

"Sadly in almost every country affected by the tsunami the most vulnerable groups are women, children and internally displaced people," she told reporters.

"For vulnerable groups in each affected country, the tsunami has exacerbated pre-existing economic and social discrimination against them, further complicating their plight," added Fitts.

Forum Asia urged government agencies in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India that were involved in setting up and running temporary camps for the tsunami survivors to conform fully with international human rights standards.

"Within all temporary camps, the physical and psychological security of women should be maintained and protected," said the report. "This should include adequate measures to prevent and remedy any sexual or physical abuse, harassment and threats, as well as exploitation."

The rights body said though there were reports of women suffering sexual abuses in and outside of relief camps in the Indonesian province of Aceh, where close to 220,000 perished when the tsunami struck, non-governmental organizations have not been able to confirm any cases.

"No victim or witness has come forward to confirm these reports, possibly because of safety concerns and fears of being ostracized or social stigma," Fitts pointed out.

However, in the southeastern Indian city of Chennai the regional rights group revealed that a 15-year-old girl survivor was raped while she was sleeping on the platform in a camp, along with other tsunami victims, and then murdered. The lack of space in relief camps, said the group, has also forced some women to sleep under trees with their children.

Forum Asia hit out at governments for not taking steps to prevent abuses against women survivors.

"Women in South and Southeast Asia have been enduring rapes, exploitation, physical abuse and inequality throughout recorded history. Some of these countries affected by the tsunami, Indonesia and Sri Lanka especially, have had long experience dealing with women displaced by political violence and civil war," said the Forum Asia report.

"Because of that, governments in these countries have plenty of reasons to anticipate the increase in women's rights violations and abuse, and should have taken preventive steps."

The Forum Asia report also expressed strong concerns over corruption and the opaque nature of governments in distributing relief aid.

"We consider corruption as a human rights violation, too, because when you take away the aid that is intended to go to people in desperate need, you basically deprive them of humanitarian assistance," said Fitts.

"There have been cases in Thailand where people have complained that they are not getting due compensation, some have complained that there has been a reduction by about 30 percent of compensation due to them -- and no reasons were stated," she added.

Fitts went on further in shaming countries.

"In Indonesia, there have been reports of soldiers stealing food meant for the survivors in the refugee camps. In India, people have said that rice bags having the stamp of humanitarian agencies were being sold in retail shops."

In a Transparency International survey of perceived corruption, Indonesia came off fifth-worst.

Transparency International also pointed out that when the relief efforts shifts to large-scale reconstruction, the building industry would be prone to kickbacks.

"About 1.7 million people were displaced by the Asian tsunami with over 400,000 houses destroyed in six countries. The right to housing is a very important one, but there are many unscrupulous people out there ready to shortchange the survivors," said Fitts.

"As governments struggle with the difficult questions of how and where to rebuild, temporary shelters often become semi-permanent," she revealed.

"In Aceh, the Indonesian government has indicated that the transition from camps to permanent housing would take up to two years. Can you imagine putting people in a camp for two years, what are they going to do for a living, how are their children going to go to school?" she asked.

"Aceh has traditionally been known for its tight communal identity, so if you displace people and put them in temporary camps for an extended time, that would have a tremendous psychological impact on them."

Forum Asia says all tsunami survivors should be given the right to voluntarily return, without discrimination, to the land on which they originally lived.

"If their homes are still repairable, their rights to recover and repossess their homes should be respected," said the rights group's report. "Any unjustifiable restriction on return amounts to forced eviction, which is illegal under international law."