Tsunami Disaster & Tamil Eelam
Tsunami & Sri Lanka: Emerging Realities
Brian
Senewiratne
10 January 2005
"..Even in the face of a national disaster, ethnic and
political considerations are never too far away in Sri Lankan thinking,
in particular in the minds of the Sinhalese politicians of all parties.
The best example of this is a recent statement by President Chandrika
Kumaratunga that the Tamil Tigers had lost too many cadres in the
tsunami disaster to resume the armed struggle. This is an outrageous
comment from a national leader whose country has been decimated. Faced
with a national crisis from an unavoidable natural disaster, all that
the President could do was to focus on what �benefit� it could be
towards settling her political problems...
In a disaster such as this, there is rarely any
difficulty in raising money or goods. Such is the generosity of ordinary
people across the world. The problem is its delivery to the affected
people. If this is left in the hands of the Government, Sri Lankan or
any other, it will not go where it is most needed. The entire effort of
raising the aid will then be nothing but a betrayal of the trust of
people who have given so generously to alleviate the suffering of the
less fortunate. The damage done is many layered and unless at least some
of these are addressed the aid may well be wasted. There are people in
positions of power who have an agenda and a hidden agenda and it is our
business to identify and address these. This is a lot harder than
colleting aid but infinitely more useful. "
With commendable enthusiasm, the international community, Church
groups, NGOs, and other �do-gooders� have rushed to help restore the
damage done in South Asia. Where Sri Lanka, one of the worst hit, is
concerned, there are serious problems emerging in the delivery and
distribution of aid that is pouring into the country. The trusting
international community may not be aware of some of the factors
responsible and the underlying problems.
The background.Over the past two decades a deep
ethno-religious split has occurred between the Tamil minority and
the majority Sinhalese-dominated Government (for the record, I am a
Sinhalese). In the face of continuing discrimination in the use of
their language(Tamil), education, employment and the developmental
neglect of the area they live in (north, northeast and east), the
Tamils (12.5% of the population) have been asking for a federal or
separate state. With peaceful non-violent Tamil protests being met
by Government-sponsored violence, in 1972 the Tamil Tigers embarked
on an armed conflict to establish a separate Tamil state in the
North and East. After 30 years of one of the most destructive
conflicts in Asia, in February 2002 a ceasefire was negotiated
between the Tamil Tigers and the former Sri Lankan government under
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe. Since then, the guns have been
silenced but the basic problems underlying the conflict have not
been resolved.
In late 2003, President Chandrika Kumaratunga, from the other side
of the Sinhalese political divide, using her sweeping executive
powers, sabotaged Prime Minister Wickremasinghe�s parliamentary
tenure, precipitating yet another General Election, four years ahead
of schedule. Following the election, her party formed Government in
December 2003. The new government, with extreme anti-Tamil
�Marxists� (read ethno-religious chauvinists) in its fold, has been
dragging its feet in political negotiations with the Tamil Tigers,
putting the �Peace� under threat. A resumption of the fighting, a
possibility pre-tsunami, would have seriously damaged Kumaratunga�s
political career and even more so the massive foreign aid package of
US$4.5 billion, negotiated by the Wickremasinghe government, and
promised on condition the peace process would go forward (which it
was not).
As a result of the 20-year war in northern Sri Lanka, the Northeast
came under Tamil Tiger control. With a complete absence of
government administration in this devastated area, the Tamil Tigers
have, over the years, established a quasi-separate state with its
own army, police, law courts, administration, infrastructure, and
rehabilitation and reconstruction programs. The writ of the Sri
Lankan Government does not even run in this area.
The tsunami hit the south coast (which is under the Sri Lankan
government) and, causing even more devastation, the northeast (which
is under the Tamil Tigers).
Political thinking and actions.
Even in the face of a national disaster, ethnic and political
considerations are never too far away in Sri Lankan thinking, in
particular in the minds of the Sinhalese politicians of all parties.
The best example of this is a recent statement by President
Chandrika Kumaratunga that the Tamil Tigers had lost too many cadres
in the tsunami disaster to resume the armed struggle. This is an
outrageous comment from a national leader whose country has been
decimated. Faced with a national crisis from an unavoidable natural
disaster, all that the President could do was to focus on what
�benefit� it could be towards settling her political problems. There
can be no better example of the narrow-mindedness of Sri Lankan
politicians even when faced with a major humanitarian disaster, with
nearly 40,000 killed (probably more), many thousands whose lives
have been shattered, two million rendered homeless, and extensive
damage to two thirds of the coastline and those who live and work in
this area. The President�s insensitive and irresponsible comment
should not only be condemned, but should be noted by the
international community since it has a direct bearing on aid, its
delivery, and even its use and abuse in Sri Lanka.
The actions of the Sri Lankan Government, match this thinking. For
five crucial days after the tsunami struck, the entire Government
focus was on tourist resorts in the South, which was what the world
saw and where the foreign aid went. Not a scrap of foreign aid
arriving in Colombo was sent to the Tamil northeast and east, which
suffered some of the greatest destruction. Aid that this devastated
area so desperately needed came from the expatriate Tamil community,
mainly via the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (see below),
international NGOs and church groups, and civilians, both local and
foreign. With increasing international concerns about what the Sri
Lankan government was not doing, the Government belatedly sent some
aid, although grossly inadequate in relation to the destruction, a
situation which continues to this day.
The result of this neglect of the Tamil areas is a serious increase
in preventable deaths and disability of the people in this area
(mainly Tamils). A single quote from an Australian volunteer doctor,
David Young, operating in this area, illustrates this. �Too many of
the people will be left crippled, not because the injuries are that
bad, but because the treatment they are receiving is woefully
inadequate�. Doctors, both local, expatriate and foreign, working in
the East and Northeast, are amputating limbs simply because they do
not have the basic screws, plates and pins needed to fix broken
bones.This is just one example. There are many more that have
resulted in unnessary suffering, permanent disability and even
death.
The Sri Lankan Government is guilty of criminal negligence, which
has nasty ethnic overtones. It is up to the international community
and foreign governments, and Sri Lankan civil society to do
something about this and see that the donated money and goods go
where they are most needed. This may not be �diplomatically easy�
but we are here talking of the lives and future of thousands of poor
people (as we were in Rwanda, Ethiopia and innumerable other places)
and diplomatic protocol has no place. To do otherwise is blatant
hypocrisy that has devastating humanitarian consequences.
News
For many years, news out of Sri Lanka has been either Sri Lankan
government propaganda or Tamil Tiger propaganda. Today, with
international media roaming around the country, it is unnecessary to
rely on either of these sources since independent reporters are
there to report the situation as it is. The picture that emerges
from these and other reports from international journalists forms
the basis of this article.
The ground realities
1 The Sri Lankan Government
The Sri Lankan Government, in striking contrast to the Thai
government, seems to have been completely unable to handle the
situation. The infrastructure, organization and competence which are
so necessary to handle a disaster of this magnitude, simply does not
seem to exist. One wonders what the Disaster Management Unit of the
Presidential Secretariat under President Kumaratunga, no less, was
doing. The result of this disorganization was that aid even to the
South, which is so readily accessible, faced problems in its
delivery.
As for the East and Northeast, there is not only the inability to do
so but also a highly questionable resolve to do so. For example, 24
hours after the wave struck, the Government summoned a meeting of
all Parliamentary parties to discuss the management of the disaster.
In the two-hour conference, the situation in the northeast, that had
borne the brunt of the damage, was discussed for less than five
minutes. A factually correct comment came from an MP from the area
�They simply are not bothered about the plight of our (Tamil)
people.� With 4% of the time spent in discussing an area which took
nearly 60% of the damage and from 50% of the casualties came (of the
30,000 dead, 9,500 are confirmed dead from the North and another
10,000 missing), the comment is entirely justified. It should open
the eyes of aid-givers that about 4% of their aid will reach this
area if its delivery is left in the hands of the Sri Lankan
government.
The Sri Lankan President, emerging at last from her holiday, breezed
into Colombo and immediately set about marginalizing what her own
Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapakse, had been commendably doing with
the Opposition Leader, Ranil Wickremasinghe. Rajapakse was told that
there was enough to be done in his home town in the South and that
he should not be running around the rest of the country!. The crude
message was to go home and stay there. The reason for this
extraordinary request was that any build-up of the Prime Minister�s
profile had to be prevented. Not even a tsunami was sufficient to
prevent the internal squabbles of the governing party. Such is the
pettiness of Sri Lankan politicians.
The President, falsely claiming that nothing was done in her
absence, went on to duplicate what the Prime Minister had done,
setting up a �task force� to rebuild the nation, handle rescue and
relief , and maintain order. The Tamil Tigers (wisely) declined to
be part of this since it is likely to turn out to be no more than
yet another obstacle for potential aid-givers to negotiate on a road
already cluttered with bureaucratic obstacles and even roadblocks.
The Tamil Tigers
As has been mentioned, some of the most serious damage is in the
area controlled by the Tamil Tigers. They have a crucial role to
play in the delivery of aid to this area and the east. The Tamil
Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), widely described as a �Front for
the Tigers� is a major body that has been in operation for over 19
years and has extensive experience and expertise to translate
�relief effort� to �effective relief�. With district offices and
sub-offices in all 18 districts in the Tamil area, an office in
Colombo, and employing some 3500 paid staff, the TRO has been
partners with several international NGOs and UN agencies in major
reconstruction and rehabilitation programs in the Northeast over a
long period of time. The question at issue is not whether it is, or
is not, a �Tamil Tiger Front� but whether it can deliver. The answer
seems to be �Yes, it can�. If the alternative is the lethargic,
disorganized, incompetent and disinterested Sri Lankan Government,
then the TRO is on an entirely different plane. You will find the
TRO details on
http://www.tsunami-trocsc.com ,
www.troonline.org ,
www.trousa.org
.
If the TRO can deliver, it makes sense to let it do so. Recognizing
this, even the Sri Lankan Government permitted the TRO to engage in
rehabilitation and reconstructive work in both the Tamil Tiger
controlled area as well as the Sri Lankan military controlled area
in the northeast. However, whatever the Government says, its Armed
Forces and Police have ideas of their own � to obstruct the work
done by the TRO in the East, an area where the devastation was
particularly severe. In an unbelievable act, bordering on treason,
the Sri Lankan Army and the �Secial Task Force� of the Police, has
just moved into the refugee camps in the East and have taken them
over from the TRO. It is difficult to believe that the Executive
President, the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Reconstruction
and Rehabilitation, the Head of the Disaster Management Unit of the
Presidential Secretariat, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed
Forces, who all happen to be one person, Chandrika Kumaratunga, was
unable to prevent or reverse this.
The NGOs and Church groups.
A number of NGOs (World Vision, Red Cross, OxFam, Care Australia,
UNICEF and Caritas) are doing an outstanding job in raising money
and delivering what they can where they can. The Executive Director
of World Vision (Australia) the dynamic Rev.Tim Costello, brother of
the Australian �Prime Minister in Waiting� who incidentally has been
waiting a long time!), has just returned after visiting both the
South and the Northeast of Sri Lanka. The Australian public has
raised an amazing $15 million dollars in a single day supporting a
cricket match for World Vision.
By naming the large NGOs, I am in no way trying to down play the
outstanding contributions of small groups, especially small Church
groups, and even individuals Details of each by typing out the name
of the NGO on the google search engine.
An important point is that ANY of these Organisations would be a
safer bet than the Sri Lankan Government until such time, if ever,
that it gets its act together.
Foreign Governments
Foreign governments, big and small from across the world, have
been commendably generous. India was, as expected, first off the
block, flying in six helicopters to rescue victims, following this
up with huge amounts of medical supplies, food and other relief
supplies. Later two entire field hospitals with over 70 medical
personnel and medical supplies arrived.
Dragging its feet was what the US was doing. With international
eyebrows raised, when it finally decide to act, it was to play
geopolitical games. Some 1,500 American troops have landed,
supposedly to help and are busy establishing camps. Warships,
probably three, are anchored off the Sri Lankan coast. What are they
doing other than irritating India? Predictably, India has �expressed
concern� adopting a �I don�t want that boy to be in my backyard�
attitude.
Let me digress to deal with US aid. If the US really wanted to help
Sri Lanka, it could pressure American companies operating in Colombo
to pay even a little more than the $1/day they are paying
impoverished Sri Lankans to sew denim jeans which are sold at $100
each. Sending 1500 troops and even three ships is not an
alternative. The tsunami will not wash away the injustice and misery
of slave labour in sweatshops.
The Australian public has been magnificent, perhaps more so than any
other people. The collections for a country with only 20 million
people have been unbelievable. It feels good to be an Australian. As
I write, some of Australia�s best musicians are performing at the
massive Sydney Opera House to a packed audience, the proceeds to go
to the tsunami victims. �Cricket Australia� with Asian cricket
groups organized a match, raising over $15 million in a single day.
The Australian Government, however, has behaved in an extraordinary
way. At a major international donor meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia,
on 6 January 2005, Prime Minister John Howard pledged A$ 1 billion
for Indonesian Aceh. Aceh has been ravaged and no one will begrudge
the funds, but so has Sri Lanka, Phuket and South India. There are a
fair few Sri Lankans, Indians and Thai who live in Australia and pay
their taxes. Howard�s generosity with their money, by-passing the
desperate needs of countries which were once home to these people,
is nothing but a slap in the face to a significant number of
Australian citizens. That Aceh is a mineral-rich area (like oil-rich
East Timor in which Australia also got involved) and the others (Sri
Lanka, Thailand, South India) have no exploitable minerals or oil, I
gather, had nothing to do with this highly questionable decision. If
Howard wants to play geopolitical games and enter into �sweetheart
deals� with Indonesia to mend fences broken by Australia�s East
Timor intervention, he should have chosen a more appropriate venue.
As for the United Nations, an incredible situation has arisen. UN
Secretary General, Kofi Annan has just visited Sri Lanka. He toured
the South, flew over Trincomalee in the East but avoided any contact
(even from the air!) with the devastated Tamil Northeast. When asked
whether he will be visiting the Northeast, his amazing response to
Reuters news agency was �I am here on a humanitarian mission. I
would like to visit all areas, but as you know, I am here as a guest
of the government and they set the itinerary�. Clearly �the
itinerary (read �interest�) of the Sri Lankan government does not
extend to the Tamil areas (even aerially!).
The Sri Lankan newspaper the �Sunday Times�, not known to be
critical of the Government, spilt the beans.
�Moves by senior UN officials based in Sri Lanka to schedule
a visit by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to inspect tsunami
damaged area under control of the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) were
stymied by the Government yesterday, fearing the visit would
disturb the �south�.� Now we know where the Government stands,
not that there were any doubts. UN officials privately vented
their frustrations to Reuter �It is a relief visit, not a
political one. The Secretary General wanted to go, but it didn�t
happen� Well, if it �didn�t happen� it is for the UN Chief to
�make it happen�.
Can this be raised at the UN? It can but is unlikely. Sri Lanka�s
UN Representative is, and has always been, a Sinhala representative
voicing Sinhalese concerns, not Tamil ones. If the Tamils have a
problem (which they have and have had for years) to expect the �Sri
Lankan� representative to voice it is completely unrealistic. The
Tamils will have to get the Representative of some other country to
do so, and that�s unlikely to happen however serious the problem.
This is the reality of the UN, in effect a �Trade Union of Nations�,
and a non-performing one at that. If the UN and its Secretary
General cannot do the right thing, to expect this body to help the
Tamil areas is quite unrealistic. All we can do is to cry �Shame�
and say it loud and clear.
Amid the din of Sri Lankan Government voices shouting themselves
hoarse about how much they are doing for the Tamil areas, one could
hear the unmistakable clear shrill of Sinhala ethnic chauvinism and
anti-Tamil discrimination that has devastated that country long
before the tsunami.
Sri Lanka�s continuing war-stance
This is a problem that the international community and Sri Lankan
civil society will have to take up with Sri Lankan government. Just
four weeks ago the ruling United People�s Alliance Party and the
main Opposition, the United National Party, supported by the Muslim
party and the political party of the Buddhist clergy (incredibly
some Buddhist monks in parliament), in a rare show of unity, voted
to �beef-up� the Armed Forces, allocating more than Rs 56.2 billion
(US$ 536 million) for 2005. This is a 8% increase over the
allocation in 2004.
In a recent publication �Sri Lanka�s military: The Search For A
Mission�, Brian Blodgett, a career US Army officer and an Adjunct
Professor in the American Military University, pointed out some
�hard-to-stomach� and even �harder-to-justify� facts. While �Peace�
negotiations are in progress, the Sri Lankan Air Force bought 10
Mi-35 (a special export version of the Mi-24) helicopter gunships
and 10 military transport planes. The Army doubled its artillery
from 97 to 187. Armoured Personnel Carriers increased 70% from 158
to 204. The air force personnel nearly doubled from 10,000 airmen to
19,000, the army from 95,000 to 118,000 soldiers, and the navy from
18,000 to 20,000 sailors. These are indisputable signs that Sri
Lanka is preparing for war, to inflict willful damage and
destruction on its people, as if a natural disaster is not enough.
It is time that foreign governments, the international community,
Sri Lankan civil society, the Churches, and NGO�s, started asking
some hard questions since the tsunami notwithstanding, there is no
indication that this outrageous military expenditure will be scaled
down. What the international assistance, in particular monetary
assistance, might do is to free-up even more funds for the
Government to �beef up� the Armed Forces even more to wage an even
more destructive war which will cost even more lives of both the
Tamils and the Sinhalese, especially the rural poor. Unless we get
the situation clarified, our well-intentioned efforts might result
in even greater destruction.
There is talk of debt-cancellation for tsunami-affected countries.
The World Bank President James D Wolfensohn, is to visit Sri Lanka
to �have a first-hand view of the destruction�. He should also have
�a first-hand view� of the recent Sri Lankan budget and get the
Government to justify the unconscionable allocation to �Defense�.
The government response, as always when faced with hard questions,
will be that this is �an internal affair of Sri Lanka�. The response
to this should be �So is the devastation caused by the tsunami�.
If foreign debt is to be written off a guarantee will have to be
written in that the money saved will be used for the development of
infrastructure in all parts of the country, in particular, the
war/tsunami damaged areas. This will, of course, have to be closely
monitored, and if there is no co-operation, the debt repayments
should recommence.
The long term
The devastation has been on a scale that it will take years to
restore. The fear is that the wave of enthusiasm will come and go,
like the tsunami itself. �To maintain the rage�, as former
Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam asked the Australian public
to do when he was undemocratically dismissed by Governor General
John Kerr, may be difficult to do in the present crisis, as it was
then. The question of long term aid is dealt with below.
Another fear is that Sri Lankan politicians seeing manna descending
from heaven, will think up bigger and better ways to squander the
money or use it for purposes for which it was not intended. This is
the problem with pouring money into outstretched but unaccountable
hands. One cannot lose sight of the fact that Sri Lanka and
Indonesia are two of the most corrupt governments in South Asia. The
tsunami will not wash away entrenched corruption. It might enhance
it.
Sri Lanka and Indonesia are also two of the most repressive regimes
in the area. The serious fear is that these repressive regimes will
�use� the destruction caused by the tsunami to crush the entirely
justifiable separatist movements in both these countries. Should
this happen, the damage done will be far greater than what the
tsunami has done.
The situation in Aceh is very clear. Jakarta has �ruled� the
mineral-rich Aceh province down the barrel of a gun. The death of
100,000 Indonesians in that area is not going to change that.
Indonesia�s army chief, General Rayamizard Ryacudu, admitted that a
third of all soldiers deployed to the Aceh region were not there to
provide aid but to secure control of the area. This is the regime
into whose hands the Australian Prime Minister John Howard had just
slipped in A$1 billion of Australian taxpayer�s money. The Sri
Lankan Armed Forces� agenda in the Tamil areas of Sri lanka is no
different from that of their counterparts in Indonesia.
In Sri Lanka (and I guess in Aceh), the initial hope was that the
warring parties in these on-going conflicts (the Tamil Tigers with
the Sri Lankan Government, the Free Aceh movement with the
Indonesian Government) would be �blown together� by the tsunami. The
Sri Lankan President shaking the hands of two Tamil Tigers seems to
have mesmerized people. The reality is was that this was no more
than politicians providing photo opportunities for foreign media.
The reality was best put by Trond Furuhovde, leader of the Nordic
�Peace� mission to Sri Lanka who said �We should be careful not to
draw conclusions too far. The disaster has done a lot of things to
the country but has done nothing at all in (resolving) the
conflict.�
Unrealistic optimism betrays a complete lack of understanding of
what underlies these conflicts. The scales are now beginning to fall
from the eyes of these optimists. All reports now agree that these
expectations are far from reality. In fact, the opposite may well be
the final result as the Tamils in the northeast see incontrovertible
evidence of step-motherly treatment, or no treatment at all, at the
hands of the Sinhala regime in Colombo.
What has occurred, post-tsunami, is a different kind of a �war� with
words, claims, and some inappropriate actions. What is definite is
that neither the tsunami nor fighting is going to bring the elusive
peace to Sri Lanka (and probably Aceh). Any attempt by either side
to capitalize on any weakness, perceived or real, caused by this
natural disaster will have no currency.
The Tamils of Sri Lanka have developed a deep distrust (not without
reason) in the Sinhala-majority governments because of repeated
violence suffered by them at the hands of Government-sponsored
Sinhalese hoodlums and the Sinhala Armed Forces and Police. What the
tsunami might have done is to give the Sri Lankan government the
opportunity to establish its good faith among the Tamil people,
especially in the Northeast, North and East, so that there would be
a substantial increase in faith at any subsequent Peace talks.
Regrettably, the Government seems to have failed to grasp this
golden opportunity, the same tragic mistake made by a succession of
Sinhala-dominated governments over the past 50 years for which the
country has paid dearly.
What is amazing is that countries seem to learn nothing from the
experience of others, or even from their own blunders. George W Bush
learnt nothing from Vietnam and insists on repeating it in Iraq.
Indonesia learnt nothing from East Timor and insists on repeating it
in Aceh. Sri Lanka has learnt nothing from the Indonesian experience
in East Timor and insists on repeating it in Sri Lanka. Ethnic
conflicts based on the way people have been treated cannot be
settled by military might or by a tsunami. To expect otherwise is to
be naive and distance oneself from reality and history.
Long-term aid
To be realistic, Sri Lanka nor any of the other countries affected
by the tsunami are going to get long-term aid. The current media
attention and the funds it generates will be history in 4-8 weeks,
12 if we are lucky.
If long-term aid is not forthcoming, what are the alternative? The
alternative, which may be as unrealistic as hoping for long-term
aid, is to insist that Sri Lanka and numerous other countries hit by
the tsunami (and others that have been spared), be paid a reasonable
price for their produce and a reasonable wage for those who work in
these countries. I have already alluded to the American companies
paying a $1/day for $100 denim jeans. The list is endless. Tea
pluckers in what were British-owned tea estates, and now
increasingly, Indian-owned (but with Sri Lankan fronts to camouflage
their true owners), pay less than $2/day for an 8-hour stint,
picking tea at 6000 feet in freezing conditions, on treacherous
slopes with no proper attire and no sanitation. The area is infested
with leeches, snakes and hookworm. They (almost all are women) carry
tea baskets on their backs which weigh more than their body weight.
How do I know? I weighed them and their baskets in a research
project that I did some years ago. That is the human cost of a cup
of tea.
If thousands of fisherman in the North who have earned their living
and have supplied fish to the rest of the country and for export,
are prevented from fishing off the North and Eastern coasts of Sri
Lanka because the Sri Lankan Navy claims that this is a �security
risk�, there will be widespread poverty in the entire North and
Eastern sea front. If hundreds of thousands of Tamil peasants in the
North of Sri Lanka are prevented from cultivating their land because
Sri Lankan army has declared that these prime agricultural lands are
�security zones�, there will be widespread poverty. There will be
widespread anger which sometimes manifests itself in outrageous acts
of terror. Hundreds of thousands who are not capable of such acts
suffer in silence.
If foreign aid comes with conditions which, if implemented, will
make the poor poorer (as aid from the IMF and World Bank always do),
then the country will be better off without this aid. If garments
made by a tailor in Bangladesh or Sri Lanka are taxed twenty times
more than those made in Paris or London, there will be suffering far
greater than that inflicted by the tsunami.
No amount of �impulsive� aid post-tsunami or post-some other
disaster is an answer. What we are seeing is global injustice on a
massive scale. The answer is global justice and this will not be
delivered by aid, however impressive. The answer may well be in the
actions of groups such as the World Social Forum (WSF) a small but
outstanding group who are prepared to take on those who are
responsible for this outrage. That is where our support should be
directed if we are to have any long-term impact.
Current needs
The most urgent need is for people and organizations that are able
to rebuild and reconstruct the damaged area without ripping off the
country. Given the extent of the damage, it is a monumental task. It
will be even more difficult given the incompetence, inefficiency,
corruption, and bureaucratic road-block creating ability of the Sri
Lankan government.
As for the Northeast, an added problem is its relative
inaccessibility with roads completely destroyed by 20 years of war,
a tsunami and the current floods from the onslaught of the
north-east monsoon. If that is not enough, there is the major
problem of overcoming the hidden agenda of the Sri Lankan government
to keep this area in a devastated state if at all possible. There is
not the slightest doubt that the organization most capable of doing
the job is the TRO. There is also not the slightest doubt that the
work of the TRO will be obstructed by the Government and/or its
Armed Forces and Police. As I have alluded to, this is already
happening. The challenge facing the international community is to
confront the Sri Lankan government and expose that which is being
concealed.
From the medical point of view, the needs are physical and mental
rehabilitation, and the prevention of the spread of infectious
diseases.
Physical problems are the treating of serious infections such as
cholera and typhoid, and also tetanus which will become widespread
given open wounds, contamination and the absence of vaccination.
There are the problems of the physical rehabilitation of those who
have lost their limbs or have suffered paralytic injuries.
There are serious problems with the rehabilitation of children who
from a significant percentage of those who were injured or were
orphaned.
Crowding people into refuge camps, which is inevitable in a disaster
of this magnitude, invites communicable diseases such as cholera,
typhoid and measles (currently at epidemic levels in Aceh). Measles
in children in this scenario has a terrible mortality.
There is a major need for trauma councilors and doctors competent to
deal with the psychological effects of major trauma, the mental
effects of which are complex. There is the expected initial sadness
and reaction to loss. That is normal human sadness for which trauma
counseling is appropriate and adequate. Unfortunately, in some
people this is followed by a definite psychiatric problem which
manifests itself as a sleep disorder, a mood disorder with anxiety,
depression and irritability, a loss of interest, difficulty in
concentration and impairment of memory, fatigue, headaches, a
variety of aches and pains, a drop off in performance, an inability
to function and to cope. This is the syndrome of major depression
for which no amount of counseling will be adequate. It is a
biochemical disturbance for which chemical i.e drug therapy is
necessary. If it is not properly treated, it can last years, with a
complete functional breakdown, often ending in suicide. The human
cost of unrecognized or poorly managed depression is horrendous. I
doubt if all this is widely appreciated by lay people and even by
many doctors.
In summary
In a disaster such as this, there is rarely any difficulty in
raising money or goods. Such is the generosity of ordinary people
across the world. The problem is its delivery to the affected
people. If this is left in the hands of the Government, Sri Lankan
or any other, it will not go where it is most needed. The entire
effort of raising the aid will then be nothing but a betrayal of the
trust of people who have given so generously to alleviate the
suffering of the less fortunate. The damage done is many layered and
unless at least some of these are addressed the aid may well be
wasted. There are people in positions of power who have an agenda
and a hidden agenda and it is our business to identify and address
these. This is a lot harder than colleting aid but infinitely more
useful.
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