Only Catholic Church left on Andaman Islands to help tsunami victims
Chennai (AsiaNews) The Catholic Church is the only hope left to tsunami victims on India's Andaman Islands. Most NGOs and rescue teams have left the islands stricken by the December 26 tsunami. Media interest has waned and the government has not kept its promise to compensate the population; meanwhile people are still waiting for housing so they can start living again.
These charges are made by Fr Anthony Thota, coordinator for the tsunami campaign launched by the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Mission (PIME) in India.
"I visited the Andamans last week and the situation is really bad," the Chennai-based (Tamil Nadu) missionary told AsiaNews. "There are very few NGOs left to bring real help to the people; most have left the territory".
Father Thota said that the United Nations has kept some groups providing psychological support to the victims, but concrete help is being provided primarily by Caritas India, Catholic Relief Service and PIME.
"The authorities," the PIME missionary laments, "say they must first wait to find land on which to build the promised housing", whilst people must continue living in temporary tent cities in dangerous sanitary conditions. And the situation risks getting worse.
"In a few months, in July that is, the monsoon season will begin and heavy rains will make an already precarious situation worse and more dangerous," Father Thota said.
New Delhi promised millions of dollars in aid for post-tsunami recovery on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, one of the worse hit areas in India, but so far victims received measly checks.
Charity Champion, a woman who lives on Nacowrie, an island of the Nicobar group, got only two rupees (less than five US cents) for an entire plantation of 300 coconut trees worth 20,000 rupees (US$ 457)
According to the missionary, the government "is playing around" with these people. The bureaucracy's "corruption and laziness" is the main obstacle to aid getting where it is needed.
What's more, in his view, "local authorities hope to use reconstruction and compensation programmes to further their own electoral interests,"
For the local Church, reconstruction remains the main goal. "Catholic NGOs are giving away clean water, medical assistance and run refugee camps," Father Totha said. And in the last few days, PIME and Pilar Fathers (an Indian missionary institute) agreed to build two or three schools and a hostel in an area some 30 kilometres from Port Blair, the Andamans' capital.
According to official figures, the tsunami killed 3,000 people on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands with another 5,000 still missing. (MA)
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14/01/2005
