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UN says fewer tsunami orphans than feared
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-15 14:03
The head of the U.N. Children's Fund said there were probably fewer orphans
than originally thought in Asia's tsunami-hit areas, and efforts should be
directed toward uniting children with family members.
Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF, spoke just hours after the U.N.
agency spoke of reports that Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers were recruiting children
displaced by the tsunami and said it had told the rebels to leave under-age
survivors alone.
Tsunami survivors walk among debris from the
quake-triggered tsunami in Banda Aceh on the Indonesian island of Sumatra
on January 14, 2005. Aid agencies have prevented diseases spreading
through Indonesia's tsunami-stricken Aceh, but the threat remained strong,
the United Nations said as doctors reported children dying from
pneumonia.[Reuters] | Indonesia found almost 4,000
more bodies, taking the global death toll from the disaster to more than 162,000
with searches completed in areas most damaged by the Dec. 26 tsunami.
But life was starting to return to normal in towns and villages on battered
Indian Ocean coasts with markets reopening and fishermen casting their nets
again.
U.N. officials said the threat of disease to survivors had diminished but
doctors reported children were dying from pneumonia. Health workers said they
remained on guard.
Of those killed in the earthquake and tidal wave that swept through south
Asia and northeast Africa, half were children, according to Jan Egeland, the
U.N. emergency relief coordinator.
A very large number of child survivors were believed to have been orphaned,
but UNICEF's Bellamy said in New York on Friday new data suggested that initial
estimates had been exaggerated.
As an example, she said that an agency in Sri Lanka, which works with UNICEF,
had preliminary data on some 3,000 children they have reviewed.
Of this group 836 had lost both parents but had an extended family, and 38
seemed to be totally unaccompanied.
"So the numbers are big, but the numbers seemingly with no one are going to
be quite small," Bellamy told a news conference.
MISLEADING
"This rush to judgment is quite misleading," she added.
"We are advocating first that children get returned to their own parents.
Secondly, if not their own parents that they are reunited as appropriate with
members of the extended family."
UNICEF's Sri Lankan representative spoke on Friday of reports that the Tamil
Tigers had recruited three children in Sri Lanka's east, where the rebels
control large pockets of jungle.
"Recruitment ... was an issue before the tsunami. It's an issue that
continues to be of concern," Ted Chaiban told Reuters in an interview.
"We know of three cases of reported under-age recruitment that took place in
the east," said Chaiban.
"We said (to the rebels) ... you send out instructions that no child that has
been displaced by the tsunami should in any way be affected or harassed by any
person."
Two of the children had been reunited with their family but a 15-year-old
girl was still missing from a camp for the homeless, said Chaiban.
"She was seen speaking to (rebel) cadres. She is no longer in the camp. The
grandmother came and reported the case to us," Chaiban said. "We will be
advocating strongly for her release."
REBEL DENIAL
The rebels deny recruiting children, saying many youngsters lie about their
age to join the group.
The Tigers relied heavily on child soldiers during a bloody two-decade war
for autonomy, a conflict which has been in limbo for three years due to a
cease-fire.
More than 30,000 were killed by the tsunami in Sri Lanka, over 15,000 in
India and 5,300 in Thailand. But Indonesia was worst hit with at least 110,000
deaths. People were also killed in Malaysia, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Myanmar
and East Africa.
U.N. staff said there was no sign of diseases breaking out.
"There are no alarm bells ringing, but we cannot slacken our efforts. The
threat is still there," U.N. special coordinator Margareta Wahlstrom said in
Jakarta after returning from Banda Aceh, capital of the hardest-hit area,
Indonesia's Aceh province.
But at a large hospital in Banda Aceh, Belgian pediatrician Bert Suys said:
"We have actually had two children die this Wednesday night and one yesterday of
severe pneumonia."
He said he had treated at least 13 children suffering from pneumonia after
swallowing dirty water.
In Banda Aceh, an Australian army unit pumped water through a purification
system.
A 40-year-old man queuing for fresh water, who gave his name as P. Azari,
said he had lost his wife and a son in the tsunami.
Asked about the presence of foreign troops in the area -- criticized by some
hardline Islamic groups -- Azari said: "We are more than happy to have foreign
troops here. It's very valuable that they're doing this."
ACEH INSURGENCY
Oil-rich Aceh province has been the scene of a decades-long insurgency.
Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said Jakarta wanted a lasting truce with
separatists in Aceh, as both sides expressed a willingness for talks to end the
28-year rebellion.
Indonesia, nervous about a large foreign presence in the area, has sought to
restrict the movement of aid workers and has asked foreign troops to leave soon.
Australia, the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, China, Spain,
Pakistan, Japan and Switzerland have troops in Aceh to help in relief
operations.
The global response to the disaster has been unprecedented.
Governments have promised $5.5 billion in aid, with individuals and
corporations pledging at least $2 billion more.
The U.N.'s food agency said tsunami-hit countries had to flush out sea water
from agricultural land immediately or risk losing large fertile areas swamped by
the waves.
The tsunami also polluted wells and irrigation systems.
"This is a very serious problem and it is a problem that needs immediate
attention," said Food and Agriculture Organization director general Jacques
Diouf.
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