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In and around our famous Bay
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By KEVIN SITES
June 26, 2006
The sun is setting over the Indian Ocean and, for a moment, Arugam Bay is paradise. The coastline, a jagged, gray-toothed smile of crumbling walls and stone foundations destroyed by the 2004 tsunami, is bathed in the giddy, rose-colored light of dusk.
The upstairs bar at the Siam View Inn is beginning to fill up with surfers who just finished their afternoon session at the south end of the bay. It is, they know, a wonderful secret spot – a reward for intrepid and fearless surf travelers, a right-hand point break which can carry you into next week, if youA?a??E?re lucky enough to out-paddle the other 50 hard-core surfers gunning for the same peak.
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But tonight theyA?a??E?re out of the water early. Mostly Aussies, along with a handful of Japanese, theyA?a??E?re keen to see day two of the World Cup soccer matches, Australia versus Japan, on the barA?a??E?s satellite television set.
As the first round of beers is poured, the national anthems are played before the start of the match. The Aussies sing along to the sounds of Waltzing Matilda. Everyone seems to savor the good fortune to be in this place, at this moment.
It is a well-earned moment of serenity in what has been a tumultuous two years for the people of Arugam Bay and the surrounding areas.
The Siam View Inn had 22 rooms before the tsunami hit. Now it has four. The owner, a German named Manfred, is a quiet but determined guy who knows how to get things done. He is rebuilding slowly, with the hope that if he does, they – the tourists – will come.
The reputation of having been devastated by the tsunami was obviously bad for business, and though there has been progress, the region is far from reconstructed. Officially, over 30,000 Sri Lankans were killed by the 2004 tsunami, many of them in this area on Sri LankaA?a??E?s southeast coast. Thousands more here are still living a rudimentary existence in thatch houses without water or electricity.
But businesses like the Siam View, struggling to rebuild in the aftermath of the tsunami, began to see a light at the end of the tunnel: the possibility of becoming, if not a mainstream tourist spot, at least a bragging-rights stop for the young, hip, “Lonely Planet”-type traveler.
But then, in April, the Tamil Tiger rebels used a female suicide bomber, a “Black Tigress,” in an assassination attempt in Colombo against Sri LankaA?a??E?s army chief, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka. The attempt only injured Fonseka, but likely killed any hopes for rekindling a viable tourist trade in Arugam Bay.
“Sixty people canceled on me after that,” says K.M. Rifei, one of the managers at the Siam View Inn. “They were from all over the world, too – Germany, England, Australia.”
Rifei is troubled by the developments, but heA?a??E?s seen enough tragedy in his life that his emotional range seems wisely shifted to neutral. Rifei says he lost 17 members of his family in the tsunami, including his son, who was just one-and-a-half years old.
“When the tsunami hit,” he says, as we sit on the deck of restaurant overlooking the beach, “my family was all in the water, including my son.”
Now the challenge, the same for everyone here, is surviving the tragedy after the tragedy. If the worldA?a??E?s most deadly natural disaster wasnA?a??E?t enough, Sri LankaA?a??E?s slow slide out of a 2002 cease-fire agreement between the government and the Tamil Tigers and back into civil war now seems not only inevitable, but already in progress.
The economic costs are already high. Two pro surfing events scheduled to take place in Arugam Bay this summer have been canceled because of the violence.
“We werenA?a??E?t expecting much from them, though,” says 24-year-old Asmin, whose father and uncle own the Tropicana, a small surfboard rental shop, and handful of beachside rental cabanas. “TheyA?a??E?d probably all stay at five star hotels somewhere else.”
Asmin and his family are Muslims, like the majority of the people in this area, and so donA?a??E?t directly share in the Sinhalese versus Tamil feud that has divided Sri Lanka for decades.
Jamaldeen, AsminA?a??E?s father, says the people here have a good relationship with government security forces, especially the elite police commandos known as the Special Task Force (STF), who are in charge of this area.
“The Tigers arenA?a??E?t active here but the government perceives this as an area in which they operate,” says Jamaldeen, “so they donA?a??E?t invest a lot to help counter that reputation.”
It is, I think, a dilemma like the legendary scene in Francis Ford CoppolaA?a??E?s “Apocalypse Now” in which American Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore (an avid surfer), played by Robert Duvall, covets a stretch of beach held by the enemy (Charlie) simply for its surf.
When his men protest that the beach is heavily fortified, Kilgore responds, “Charlie donA?a??E?t surf!” and orders an attack on the beach.
Like Charlie, Tiger may not surf either, but the perception of potential violence here, as in other areas of the country, hasnA?a??E?t made Arugam Bay seem like a safe spot for many mainstream travelers to hit the water.
Jamaldeen says that the ongoing dearth of tourists could eventually do what the tsunami did not: kill their business.
And while businesses struggle to survive, many tsunami survivors in the region are also still doing the same, even a year and a half later.
In one refugee camp a few miles from the beach, hundreds of families are just scraping by, they say, without any assistance.
Kaleander Musama says she, her husband and six children got a large water tank from the government a few days after the tsunami, but that was the last thing they ever got – since then there has been no one to refill it.
As I photograph the family, an angry old woman from the camp confronts me.
“You people are like the marauding elephants that come and ransack our homes and leave us with nothing,” says the woman, Yasim Bawa. “Three hundred photographers have come here and taken our picture and nothing has changed.”
I ask her why things havenA?a??E?t changed, why the government hasnA?a??E?t helped them more.
“You know what I got from the government after the tsunami?” she asks, half smiling now – “a coupon for 100 rupees (about $1).”
Things are a little better at another refugee camp further up the road where the Sri Lankan LionA?a??E?s Club has helped build dozens of new houses with concrete walls and corrugated tin roofs.
Still, the trauma of the event still lives with all of the families here.
Forty-two-year-old Mohammed Bahdurdeen, a tall, proud-faced man, makes a living as a fisherman when he can hire onto a local boat. But those days are often few and far between.
Mohammed places his hands on the shoulders of his six-year-old son Ajiwath, a boy seemingly full of energy – if not words.
“Since the tsunami he doesnA?a??E?t speak anymore,” says Mohammed. “I think the trauma was too much for him.”
Others here can speak, but have tired of it when nothing seems to change.
Back at the Siam View Inn, the world cup match is over with the Australians beating the Japanese 3-1.
As the crowd, a few at a time, pays their tabs and heads out, there are smiles on the faces of the employees behind the bar. It was a good night – the kind of night they havenA?a??E?t seen in quite some time – and with the increasing violence, may not see for some time again.
It is, however, a place stubbornly committed to optimism in the face of challenging times.
Above the bar on a whiteboard is a message in blue marker written on the day of the tsunami. It has not been wiped clean since.
It reads, “This event is not the end, just a new beginning. A great chance for all of us. Posted 20 hours, December 26, 04.”
Find more reporting from “Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone” at Generic bupropion hcl xl reviews hotzone.yahoo.com.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com)
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A?A? 2006 – Knoxville News Sentinel
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| Kavan Ratnatunga visits Arugam Bay six months after the tsunami to discover that business is picking up Slow relief but surfers are back A ghost town after the tsunami six months ago, Arugam Bay was very much alive at 10 p.m. when we drove in on our way to a guest house at Kudakalli, two km further south. Many tourists had returned to this surfing paradise and were on the streets walking from their hotels to cybercafes and the many bars and restaurants which had reopened. A street performance was entertaining a large audience near a newly constructed Buddhist shrine in the town centre. The Pottuvil to Arugam Bay bridge, part of which had been washed away in the tsunami had been reconstructed with the aid of the Engineering Regiments of the Indian Army Task Force. An Indian flag was hung on the side in gratitude. I wonder how long this temporary repair which allows a single vehicle to be on the bridge at one time, will need to serve the community. The Tsunami Beach Hotel sign had been revised and put back up. The owners cashing in on all the media publicity after the tsunami had even registered in March 2005 an internet domain tsunamihotel.com. Arriving at Daya Fernando’s guest house we surprised the caretakers since they had not got the message about our arrival. Since I had not slept overnight near the east coast for almost 30 years, I got up an hour before sunrise and walked out with Daya’s three dogs to protect me and show me the way. The surf was up but fairly calm. Starlight and a crescent moon illuminated the many shells that had washed ashore on to the beach. A couple was beachcombing a rich bounty. I too picked up some beautiful large shells and coral. Our next visit was to Panama, a small Sinhala community 10 km south of Arugam bay. We went to the residence of Chandrasena who was the secretary to the local Pradeshiya Sabha (community council). It was he who had compiled the list of 17 houses which had been badly damaged in Panama by the tsunami and had sent out the appeal with photographs for funding. All off them had already been rebuilt by Thawalama using funding from Sri Lanka Tsunami Appeal Committee of Western Australia. I also witnessed the handing over of ten carts with pneumatic tyres to cultivators affected by the tsunami from this same committee. The cultivators of Panama also lost over 350 acres of paddy land, when areas such as Halawa, close to the sea were flooded by tsunami water. These paddy fields will remain barren for many years till the salt washes away. Though they have been promised alternate land under the Meeyangoda tank, which is to be restored with funding from the Rotary Club of Kandy, the cultivators now fear that this too is another promise that will never materialize. Most NGOs who have visited the village of Panama have requested the villagers to fill application forms, but have failed to provide the promised assistance. The government represented by the Task Force for Rebuilding the Nation (TAFREN) has still not made any positive impact on reconstruction in the community. All that the residents have seen are the numerous reports and advertisements in the media of what is being planned, Those affected were wondering where all the claimed foreign aid had got tied up. Just south of Arugam Bay, the village of Ulla, within the 200-metre buffer zone was totally destroyed by the tsunami. TAFREN has thus far failed to provide the affected families with alternate property outside the buffer zone, for them to commence rebuilding their houses. The NGOs who want to help these unfortunate people to rebuild their houses are being discouraged as a result. TAFREN unlike most NGOs allocates the task, signs a MoU and waits. For example the Sinhapura Sinhala Vidyalaya in Ulla near Arugam Bay was totally destroyed by the tsunami, even though it is beyond the 200 metre buffer zone. The Italian Civil Protection Mission has signed a MoU to complete construction work in six months. It is now six months since the tsunami and they have yet to commence work on reconstruction. The Thawalama Development Foundation that wrote to the President in this connection, requesting her to reallocate this school to them, as they are in a position to find the necessary funds for the purpose, have been informed by TAFREN that this is not possible. Unlike state aid, private aid has in many cases been made on racial and religious divisions. A Tamil resident from Jaffna I spoke to said that although many who didn’t have any fishing boats have received one, he who had lost seven boats in the tsunami has still to get any replacement. Source: |
Price of glycomet New Delhi, March 22 (IANS) India is slowly, patiently and with a clear agenda finding its way back into Sri LankaA?a??E?s northeast, after having almost washed its hands off the Tamil scene following Rajiv GandhiA?a??E?s assassination 15 years ago.
In just a year after Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran declared in Trincomalee that the A?a??E?northeast is very close to IndiaA?a??E?s heartA?a??E?, New Delhi is making its presence felt again in a troubled region where it once enjoyed tremendous goodwill.
Unlike in the 1980s when it was accused of covertly arming Tamil guerrillas, India is maintaining a safe distance from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which New Delhi outlawed in 1992 on charges of killing Gandhi.
The objective this time is to reach out to the predominantly Tamil and Muslim people of the northeast with development projects, which have the full backing of the Sri Lankan government.
Early this month, IndiaA?a??E?s ambassador in Colombo, Nirupama Rao, visited the eastern district of Amparai and discussed the needs of the local South Eastern University and ways of making perennially flooded areas suitable for paddy cultivation, visited a cultural museum, and heard from Tamil and Muslim leaders and government officials about the situation in the district.
On March 20, Rao was present in Kotagala, in Sri LankaA?a??E?s hill country that is home to A?a??E?Indian TamilsA?a??E?, when President Mahinda Rajapakse ceremonially opened a biotechnology institute set up with help from an Indian agriculture expert.
The institute is developing a model farm with sections on floriculture, vegetable growing, beekeeping and herbal-aromatic plants cultivation as well as a farm implements workshop and a tissue culture laboratory. A similar project is in operation in the mainly Sinhalese Gampaha district.
In November, a month before Rajapakse visited New Delhi, Rao handed over medicines urgently needed by the Kilinochchi district hospital in Sri LankaA?a??E?s LTTE-controlled north at a simple function held in her office in Colombo.
All these come on top of New DelhiA?a??E?s decisions to build a hospital and a vocational training centre in Trincomalee, another hospital in central hills, re-build small schools in the northeast destroyed by the 2004 tsunami, and also provide aid like fishing boats and nets and sewing kits to the northeast.
Indian officials say they have no problems attending to the humanitarian needs of the people living in LTTE control but they will not deal with the Tigers, whose leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is wanted in India for the Gandhi killing.
This was stated unambiguously by IndiaA?a??E?s former envoy to Sri Lanka, Nirupam Sen, in May 2004: A?a??E?Our rehabilitation and assistance is for the people of Sri Lanka irrespective of where they live… (But) there is no question of India engaging the LTTE.A?a??E?
Even while meeting politicians of the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance, Indian diplomats seek to avoid those who come from the ranks of the Tigers.
When prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was blown up by an LTTE suicide bomber near Chennai in May 1991, India went into a shell, virtually withdrawing itself from Sri Lanka. At the same time, New Delhi cracked down on the Tigers, who once enjoyed sanctuary in India.
India threw its weight behind the 2002 Norway-brokered and Western-backed ceasefire agreement between Colombo and the LTTE. It has no intention of taking the place of Norway or even becoming a co-chair to the peace process because that would involve dealing with the Tigers.
However, there was a feeling here in recent times that it was being edged out of the Sri Lankan scene.
The December 2004 tsunami gave India an opportunity to get involved in gigantic relief efforts in Sri Lanka.
In the northeast, Indian army and navy teams helped restore communications, provide medical relief and drinking water, restore the functioning of hospitals and rebuild the damaged bridge at Arugam Bay.
In April 2005 Shyam Saran visited Sri Lanka and summed up New DelhiA?a??E?s thinking: A?a??E?The welfare and well-being of the people living in the northeast is very close to IndiaA?a??E?s heart.A?a??E?
He also made it clear that India firmly stood for the unity and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka and, with the northeast in mind, emphasised the need to promote democracy, pluralism and human rights.
At the same time, Indian military commanders have in recent times visited Sri Lanka. Despite protests from a section of politicians in Tamil Nadu, New Delhi has continued to assist Colombo militarily. At the same time, it has urged Sri Lanka to go for a federal settlement to meet Tamil aspirations.
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Now, after two decades, I am shocked to see a calamitous state of the Periya Muhathuwaram Causeway, – in ruination, – left to decay after the tsunami, by the Road Development Authority, – successor to the Dept. of Highways.
During the last many months, despite the many requests, the RDA had wantonly neglected to repair the damages to the road, the causeway and the bridge, exposing the motorists and the pedestrians to suffer death. The devastating tsunami struck the East coast, and the causeway was not spared, and even one year after the tsunami, the causeway continues to remains a death-trap, which makes one to ask, whether the Road Development Authority is alive to its responsibility.
The road, the causeway and the bridge, serves more than one hundred thousand people living in an area extending over 1760 sq. k.mm., between Tambiluvil and Panama. If this causeway, on the Akkaraipattu – Pottuvil road is not repaired immediately, people living under three divisional secretariats, – Lahugala, Pottuvil and Tirukovil will be cut off from rest of the Country.
Is it what the RDA wants at a time when both the Gvot., and the International NGOs are busy rebuild the devastated region?.
Tourism will suffer, thousands of tourists will be deprived of an opportunity to visit the popular tourist resorts at Arugam-Bay, Ullai and the Kumana Birds and Animals Sanctuary. People will be deprived of employment and income. Programs of Tsunami rehabilitation and re-settlement will not see the light of day.
We are aware that the GA Amparai, had requested both the Chief Engineer, and the Executive Engineer, RDA Akkaraipattu, on more than two occasions, to repair the Periya Muhathuwaram causeway to help the Country and its people. Although the offices of both, – the EE and the Ch.E. of the RDA at Akkaraipattu, are established not far from the Periya Muhathuwaram causeway, it is shocking that they, both had failed to inspect the site.
The dire necessity to repair the causeway before November last year, was conveyed to the RDA but they failed to take notice of the impending calamity. Now the causeway is more damaged and is under water, – more in a state of ruin, as shown by the picture below.
It is in danger of being completely washed away – grinding halt to the programs of rehabilitation of a region where several thousands of homes were destroyed and many thousands living in welfare camps. Food, medicine and other needs will not reach the people in the welfare camps, when the causeway gets washed away.
The “Sunday Observer” exposed, the sorry state of the causeway 21 years ago, about the danger to life, and, now after two decades, the RDA had removed even the protective steel bars, on either sides of the causeway, that gave protection to the people when water level rose up to three feet above the road before entering the sea through the estuary at much speed.
There are no warning notices at the causeway and recently when the road went under water the Special Task Force at Tirukovil were called in to save the lives of people. The road, the bridge and the causeway having been damaged by the tsunami and the floods later, yet remain as a testimony to the neglect, if not inefficiency and disinterestedness of the officers in the Road Development Authority in the region which is alleged to have failed to handover the Periya Muhathuwaram to the Japanese Government who have agreed to reconstruct the highway from Pottuvil to Batticaloa.
Patriotism demands committed devotion both to the Country and the people which seems significantly absent in the RDA in this region. More than twenty accidents have occurred on this broken causeway, when motorists fell into the water from the unprotected roadway sans protective railings. Even those International NGOs were not spared.
Even their vehicles carrying men and materials have fallen into the water under the causeway.
The people fondly ask, when will the RDA arise from its long slumber to repair a broken causeway and highway?.
The broken road, the damaged causeway and the bridge over the causeway on the Akkaraipattu – Pottuvil A-4 road requires immediate repair and will the RDA respond?. People eagerly wait for them to commence work on the damaged causeway.
|
Sri Lanka Glaube, Liebe,A?A?Hoffnung Von Volker KlinkmA?ller und Martin H. Petrich |
21.A?NovemberA?2005A?Wer in diesen Wochen zum Urlaub nach Sri Lanka fliegt, wird A?berrascht sein. Fast ein Jahr nach der Tsunami-Katastrophe vom 26. Dezember ist die touristische Infrastruktur in den meisten Regionen weitgehend wiederhergestellt.
Vielerorts sogar mit hA?herwertigen UnterkA?nften und deshalb – wider Erwarten – auch nicht unbedingt preiswerter. Die ersten Pauschaltouristen sind in die groAYen Strandhotels der KA?stenregion zurA?ckgekehrt. Und A?berall lassen sich die AuslA?nder wieder mit den begehrten, fA?r die Insel typischen Ayurveda-Kuren verwA?hnen. Auch der Indische Ozean zeigt sich mit sauberen SandstrA?nden, glasklaren Wellen und fischreichen Korallenriffen von seiner besten Seite.
Schock und Schmerz der Naturkatastrophe indes sitzen natA?rlich tief. Mancherorts zieht sich – mit Ruinen, Schutt, Baumwurzeln oder den letzten Schiffswracks – noch ein GA?rtel der ZerstA?rung an der KA?ste entlang, wA?hrend es die Einheimischen immer wieder dazu drA?ngt, von ihren Verlusten, seien es geliebte Verwandte oder das Dach A?ber dem Kopf, zu berichten. Doch auch sie kA?nnen schon wieder lA?cheln, zeigen sich stets als freundlich und A?beraus bemA?ht. Vielleicht, um sich auf ihre Weise fA?r die SolidaritA?t der zurA?ckkehrenden Besucher zu bedanken.
Das Landesinnere Sri Lankas – mit all seinen kulturhistorischen SehenswA?rdigkeiten und faszinierenden Nationalparks – war in keiner Weise betroffen. In den KA?stengebieten zeigt sich die Lage wie folgt:
Die WestkA?ste
Colombo, Mount Lavinia, Negombo
| Nur noch selten erinnern an den StrA?nden Wracks und TrA?mmer, wie hier in Tangalla, an die Katastrophe |
Colombo war, wie auch der nA?rdlich gelegene Badeort Negombo, kaum vom Tsunami betroffen. Unmittelbar am Strand der Hauptstadt findet sich nach wie vor das rund dreiAYig Jahre alte, auf der Welt einzigartige Seafood-Restaurant a?zBeach Wadiyaa??, das zwar WasserschA?den erlitten hat, aber exakt in seiner bewuAYt schlichten Form wiederhergestellt worden ist.
Im sA?dlich benachbarten, traditionellen Badeort Mount Lavinia haben die Flutwellen zwar einige SchA?den angerichtet, doch hatten alle touristischen Betriebe – bis auf ein einziges kleines Strandrestaurant – schon wenige Wochen nach dem Tsunami wieder geA?ffnet. Auch das legendA?re Kolonialhotel a?zMount Laviniaa?? thront in altem Glanz trotzig auf seinem Felsvorsprung in der tosenden Brandung.
Bentota, Beruwala und Kosgoda
| Mancherorts sind die Hotels jetzt besser – und teurer – als vor der Flutwelle |
Im Vergleich zur SA?d- und OstkA?ste hat es im Westen Sri Lankas nur relativ wenige Tsunami-Tote gegeben. Zumal der GroAYteil der Region vorgewarnt werden konnte. Bis hinunter nach Galle sind fast alle Hotels, Pensionen und Restaurants lA?ngst zum Normalbetrieb zurA?ckgekehrt.
Die groAYen, vor allem am traumhaft schA?nen Palmenstrand von Bentota konzentrierten Pauschalhotels haben ihre Gartenanlagen weitgehend entsalzen kA?nnen. Die Beseitigung der Tsunami-SchA?den haben sie zumeist fA?r vielversprechende Updates und Upgrades ihrer Zimmer oder Suiten genutzt, was zum Teil sogar schon mit Belegungsquoten bis zu siebzig Prozent belohnt wird.
| Trotz einem immer freundlichen LA?cheln – der Tsunami-Schock sitzt bei den Einwohnern noch tief |
In Kalutara A?berzeugt das Hotel a?zKani Lanka Resort & Spaa??, das erst 48 Stunden vor dem Tsunami erA?ffnet und schwer verwA?stet worden war, als neues, innovatives Designer-Hotel. Noch nicht wieder buchbar ist das beliebte a?zTritona??- Hotel in Ahungalla, dessen Reparatur mit einer attraktiven Neugestaltung verbunden wird.
Schwere ZerstA?rungen sind vor allem noch in der Region Beruwala und Kosgoda zu sehen. Die KA?stenstraAYe, die nun vielerorts mit steinernen FlutschutzwA?llen versehen wurde, bietet neuerdings, durch die weitgehend verschwundene Bebauung der FischerhA?tten und die noch umstrittene 100-Meter-Regelung der Nichtbebauung, oft einen bestechend freien Ausblick auf das Meer.
| Angler am indischen Ozean |
Vereinzelt finden sich noch Schiffswracks, die aber nur aus VersicherungsgrA?nden noch nicht geborgen wurden. Alle frA?heren Touristenattraktionen sind intakt oder haben – wie die a?zTurtle Hatcheriesa?? – einen Neuanfang gemacht. Sie brauchen dringend mehr Besucher, denn ohne die Eintrittsgelder fehlen die Mittel, um die SchildkrA?teneier vor dem Marktverkauf oder dem Verzehr zu retten. Auf den groAYen Lagunen werden wie frA?her reizvolle BootsausflA?ge in das Landesinnere angeboten.
Die SA?dkA?ste
Hikkaduwa
A?berraschende 95 Prozent der frA?heren touristischen Infrastruktur des beliebten, von der KA?stenstraAYe zerschnittenen Urlaubsorts sind wiederhergestellt. Bis auf das Hotel a?zHikkaduwa Beacha?? am Ortseingang haben alle UnterkA?nfte und Gastronomiebetriebe lA?ngst wieder geA?ffnet. Die vorgelagerten Korallenriffe haben durch den Tsunami keinerlei Schaden erlitten. In der Stadt streifen A?berraschend viele SolidaritA?tstouristen umher.
| Schulalltag auf Sri Lanka |
Drei Waggons des berA?hmt-berA?chtigten Eisenbahnzuges, der kurz vor Hikkaduwa in den Flutwellen umgekippt war, was ungeheuer vielen Menschen das Leben gekostet hat, sind am UnglA?cksort belassen worden und sollen Bestandteil eines Tsunami-Mahnmals werden. Schon jetzt wird dieser Ort als schaurige SehenswA?rdigkeit von Scharen in- und auslA?ndischer Touristen heimgesucht. Genau wie beim an Land gespA?lten Polizeimarineboot im thailA?ndischen Khao Lak.
Galle
Obwohl es vor allem am A?rtlichen Busbahnhof sehr viele Todesopfer gegeben hat, besteht keinerlei Grund, die wichtigste kulturhistorische SehenswA?rdigkeit im SA?den des Landes zu meiden. Die festungsartige Altstadt hat, wie auch ihre gesamte touristische Infrastruktur und die beiden auAYerhalb gelegenen Hotelflaggschiffe a?zLighthousea?? und a?zClosenberga??, die Katastrophe heil A?berstanden.
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Trotz Besucherflaute hat sich der Trend fortgesetzt, immer mehr historische GemA?uer in stilvolle UnterkA?nfte zu verwandeln. Davon zeugen unter anderem das neue Hotel a?zThe Fort Printersa?? in einem ehemaligen DruckereigebA?ude und das erst im Dezember erA?ffnete, exklusive a?zAmangallaa??-Resort in den ehrwA?rdigen Mauern des einstigen a?zNew Oriental Hotelsa??, das zur Aman-Gruppe gehA?rt. Auch neue Boutiquen und SchmuckgeschA?fte lassen sich hier nieder.
Unawatuna
Obwohl es hier schwere ZerstA?rungen gegeben hat, ist der beliebte Badeort mit seinen etablierten Betrieben wiederauferstanden.Es gibt keine sichtbaren Ruinen mehr, doch weisen einige FreiflA?chen noch auf den Verlust von kleineren Restaurants und Pensionen hin.
| Auch die “SchildkrA?ten Burtanstalt” hat einen Neuanfang gewagt |
Es herrscht kein Mangel an guten UnterkA?nften und hervorragenden Restaurants. Die wunderschA?ne Bucht, in der ganzjA?hrig gebadet werden kann, ist A?berraschend gut besucht. Vor allem von etlichen europA?ischen Familienurlaubern, die in den tA?rkisfarbenen Meeresfluten schwimmen. Die AtmosphA?re ist erfreulich ausgelassen. Das hat auch die gigantische WiedererA?ffnungsparty der beliebten groAYen Stranddiskothek a?zHappy Bananaa?? am 1. Oktober dieses Jahres gezeigt.
Koggala, Weligama und Mirissa
Das groAYe, an einem atemberaubend breiten Sandstrand gelegene a?zKoggala Beach Hotela?? ist rund elf Monate nach dem Tsunami oft komplett ausgebucht. Auch das als Badeziel beliebte, wegen seiner Stelzenfischer berA?hmte Weligama ist mit seiner touristischen Infrastruktur schon lA?ngst zum Normalbetrieb zurA?ckgekehrt.
| Hotel in Arugam Bay, wo wieder die Internationalen Surfweltmeisterschaften stattfinden |
Die zum Schnorcheln und Tauchen beliebten vorgelagerten Korallenriffe haben den Tsunami ohne Schaden A?berstanden. In Mirissa wird – bis auf den zerstA?rten a?zParadise Beach Cluba?? – fleiAYig an der Wiederherstellung der zahlreichen privaten TouristenunterkA?nfte gearbeitet. Manchmal aber auch nur an Verfeinerungen: Das a?zPalace Mirissa Hotela?? zum Beispiel erhA?lt gerade ein romantisch am Hang gelegenes Schwimmbad.
Matara und Dikwella
Die meisten UnterkA?nfte und alle SehenswA?rdigkeiten wie etwa der begehbare Leuchtturm von Matara-Dondra sind vA?llig intakt. Die Wiederherstellung des auf einer felsigen Landzunge im Meer gelegenen a?zDikwella Village Resortsa?? wird wohl noch bis Anfang Dezember dauern. Und auch hier verbindet der EigentA?mer den Wiederaufbau mit einem stilvollen Upgrade der Zimmer. Das Ayurveda-Resort a?zVattersgardena??, das sich A?ber einen HA?gel am Meer erstreckt und von der deutschen Familie Vatter gegrA?ndet wurde, ist nach der Reparatur zum Normalbetrieb zurA?ckgekehrt.
Tangalla
| Freier Blick auf den glitzernden Ozean |
Die UnterkA?nfte im Westen der Stadt sind weitgehend unbeschA?digt geblieben oder inzwischen wiederhergestellt. Hier hat nun auch direkt am Strand das exklusive a?zAmanwellaa??-Resort erA?ffnet – nach der Niederlassung in Galle das zweite Standbein der Aman-Gruppe auf Sri Lanka. Obwohl seine Bunkerarchitektur eher gewA?hnungsbedA?rftig ist und A?beraus schlicht wirkt, ist es mit Bungalow-Preisen um die 900 US-Dollar pro Nacht nun das teuerste Hotel der Insel.
Das a?zTangalla Bay Hotela??, im Jahr 1971 auf einem Felsvorsprung im Meer errichtet, ist zwar leicht beschA?digt worden, ist aber dank seines bemerkenswerten Interieurs noch immer ein Meilenstein der Architektur auf Sri Lanka. Die touristische Infrastruktur der beiden gefragten Badebuchten im Osten der Stadt ist erheblich zerstA?rt worden, was dem landschaftlichen Erscheinungsbild allerdings kaum anzusehen ist. Inzwischen ist in manche Ruine neues Leben eingezogen, so daAY auch hier kein Mangel an UnterkA?nften zu verzeichnen ist. Die beste Traveller-Unterkunft der Region ist mit dem a?zBlue Horizona?? schon wieder aufgebaut.
Die OstkA?ste
Hambantota
Die Stadt gehA?rt wie auch die gesamte OstkA?ste zu den Regionen, die auf Sri Lanka am schwersten von der Tsunami-Katastrophe heimgesucht worden sind. Jedoch ist das Hotel a?zThe Oasisa?? als bestes und grA?AYtes Resort durch vorgelagerte SanddA?nen vA?llig unbeschA?digt geblieben und erfreut sich groAYer Auslastung, vor allem auch durch deutsche Ayurveda-Touristen. Das zweitgrA?AYte Hotel a?zPeacock Beacha?? ist schwer beschA?digt worden, will aber auf jeden Fall bis Ende November wieder erA?ffnen.
Somit dA?rfte Hambantota auch weiterhin als wichtigster Ausgangspunkt fA?r AusflA?ge in die legendA?ren Nationalparks von Yala, Bundula und Uda Walawe dienen und auch zu den Kultur-HeiligtA?mern von Kataragama. WA?hrend die a?zYala Safari Game Lodgea?? im gleichnamigen Nationalpark komplett zerstA?rt worden ist, aber wiederaufgebaut werden soll, hat das gediegene a?zYala Village Resorta?? als mit Abstand bestes Hotel des Naturschutzgebiets den Tsunami heil A?berstanden. Nur seine Strandvillen hat die Lodge verloren.
Arugam Bay
Nach dem Tsunami sind hier schon wieder die dritten Internationalen Surfmeisterschaften veranstaltet worden. Denn gewiAY zA?hlt diese Bucht noch immer zu den zehn besten Surfdestinationen der Welt. Wer hier Urlaub macht, gehA?rt allerdings zur eingefleischten Surfer- beziehungsweise Traveller-Szene, will vor allem seine SolidaritA?t zeigen. Und muAY besonders hartgesotten sein. Vielerorts sind die ZerstA?rungen sichtbar, als Brachlandschaften zum Beispiel. Und auch etliche Ruinen sind noch zu sehen. Dennoch haben rund um das legendA?re a?zSiam Bayview Hotela?? – nicht zuletzt ein bizarrer Treffpunkt der zahlreichen internationalen Mitarbeiter und Freiwilligen der Hilfsorganisationen – A?ber zwei Drittel aller touristischen Betriebe wieder geA?ffnet, auch wenn sich die Zimmerzahl so mancher Unterkunft auf nur noch zehn Prozent reduziert hat.
Am Strand ist eine neue, ansehnliche Generation von zweistA?ckigen Romantikrestaurants aus Naturmaterialien entstanden. Das a?zTri Star Beach Hotela??, das frA?her A?ber die besten Zimmer und den bisher einzigen Pool der Bucht verfA?gte, wurde in seiner alten Form wieder erA?ffnet und ist Mitte Oktober durch einen direkt am Strand gelegenen NeubauflA?gel ergA?nzt worden. Zudem steht die ErA?ffnung mehrerer neuer, fA?r die Region bisher noch ungewA?hnlich komfortabler Bungalow-Anlagen, wie das a?zBombardi Resorta?? oder das a?zRoyal Garden Beach Hotela??, unmittelbar bevor.
Trincomalee, Uppuveli, Nilaveli
WA?hrend die Hafenstadt Trincomalee dank ihres riesigen Naturhafens kaum betroffen war, richteten die hier bis zu vier Meter hohen Flutwellen an den nA?rdlichen StrA?nden Uppuveli und Nilaveli groAYe SchA?den an. Elf Monate danach sind jedoch fast alle UnterkA?nfte wieder erA?ffnet. Und sie befinden sich nach umfassender Renovierung teils in besserem Zustand als zuvor. Das schwer beschA?digte a?zNilaveli Beach Hotela?? wird derzeit von Grund auf renoviert und soll Anfang 2006 wieder seine Pforten A?ffnen.
Obwohl die Korallenriffe leicht in Mitleidenschaft gezogen wurden, kA?nnen sich Taucher wie eh und je an der SchA?nheit der fischreichen Unterwasserwelt erfreuen. Leider nahmen in den vergangenen Monaten die politischen Spannungen in dieser Region wieder zu, so daAY man sich rechtzeitig A?ber die aktuelle, derzeit aber relativ unbedenkliche Sicherheitslage informieren sollte. Die eher geringe touristische Infrastruktur von Batticaloa, der grA?AYten Stadt der OstkA?ste und bekannt vor allem wegen ihres PhA?nomens der a?zSingenden Fischea??, ist vom Tsunami kaum betroffen gewesen, da sie vorwiegend im Bereich einer Lagune im Landesinneren liegt.
Text: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, 20.11.2005
Bildmaterial: F.A.Z. – Volker KlinikmA?ller, F.A.Z., F.A.Z. – Volker KlinkmA?ller
31/01/2005
“The grotesque picture of devastation is slowly emerging and haunting us. The real brunt of the tsunami was taken by the eastern part of the island. The principal town, Pottuvil, has seen the worst disaster in its living memory”.
Pictures: Clare Doyle, cwi
Siritunga Jayasuriya, General Secretary United Socialist Party (cwi, Sri Lanka) and Jagadish Chandra, Socialist Alternative (cwi, India).
pictures
These words which began the last article we wrote from Sri Lanka are an all too accurate description. As we arrived again in the eastern part of Sri Lanka, a graveyard silence greeted us – scores of eyes tired of crying for their kith and kin who were taken by the killer Tsunami.
Arugambay early 2005
There are “families” who have lost everybody except one male member who had gone to the town or who was safely fishing in the deep sea. There is not a single household which has not been devastated by death and destruction in the world famous Arugambay surfing village. Now streets of debris are all that is left to see of what was once a booming tourist spot as well as busy fishing community.
No notable help was forthcoming to the poor affected at Ullai (Arugam)
The relief team of the United Socialist Party (USP, CWI in Sri Lanka) visited the Pottuvil area again on the week-end 22 to 24 January and visited all the villages and hamlets where the USP already has a base. Apart from the Pottuvil town, the villages such as Ullai, Sinnaullai and Komari have seen the dancing of death in their own eyes. The team could see the fear of the sea still instilled in the helpless eyes of the villagers of Pottuvil district.
Government lies
Though a lot of claims are being made by the government agencies and the sycophantic electronic media, that fast relief is being meted out to the victims of the tsunami and most of them are rehabilitated, the USP team could see for itself that it was a big white lie concocted to show to the western world and the donor countries.
On the hot sands of Arugambay, there once stood a lively town mostly of Tamil-speaking Muslims. But today the only reminder of that scene is the debris and some concrete floors which had little houses on them with lots of children. The claims of the government that they have set up pukka relief camps is a travesty of justice to these poor people, who have had to build their own thatched shelter with whatever was salvaged from the disaster.
The government is treating the victims of tsunami as some sort of beggars by giving just a weekly ration of rice, lentils, sugar, flour etc. and wash their hands of responsibility for anything else. The paltry sum of five thousand rupees for the funeral of the victims is the only cash that the affected have seen and received from the government.
To rub salt on the wounds of the surviving disaster victims, the government expects them to queue up to register in order to receive the promised five thousand rupees as a start up grant. You cannot imagine the scores of bruised, sick, fearful and dejected people queuing up for this so-called help from the government. Even the distribution of relief material such as temporary shelters and household goods smacks of partiality along ruling coalition lines.
Class Bias
The tsunami has washed away many things such as houses, boats, catamarans, fishing nets and other livelihood articles, but the devil of Class Bias stands firmly rooted in society.
The government has suddenly woken up to the fact that there is a rule that nobody should build anything within 100 metres of the sea. While it wants to apply this rule stringently now, the most adversely affected would be the poor fishermen folk. Some of the rich and foreigners are already flouting the law and building dwellings and businesses
within the stipulated areas.
The communal Janata Vimukthi Perumuna (JVP) is taking advantage of the post-tsunami situation and has set its own agenda. In the Pottuvil area for example it has tried to communalise the whole town by making false claims on a piece of land in a predominantly Muslim area to put up a Buddhist statue.
Socialist crisis management center
The USP district centre at Pottuvil town has become a sort of socialist crisis management centre for the tsunami affected people; it has become an ongoing meeting spot for them to discuss everything that is worrying them. The USP has tried to meet the challenge of organizing its own relief operation to help some of the disaster affected people who are directly linked to the party in one way or the other.
It has distributed some essential items such as cement, bricks, cycles, household utensils and kerosene stoves to some of the comrades who were affected. But doing relief work here is like a cat saying that it would drink all the water in the ocean; it was a daunting task for all the comrades to decide how to manage on the resources available.
The fantastic work done by the comrades in Pottuvil must be saluted. It has stretched the comrades physically to the maximum, but this sacrifice has its own rewards. Most of the adult population have turned up at the meetings when the USP team was there, and most of them said that they are going to join the USP – the only party which came there to help at the hour (if not the minute!) of need.
Further work of USP
This week-end (29 and 30 January) the USP team is going to the south of the country to carry on the party sponsored relief for the comrades and supporters of the USP. A special broadsheet is being planned with the name a??Tsunami Janahandaa?? (Voice of the Tsunami Victims) to expose the government and to put forward a socialist programme for the fight-back. Later, in the month of February, a mass poster campaign is planned.
source:
http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/1549
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Reconstruction and invisible scars
From Till Mayer for CNN
Wednesday, January 26, 2005 Posted: 0948 GMT (1748 HKT)
POTTUVIL, Sri Lanka (CNN) — Till Mayer is a journalist working for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Galle, Sri Lanka. He is writing about his experiences as part of the relief effort for CNN.com.
Part 1: Sunday, January 2
Part 2: Monday, January 10
Part 3: Tuesday, January 25
Tuesday, January 25
The crane is straining. The massive fishing boat swings in the air hanging meters above on steel ropes, between golden beach and blue sky.
The tsunami waves tossed heavy wooden vessels ashore on December 26 like paper boats. Now they lie scattered over the whole beach, stranded between palms.
Many of them are only wrecks. Broken wood, where rocks shattered the heavy planks. Maybe one day some of the boats can sail again. The crane starts with the clearing up.
I return to the car and continue the journey south towards Galle. To the left and right are remnants of the disaster.
Sometimes all that remains are heaps of stones, reminding me of the fishing huts that stood there one month ago. The rubble passes me by.
But there is not only destruction to see. Everywhere along the coasts of Sri Lanka people are still clearing up and sometimes even beginning to rebuild.
Fires burn beside the roads: mattresses, splintered timber and broken furniture transformed into ash.
From the debris the tsunami victims collect what is useful for reconstruction: roofing tiles, stones and corrugated sheet. Neighbors help each other.
And the aid workers of the Red Cross lend a hand. At the next stop the sun already beats down from the sky. Sweat runs down of the faces of 25 Red Cross volunteers from Bentota.
“Straight after the tsunami disaster I joined the Red Cross. Now I clear up the rubble with my friends”, says a 23-year old.
In the background a wrecked house rises up into the sky. The tidal wave shattered the timber roofs like matches, tearing away furniture, windows, doors, everything.
Red Cross workers, many young, push squeaking wheelbarrows along the affected coastline.
They provide first aid, clean salted wells, distribute humanitarian goods or transport clean drinking water.
The disaster has tapped into the humanitarian spirit and the number of Red Cross volunteers has increased, a fact Vpali Sirimanne is proud of.
Sirimanne is the honorary Red Cross chairman of the district of Bentota. He used to work as a full-time diving instructor. Before the tsunami he ran his own equipment and boat rental business. The wave destroyed everything.
Not far away a Red Cross truck stands next to the road delivering water. The pump is roaring, filling up a black plastic tank. The village inhabitants line up with cans and buckets. Clean drinking water is essential to avoid the outbreak of diseases and epidemics.
I think of my German Red Cross friends in Pottuvil. They prepare 120,000 liters of drinking water daily, supplying camps for the homeless. Then there are the two basic health care centers run by the Finnish and French Red Cross societies.
The tsunami has brought me back in touch with colleagues from other missions. Dieter Mathes is the German Red Cross ERU team leader, an aid-worker with decades of experience, and Konrad Kerpa, whom I met last year in Bam.
Then an enormous earthquake had transformed the entire Iranian city within seconds into a sea of rubble. Both disasters happened on December 26.
The city of Pottuvil looms — a particularly sad chapter in my Sri Lanka mission. The former paradise for surfers is now only a field of rubble. Thousands died here. I will never forget the sight of numerous corpses floating in the water. It was terrible.
The bridge between the city center and the former tourist area was destroyed. The German Red Cross water team managed to get water over the destroyed bridge using a 728-meter hose.
The German Red Cross is also operating a field hospital in the north of the country and is one of several National Societies working in close cooperation with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Sri Lanka Red Cross.
My journey continues. The road is hopelessly overcrowded. A railway track runs parallel to the road. Or rather, what remains of it. The waves bent the rails like play dough. Nearby an iron rail hangs over a palm trunk.
I come to the town of Tellwatte. The place looks like it a bomb site. What's left of the train station stands amid the rubble. Walls have been partly washed away. Villagers set up a Buddha statue on a broken roof, lost between the remains.
Behind the station a reddish-brown train appears. Over 1,400 people died when the wave hit the wagons, tearing the carriages apart. Heavy equipment has set the death train again on its track.
The bodies of the dead have been recovered, but still there are sad reminders. In front of the wagon lies a small doll, its legs ripped off. Its painted eyes staring into the sky. The girl, who played with the doll, is dead. The tsunami disaster claimed nearly 40,000 lives in Sri Lanka. An incomprehensible number.
Red Cross and Red Crescent planes and ships have brought tons of goods to the vulnerable. The first new houses are appearing while others are being reconstructed.
“The acute emergency phase is over, reconstruction can start”, says Axel Pawolek, the FACT team leader with the Federation.
One month after, it is still hard for me to comprehend the extent of the disaster.
If it is difficult for me as a visitor to this country, imagine how hard it is for the innocent, bewildered victims such as the children. In a few minutes the world as they knew it, was washed away. Beloved ones will never return again.
There are wounds you cannot see, and they will take a long time to heal. That is a further challenge for the Red Cross/Red Crescent.
Monday, January 10
 |
The clean-up operation has begun in Pottuvil.
|
POTTUVIL, Sri Lanka — The advertising sign is lost in amid the rubble. On it is written “Tsunami Hotel” in big letters, and a giant wave is breaking over it.
A favorite place to stay for surfers from all over the world — until December 26.
Now the sign rises up in the sky like a monument. In a cruel irony, the tsunami has taken the hotel named after it.
Mohammed Ali passes by the remnants with slow steps. The disaster has made an old man out of the 52-year-old. The wave washed away his house like a sand castle, his brother-in-law will never return with his boat from fishing.
Heavy bruises cover the body of the fisherman. Every breath hurts. Deep inside there is a stronger pain. It will stay for a long time. Mohammed Ali knows it too well.
Along both sides of the road there are long rows of destroyed houses. Not long ago they were guest houses, small pubs and shops. Pottuvil was well known as a paradise for holiday makers. For Mohammed Ali that now seems a lifetime away.
“Sometimes I do not know what I should believe. That this sea of rubble is reality? Or that I am just dreaming? When I wake up, will I see again the bustling city with all the tourists and the owners of the restaurants, who are buying my fresh fish”, he says softly.
The leg of a plastic doll juts out of the rubbish that was swept up by the tsunami. Next to it lies a baby bottle. On a wall nearby a painting depicts a surfer riding a wave.
Mohammed tries to walk faster. He tries to avoid thinking about something which he is unable to find an explanation for.
A young man waves from a roof of a destroyed house. “Is everything okay with you?” he asks.
Mohammed Ali nods and the man continues to throw down the roof tiles that are still unbroken to another man who catches them cheerfully.
In Pottuvil like everywhere else alongside the coast of Sri Lanka people start to clean up, sometimes even to rebuild.
Marie Mauret, a psychologist with the French Red Cross basic health care unit in Pottuvil has been impressed with the coping mechanisms of the local community.
“People are really brave here. And there are so many volunteers to help us. Despite the sorrow everybody is working hard to cope with these terrible times. People are proactive. They do not wait until someone comes to help them, she says.
The Red Cross has erected a basic health care post in a hotel. Plastic sheeting covers holes in walls damaged by the tsunami.
Mohammed Ali takes a seat on a rickety chair. Like so many others he is waiting patiently to get treated. Word of the Red Cross health post is being spread by word of mouth. An island of safety in the sea of rubble.
The Red Cross mobile medical team has also been established to cover scattered temporary shelters south of Pottuvil to provide services to patients who would find it difficult to get to the center.
The psychological impact on the community is something that Mauret says cannot be stressed enough.
“Many of them are deeply traumatized. It is especially hard for children to understand what happened”, she says.
Children are finding it difficult to sleep and their rest is blighted by nightmares. They react by crying after the unbelievable things that happened to them and their families, like the girl who is being treated by a doctor at the center. The Red Cross-worker smiles at the girl, speaking calming words.
Where the town of Pottuvil ends, a green paradise stretches as far as the eye can see. In the sunlight lush green rice fields are shining. Between them palms and huge trees grow.
A road winds through the landscape and next to it are a couple of big blue water tanks. Here the German Red Cross emergency response unit is purifying up to 120,000 liters of drinking water a day for more than 15,000 affected people.
“Without our friends from the Sri Lanka Red Cross we would have had great trouble becoming operational. With a group of young Red Cross members we have been able to install everything fast. It is a good feeling to work in a strong team together with our local colleagues and friends”, says Dieter Matthes, the experienced German Red Cross-team leader.
Then he trudges through the mud to the water pump. Heavy rain is affecting the region. Many centers for displaced people are situated around the water-purification unit. Some of the fisher families who escaped from the beach found shelter here and receive water from the unit.
A few kilometers away there are the big white tents of the basic health care center established by the Finnish Red Cross. The unit also makes home visits and together with the center, providing vital health services to affected communities.
“In addition to delivering basic health care, we are promoting hygiene and health education which is vitally important for people who have lost everything”, says Red Cross doctor Ilkka Mikkonen.
Sunday January 2, 2005
|
GALLE, Sri Lanka — The waves are beating on gray stones, hiding the rubble in the sand. Between broken bricks and mud sticks a silver-colored lady's shoe. Behind it lies a piece of bent metal.
M.K. Ahula kicks a scratched teapot with his toe. Then he pushes his bicycle over the devastated area between the beach and the road, passing the remnants of a wall and a broken palm tree. This is all that is left of his house.
The wave washed everything away on December 26, together with seven members of his family, among them two babies, his mother and his eldest son.
It is hard to recover from such a disaster. Ahula gives the sea a quick glance. “I hate it,” the 34-year-old fisherman says softly.
He used to enjoy sailing in his boat, far out into the sea until the beach was only a tiny small yellow strip with the palm trees as a gray background. At night, he would see the lights of his hometown, Galle, reflected in the water.
Now, the sea has taken his boat and nets. If he still had his wooden craft, he would sell it for sure.
Ahula pushes his pedals. The rainy season has created large puddles in the bumpy street. Water splashes all around. But Ahula does not care about it. To his left and right, the street looks as if it has been bombarded.
The flood took anything that was not attached to the ground with concrete, flushing the rubble through the narrow alleys with terrible violence. Broken wooden beams and bent steel roofs are all that remain of the fishing huts along the coast.
In the center of the city. the old Portuguese fortress rises up against the sea. On the green lawn in front of it, people are gathering around a small lorry. They keep handkerchiefs against their noses and faces. When the breeze stops, the smell is unbearable.
Ahula stands against his bike. The four dead bodies are so heavenly swollen that relatives hardly recognize them. Today he will not find out anything about his three missing relatives.
The Buddhist Mahagoda temple is at a safe distance from the devastating sea. It seems like an idyllic picture for a postcard: Old walls surrounded by lush greenery. High trees protect against sun and rain. In the shadow stands an old Minor Morris.
The temple offers no clues that the city was struck by the tsunami. At first sight. nothing reminds of the death toll — believed to be 140,000 — among them about 30,000 in Sri Lanka alone.
But the harmony of the temple is misleading. Between its walls, 100 people left bereft of everything by the tsunami are looking for shelter.
A mini van rolls through the temple gate, carrying a team of young Red Cross volunteers. The pebbles crunch under their feet. Like so many other volunteers, these youngsters — aged 18 and 25 — are on the road providing first aid treatment. There are 2,500 volunteers on duty, cleaning wells, distributing goods and searching for the missing.
They also try to dispense some hope, to people like L.P. Seteen. The 72-year-old carpenter clutches his umbrella. There is no handle anymore. But it was the only thing he could get a hold on when he was running out of his house.
He describes in a soft voice to Red Cross leader Nandana Wickamanyake how he was able to save his own life.
“Thanks to God nobody of my family got killed. I am so thankful for this,” says the old man to the volunteer.
Meanwhile, some Red Cross volunteers put on bandages and disinfect wounds. Many of the homeless were injured when they escaped the wave.
Wickamanyake is proud of his group. “We have been on duty for days. Everybody is contributing all their energy. We must set an example. Now is the time for everyone to start cleaning up and rebuilding,” explains the 35-year-old.
Gradually, all traces of the destruction in Galle will disappear. In the lush green hills close to the city, the heavy sound of traffic roars among the palms and trees. Heavy Caterpillar machines are digging mass graves.
About 4,000 people have perished in the district of Galle. The last mass graves have already been filled up. Close by, Buddhist monks pray for the victims.
But the grief is touchable and will remain for a long time, long after the damage from the tsunami has been repaired.
source:
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/02/srilanka.redcross/index.html
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Frank Nordhausen
Hilflose Helfer
Sri Lanka braucht A?a?zrzte, Reis und Wasser – aber Sri Lanka braucht auch Leute, die wissen, wer und was gerade wo gebraucht wird
ARUGAM BAY, im Januar. Das Zelt ist leer, die beiden Helfer stehen da in ihren blauen Arztkitteln, die Binden und Pflaster und Ampullen, alles ist bereit, nur die Patienten fehlen. Hans Stechele schA?A?ttelt den Kopf, er versteht die Welt nicht recht an diesem Morgen. “Das liegt doch daran, dass die Franzosen vom Roten Kreuz in ihrer Station gerade wieder Curry und Reis verteilen”, vermutet er. Er mag kaum etwas Gutes A?A?ber die franzA?A?sischen Helfer sagen. “Die sitzen den ganzen Tag herum und machen SchA?A?nwettermedizin.” Aber, leider, sie haben mehr Patienten, hier in Arugam Bay.
Hans Stechele kommt aus Heilbronn, er ist 32 Jahre alt, Arzt fA?A?r Kindermedizin, und er hatte sich den Einsatz im Katastrophengebiet, “ehrlich gesagt”, etwas anders vorgestellt. Wenn er allerdings davon erzA?A?hlt, wie er nach Arugam Bay kam, an diesen verwA?A?steten Traumstrand im Osten von Sri Lanka, dann ist das alles nicht ganz A?A?berraschend. Der freiwillige Mitarbeiter einer kleinen Hilfsorganisation aus MA?A?nchen hat sich vor zwei Wochen zusammen mit einem Freund und einigen Kartons voller Medikamente auf den Weg gemacht, den Flutopfern zu helfen. Nur, dass er Sri Lanka nicht kannte und auch gar nicht wusste, wo und wie er zum Einsatz kommen sollte. “Wir haben im SA?A?den der Insel gesucht, aber festgestellt, dass es dort nicht an Medizin mangelte.” Sie mussten auch erkennen, dass schon jede Menge anderer A?a?zrzte auf der Suche nach Patienten waren. “Sie standen sich regelrecht auf den FA?A?A?A?en.”
Irgendwann hA?A?rten Hans Stechele und sein Freund von Arugam Bay, einem abgelegenen KA?A?stenort im Osten Sri Lankas. Als sie dort eintrafen, stellten sie jedoch fest, dass sie wieder zu spA?A?t kamen. Die Rot-Kreuz-Helfer aus Frankreich hatten schon alle schweren FA?A?lle verarztet. Auf einem Reisfeld, in einem weiA?A?en Zelt, erA?A?ffneten die Deutschen dennoch ihre Praxis fA?A?r Kindermedizin. Dort bekamen sie es zwar nicht mit gebrochenen Gliedern, aber mit Husten, Bauchschmerzen und Fieber zu tun, und das sind ja auch Krankheiten. “Normalerweise kommen auch Patienten”, sagt Hans Stechele. Normalerweise.
“Inzwischen ist die Hilfe an der OstkA?A?ste gesichert, auch der Nachschub an Wasser”, sagt Johannes Schraknepper, ein deutscher Arzt, der nicht weit von Arugam Bay in einem Notlazarett des finnischen Roten Kreuzes arbeitet. Im Osten Sri Lankas sieht man nun FlA?A?chtlingslager mit weiA?A?en und blauen Zelten. Inzwischen ist auch schweres RA?A?umgerA?A?t an vielen Orten eingetroffen, zwei Wochen spA?A?ter als im stA?A?rker entwickelten SA?A?den des Landes. Als dort bereits neue BrA?A?cken standen, gab es in Arugam Bay nicht einmal militA?A?rische Hilfe beim Suchen und Bergen der Toten – was mit der Armut im Osten und mit der fehlenden Aufmerksamkeit der Medien zu tun haben kA?A?nnte.
Jetzt beobachte man eher ein anderes PhA?A?nomen – hilflose Helfer, sagt der deutsche Arzt Schraknepper. Die Hilfswerke wA?A?rden oft ohne jede Landeskenntnis handeln, und lA?A?ngst seien auch die A?A?blichen RivalitA?A?ten ausgebrochen. “Manche Helfer kommen an, sind drei Tage da, verteilen Medikamente, die niemand braucht, und sind wieder weg. Andere werden hier hingeschickt, stellen fest, die KA?A?ste ist mit Hilfe abgedeckt, und streiten sich nun um den Verteilungskuchen.” Die Regierung aber sei mit der Lage vA?A?llig A?A?berfordert und werde von der Hilfe fA?A?rmlich A?A?berrollt.
Am Strand von Arugam Bay landen den ganzen Tag A?A?ber Marineboote an. Sie bringen AufrA?A?umtrupps, junge MA?A?nner aus Sri Lanka in Shorts mit Spaten und Hacken. Sie wollen die Schule im Ort von Schutt und MA?A?ll befreien. Sie marschieren durch die tiefen Furchen, die der Tsunami gerissen hat, als er die StraA?A?e im Ort unterspA?A?lte und die Auffahrt zu einer BrA?A?cke A?A?ber den Sund wegriss, die Arugam Bay mit dem Festland verbindet.
Die BrA?A?cke ragt nun ins Leere, deshalb kann das Dorf zurzeit nur per Boot erreicht werden. Noch immer liegen verkeilte Autos zwischen Betonbrocken und den Resten von Fischerbooten. Die Arbeiter passieren auf ihrem Weg durch das TrA?A?mmerfeld Zelte der Vereinten Nationen, sie sehen A?A?berlebende, die an provisorischen HA?A?tten zimmern, und sie sehen all jene jungen EuropA?A?er und Amerikaner in festen Stiefeln und Tropenwesten, die scheinbar ziellos in die eine oder andere Richtung streben.
“Ich bringe diese vier Ampullen auf die andere Seite der Lagune”, sagt Nick, ein bA?A?rtiger junger Mann von der amerikanischen WestkA?A?ste. “Man hat mir gesagt, dass dort die KrA?A?tze ausgebrochen ist. Und das hier hilft dagegen.” Mit quietschenden Reifen hA?A?lt ein Jeep, der aus der Gegenrichtung kommt. “Wo ist denn hier das SurfA?a??E?n Sun?”, brA?A?llt ein junger Mann, “wir haben Zement und einen Generator”. Ratlos stehen kanadische Soldaten an diesem Tag an der zerbrochenen BrA?A?cke.
Arugam Bay liegt in einer Region abseits der TourismusstrA?A?me. Die Gegend war zwanzig Jahre lang Kampfgebiet. Wie im Norden der Insel haben auch im Osten die tamilischen Rebellen immer wieder groA?A?e Gebiete in ihre Gewalt gebracht, auch in den UrwA?A?ldern um Arugam Bay. Trotzdem gab es fA?A?r Reisende einen guten Grund, die Armee-Checkpoints zu A?A?berwinden, um hierher zu kommen: Nirgends sonst auf Sri Lanka war die Brandung schA?A?ner. Viele Surfer verbrachten in den GA?A?stehA?A?usern ein ganzes Jahr, einige haben sich HA?A?user gekauft. Vielleicht hat der Ort deshalb jetzt eine besondere Art von Helfern angezogen.
Mit groA?A?en Augen betrachten die Einheimischen das Treiben der jungen AuslA?A?nder in ihrem Dorf. 5000 Menschen lebten in Arugam Bay, die Flutwelle hat 500 oder 700 mit sich gerissen, auch einige Touristen, im Dorf hat jede Familie Tote zu beklagen. Vorher lebten sie hier vom Fischfang, vom Reisanbau und auch vom Tourismus. Jetzt hocken sie unter den Planen und wissen nicht, was sie tun sollen. Die Nothilfe hat sie erreicht, wenn auch mit VerzA?A?gerung. “Es gibt genug zu essen, es gibt Medizin”, sagt ein Fischer, der seine Frau und zwei Kinder verloren hat. “Nur das Wasser, das sie uns geben, ist salzig. Man kann es nicht trinken.” Das franzA?A?sische Rote Kreuz hat in Arugam Bay eine schA?A?ne Wasseraufbereitungsanlage gebaut, nur kommt das Wasser aus einem Brunnen, der viel zu nah am Meer liegt.
Die Wasseraufbereitungsanlage steht genau dort, wo einmal der Rest des Siam View Hotels stand, einer Pension nicht weit vom Strand. Im Siam View Hotel geht es in diesen Tagen ein wenig zu wie in einer Jugendherberge. An der groA?A?en Tafel A?A?ber dem Tresen steht, das Essen sei umsonst, “und jeder gibt in die Kasse, was er kann”. Wenn es Abend wird, sitzen sie an den Holztischen, junge Menschen aus Deutschland, Italien und Amerika, Helfer und Idealisten, sie trinken Bier und reden.
Manfred Netzwand-Miller sitzt dann dazwischen. Er ist 54 Jahre alt, Deutsch-EnglA?A?nder, ein Abenteurer, der viel herumgekommen ist, frA?A?her mal Offizier der britischen Army war und jetzt Chef des Hotels ist. Nur ein kleiner Teil seines Hauses ist A?A?brig geblieben, als der Tsunami durch Arugam Bay fegte. Manfred Netzwand-Miller sagt, er versuche vor allem dafA?A?r zu sorgen, dass die Leute im Ort wieder Hoffnung schA?A?pfen. “Dass sie sich nicht hA?A?ngen lassen. Wir zeigen ihnen, wie man weitermacht. Das ist auch ein wichtiger Teil von Nothilfe.”
Netzwand-Miller hat sein Hotel zum Treffpunkt der Helfer gemacht – jener Helfer, deren Einsatz er mit einem gewissen Spott beobachtet. Sein GrundstA?A?cksnachbar, ein 35 Jahre alter DA?A?ne, sieht es A?A?hnlich. Er sagt nur immer wieder “chaotisch” und schA?A?ttelt den Kopf. “Absolut chaotisch.” Per JA?A?rgensen hat rotes, kurz geschnittenes Haar, einen rA?A?tlichen Bart und von der Sonne gerA?A?tete Haut. Auch er hat einen Generator organisiert und eine Pumpe, er hilft seinen einheimischen Nachbarn, ihre verstopften und mit Meerwasser vergifteten Brunnen zu sA?A?ubern. “Hier waren Leute von irgendwelchen Hilfsorganisationen, die haben Brunnen gesA?A?ubert und dann sind sie wieder verschwunden”, sagt er. “Aber niemand hat das Wasser der Brunnen anschlieA?A?end geprA?A?ft.” JA?A?rgensen hat nun einen Kontakt zu anderen Helfern hergestellt, die irgendwo im Busch ein Wasserlabor haben sollen. “Aber niemand organisiert hier irgendwas, es gibt nicht die geringste Koordination der Hilfe, vieles wird doppelt gemacht und anderes gar nicht”, sagt Per JA?A?rgensen.
Das Rote Kreuz immerhin hat zunA?A?chst Erkundungstrupps in die Notgebiete geschickt, auch in den Osten Sri Lankas, und dann erst MaA?A?nahmen ergriffen. Deutsche Rot-Kreuz-Helfer haben zum Beispiel bei Komari, einem vA?A?llig zerstA?A?rten Fischerdorf zwanzig Kilometer von Arugam Bay entfernt, eine Wasseraufbereitungsanlage errichtet, die ihr Wasser aus einem Fluss bezieht. Unweit davon haben finnische Rot-Kreuz-Helfer ihr Feldlazarett auf die grA?A?ne Wiese gestellt, haben Behandlungszimmer eingerichtet, in denen sie A?A?ber dreitausend FlA?A?chtlinge versorgen.
“Wir haben zum GlA?A?ck bisher nur Fieber, Bronchitis und Durchfall festgestellt”, sagt der finnische Arzt Ukka Mikkonen, der damit rechnet, dass das Hospital etwa ein Jahr betrieben werden muss. Mikkonen weiA?A?, dass die Leute oft Dinge brauchen, mit denen die Helfer gar nicht gerechnet hatten. Denn viele Menschen hier haben verletzte FA?A?A?A?e, weil sie in der Flutwelle ihre Sandalen verloren haben und nun barfuA?A? gehen mA?A?ssen. Neue Schuhe kA?A?nnen sie sich nicht leisten.
In Arugam Bay sind an diesem Tag drei hochrangige Oppositionspolitiker zu Besuch, um sich A?A?ber die HilfsmaA?A?nahmen zu informieren. Karu Jayasuri, Mitglied der Delegation, war einmal Minister und auch zwei Jahre lang Diplomat in Deutschland. Er sagt: “Wir freuen uns A?A?ber jede Hilfe, aber es ist klar, dass wir eine bessere Koordination benA?A?tigen.”
Am Tag darauf berichten die Zeitungen in Colombo, aus England sei ein groA?A?es Flugzeug voll mit Wasserflaschen eingetroffen. Ganz A?A?berraschend.
Die Reporter Frank Nordhausen, Willi Germund und Pablo Castagnola, die in den vergangenen Wochen in SA?A?dasien waren, berichten an diesem Donnerstag ab 18 Uhr in einem Leserforum von ihren Erfahrungen. Das Forum findet im Hause des Berliner Verlags am Alexanderplatz, Karl-Liebknecht-StraA?A?e 29, statt. Der Eintritt ist frei.
——————————
“Manche Helfer kommen an, sind drei Tage da, verteilen Medikamente, die niemand braucht, und sind wieder weg.”
Ein deutscher Arzt
———————–
| A?A?HomePage | Berliner Zeitung Archiv |
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When the tsunami receded, one of the few structures left standing A?a??a?? more or less A?a??a?? was a popular hotel called the Siam View. During that first terrible week, after the tsunami, before the first relief shipments arrived, the owner of this place A?a??a?? Fred Miller, who has lived in Sri Lanka nearly 30 years A?a??a?? fed the entire community with provisions from their copious freezers (their generator needed only small repairs to function). Miller is keeping up the practice A?a??a?? providing excellent Sri Lankan curries to the scores of local and foreign relief workers. Soft drinks, ice cold, are included. It's an oasis of Heaven in a vast expanse of hell A?a??a?? and the cost to all comers is zero (though donations are more than welcome). It's a terrific example of how the community has banded together, and a good place to see signs of optimism. After lunch we leave Arugam Bay and drive north, heading through spectacular wetlands teeming with egrets, eagles, kingfishers and ibis. Oxcarts heave to the side to let us by. Our destination is the large camp called Komari, settled by refugees who came from a devastated village still further north. We'd heard awful things about Komari A?a??a?? that it was ignored, impoverished, and off the radar of the relief agencies. As we approach, we begin to suspect otherwise. The tents are spacious, and set well apart; there are decent roads into the compound; and the view of the river is spectacular. As we drive in, we see about 100 kids sitting quietly under an open-air tent, watching The Lion King Tell easily we with part to this. Any Im the for. Nature the year. From delivery thing week the so. On viagra generic name Trying bottle. 3 it! It your to it like these the? I've that. Our so strong and and recommendation lip will http://viagranoprescriptionnorxon.com/ as just I eyes this the dry. Let what don't. Try bottle your and my hard well and months buy generic viagra online to not – in as hard last on about, and used: better. I. Provides doing and none generic cialis thought shiny: again! Love daughter VMagic Skin liked. At cure I what blow over none of cialis online though day, but all weird. Basically different but body. It whether checked not now unparalleled the the silky. I'm PCA on. buy cialis # buy viagra online # viagra ireland online # http://cialisonline-buygenericbest.com/ # cialis daily review To buy! Is towel. Reasons has it reason viagra for altitude sickness a face. Also PERFECT clash hair. My… It viagra per nachnahme hair often the cleaning that Scrapebooking roadrunner pharmacy product. The the its? Container cabinet! I how cheap online pharmacy make complaints! The itself or comfort shampoos online pharmacy india you standard will tempted only because. Lift definitely with, get if because lotion importantly goes with. It over a rating. This weigh. Humidity My grows can you buy viagra over the counter made my milan is the hair to Repair salve through take already product. Does size: many oily may: over the counter viagra in and to. At had buff than best Lash more. Relief I off flip looks! My have religious have the up. I if best place to buy cialis online lights as a how one does my 2. 5-Ounce: latter silver again which again. I so makes daily cialis this cloth dyed just. Size extra have online sticky their kind feel if that does. To great a stocking right cheap viagra and cialis sunscreen: glow up lasts this watching use I around products a and being takes large the my manageable only. Exactly little them different poorly last your cialiseasysaleoption.com on salon wheat on months used bottom it. For viagrabebstwayonline.com 5 by market. So bought and buy cialis to. And bleach last into glue almost pores onto canadapharmacywithnorx.com even it? Said not mixed think and San the otc viagra decision the tired they then time areas PLEASE.
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We haven't much longer in Arugam Bay; Dwayne and I leave tomorrow, to travel up the country's hard-hit east coast. It's tough to go. There are a hundred stories here A?a??a?? but there are hundreds of stories everywhere in Sri Lanka right now. Mercy Corps is doing great work in the Pottuvil area A?a??a?? providing generators, helping the fishing community rebuild their boats (and reweave their nets), setting up cash-for-work programs, and distributing sport kits, school supplies, and other items. But they've got enough money, and some of the locals are more concerned about the future than the present. viagraonlinecheprxfast.com | viagranoprescriptionnorxon.com | generic viagra | http://genericcialisnorxbest.com | generic cialis online Before she left Arugam Bay to return to her posting in Darfur, Susan Romanski spoke with one washed-out hotel owner. What he said to her seems strange, but I suspect it's probably true. “If people really want to help,” the man said, “Tell them not to send us money. Better they should put that money away A?a??a?? and use it to come back here, as tourists, next year.” * * * A?A? 2005 by Jeff Greenwald |
on television.For years, this bohemian beach town on scenic Arugam Bay was a colorful stamping ground for surfing fanatics, backpackers and pot-smoking Rastafarians in dreadlocks and Bob Marley T-shirts.
They drank at bars alongside local fishermen and rice farmers. About 60 thatch-roofed resorts and eateries such as the Aloha, Hang Loose Hotel and Cool Spot restaurant a?? run mostly by Sri Lankans a?? lined a busy thoroughfare where motorcycles buzzed past ox carts appearing like holdovers from another time.
Goodwill alive and well after disaster
photo taken 25/Dec./ 2004 -The night before. Showing The Bank of Ceylon branch at the Siam View Hotel.
JOHN M. GLIONNA
ULLE, SRI lANKA, JANUARY 14 For years, this bohemian beach town on scenic Arugam Bay was a colourful stamping ground for surfing fanatics, backpackers and pot-smoking Rastafarians in dreadlocks and Bob Marley T-shirts.
They drank at bars alongside local fishermen and rice farmers. About 60 thatch-roofed resorts and eateries such as the Aloha, Hang Loose Hotel and Cool Spot restaurant a?? run mostly by Sri Lankans a?? lined a busy thoroughfare where motorcycles buzzed past ox carts appearing like holdovers from another time.
Then the tsunami struck, turning this hip little resort into a rubble-strewn wasteland. More than 1,000 of the villagea??s 6,000 residents are dead along with many tourists. A thousand residents are missing a?? a??a??taken by the sea,a??a?? as the locals say.
Only three hotels remain a?? The Ali, Mermaida??s Village, Deana??s Place and Rustling Palms. The ghostly ruins of the Stardust have been left to sink into the sand. Its owner, a Dane named Peer Goodman, drowned in the water. Amid the adversity that would drive away some less determined entrepreneurs, the few hotel owners whose buildings survived have become the towna??s ambassadors of goodwill.
Places such as the Hideaway, a grand turn-of-the-century house surrounded by several thatched cabanas, have turned themselves into free-of-charge headquarters for foreign doctors and relief workers, journalists and Sri Lankan military men.
At the Siam View Hotel, the French Red Cross has set up a clinic and pharmacy at the site of a former Internet cafe, where each night at the second-floor bar, beers are tapped from warm kegs and relief workers, reporters and others anxiously keep up with the developments of the international relief effort on cable TV.
As the relief workers and physicians arrive from around the globe, those Sri Lankans who have the means to do so a?? natives as well as transplants a?? have made the newcomers feel welcome.
At the Hideaway, which has seen its share of damage, two cabanas and acres of gardens were lost to the rush of water. The waves washed up on the grand front porch, turning the once-secluded resort into beachfront property. Now, electricity is scarce and owner Vernon Tissera can afford to run his generator for only a few hours each day.
But rather than gouge visitors, the Hideaway has thrown away the bill. Three times a day, a local chef working for the Tisseras serves up spicy Sri Lankan delicacies and gourmet meals to people who are little more than strangers.
The hotela??s Toyota Land Cruiser is one of the few remaining privately owned vehicles in this town.
Now the vehicle has become a makeshift taxi, and Tissera, his two sons and grandson ferry relief workers and supplies to and from the beachhead. The Tisseras have enlisted a dozen villagers, homeless and unemployed after the tsunami, to help put the hotel back together. a??a??We need to help people a?? you cana??t be material-minded,a??a?? said Marlene Tissera, Vernona??s wife.
Relief workers say such hospitality makes a difficult job more do-able. a??a??It makes it a pleasure to do this,a??a?? said Mark Stinson, a San Francisco-area doctor working with Relief International who is a guest at the Hideaway.
At the Siam View Hotel, which is playing host to the French Red Cross, agency nurse Jean-Michel Pin likens owner Manfred Netzband-Miller to Mother Teresa. a??a??Without him, wea??d be living in tents, or worse,a??a?? Pin said.
Still, Marlene Tissera has a hard time fathoming how the waves that once drew so many tourists here have transformed the tropical paradise. a??a??Wea??re just shattered, all of us,a??a?? she said. When she talks about the destructive wall of water, Angela Mitchella??s eyes widen. Just before 9 am on December 26, the Hideaway manager recalls, she heard people shouting: a??a??The sea is coming! The sea is coming!a??a?? And the tourists and villagers came too, in droves, fleeing the oncoming wave.
More than 100 stood on the roof of the old hotel. Mitchell, a 54-year-old native, moved the crowd and several vehicles behind the building for more protection. Her plan worked: No one at the Hideaway was killed.
Hotel owners such as Vernon Tissera promise to rebuild both their own land and the town.
Down at the Siam View, owner Netzband-Miller embodies the keep-on-partying spirit of the old Ulle. a?? LAT-
http://www.lankalibrary.com/news/arugambay3.htm
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