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As tsunami survivors on the outlying islands go hungry there are reports of aid being appropriated by local officials. With Indian and international aid agencies denied the right to distribute aid, angry tribals say local voluntary agencies are in the best position to assess their needs
Aid agencies involved in tsunami relief efforts in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have alleged that local authorities are "hijacking" aid supplies, using the Indian government's official line that relief material would be distributed only by the local authorities. Red Cross officials say its relief material, seized on the islands, was found to be with government workers.
The islands' administration has stopped local voluntary groups -- who are most familiar with the needs of the islands' indigenous people -- from conducting relief work in the worst affected Nicobar region.
Basudev Dass of the Indian Red Cross Society said IRCS supplies shipped to the islands' capital, Port Blair, were seized at the docks on January 13, apparently for distribution by the government. "They hijacked our relief material. They robbed it. They want to take all the relief material and distribute it. We are very clear that we will go and distribute it to the real beneficiaries," he says.
Relief material has still not reached people on the most remote islands, and, as they become more desperate, they turn their ire on the Indian government and military for not doing enough to help them.
There have been continued complaints from the more remote areas of shortages of relief material, and reports of hungry people looting supply trucks from at least four areas within the last one week.
Non-governmental organisations, both Indian and international, have demanded access to the worst hit islands. But the Indian government is yet to allow them to operate beyond the capital, Port Blair, citing security reasons.
The Indian branch of Rotary International says its offer to build 1,500 homes for the displaced islanders was rebuffed. Ram Kapse, administrative chief of the islands, said the government would welcome the offer of building material from aid agencies but would undertake the construction work itself.
Dass said the Andamans authorities had informed them that all non-governmental agencies -- Indian and international -- would be barred from working on the islands. The authorities have insisted that relief supplies from aid agencies be distributed only through it. So far, only the United Nations children's agency, Unicef, has been given permission to operate outside the capital Port Blair.
The Indian authorities and the military have so far been managing the entire rescue and relief effort on the islands. Visitors are banned from much of the Andamans as the islands are of great military importance to the Indian government. In addition, the government has sought to restrict outside access to a number of endangered aboriginal tribes on the islands.
Tribal organisations on the islands have severely criticised the local administration, accusing it of refusing to carry relief material from local voluntary groups to remote islands that were devastated by the tsunami. The Tribal Council in the Nancowrie group of islands, the area in the Nicobar chain worst affected by the tsunami, has accused the local administration of being insensitive to local relief requirements.
In a statement on January 17, the council stated that the administration had stopped local voluntary groups from carrying out relief work in the Nicobar area. Chairperson of the council, Ayesha Majid, said this was most unfortunate as local groups were aware of the needs of the Nicobarese people, which is not the case with federal officials working on the islands.
The local administration maintains that it has supplied enough relief to all communities affected by the tsunami, so there was little need for assistance from voluntary groups. A government spokesman also claimed that foreign voluntary organisations were using local groups to get across huge quantities of relief material, and asking the administration to transport it to the islands. The spokesman said the government would give priority to shipping its own supplies around the islands.
Local correspondents allege that the Andaman-Nicobar administration is determined to prevent foreign voluntary groups from joining in the relief effort, even if it is by proxy. They say the local administration is trying to stop local voluntary groups from receiving foreign support. Earlier, the administration had said that while overseas groups would not be allowed to join in the relief effort, any material they could provide would be welcome.
Source: www.bbcnews.com, January 14, 2005
www.bbcnews.com, January 17, 2005
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