WOMEN FACE SEX ABUSE IN TSUNAMI CAMPS

March 26, 2005 (Reuters) - Women in Indonesia's devastated Aceh province who lost their homes in the December 26 earthquake and tsunami face sexual attacks in relief camps, Oxfam says, warning of long-term social dislocation.

The December 26 earthquake sent walls of water smashing into Aceh. More than 220,000 were killed or are still missing and, three months after the disaster, half a million are homeless.

In some villages the earthquake and tsunami killed up to four times as many women as men, Oxfam, an international aid group, said on Saturday after a survey of villages. It said findings were similar in India and Sri Lanka.

"In some villages it now appears that up to 80 percent of those killed were women. This disproportionate impact will lead to problems for years to come," Becky Buell, Oxfam's policy director, said in a report calling for more efforts to protect women.

"We are already hearing about rapes, harassment and forced early marriages." Saturday marked three months since the disaster, which killed an estimated 182,000 people around the Indian Ocean with a further 106,000 reported missing. Aid pledges from around the world have topped $5 billion (2.7 billion pounds).

On Saturday, Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla presented to Acehnese leaders a draft 40 trillion rupiah (2.2 billion pound) reconstruction plan over the next five years, designed to get the province back on its feet.

Indonesia has set March 26 as the end of its relief phase, saying a master plan was now needed to guide the massive reconstruction work and work by aid agencies in Aceh, at the northern tip of Sumatra, needed to be coordinated.

NO MEN TO PROTECT THEM

Women's activists in Aceh said most camps for tsunami survivors did not have facilities segregated by sex, and men and women from different families often sleep under the same tent.

"Many female survivors who lost their male relatives also sleep in these tents and they do not have protection. Rapes then happen and after that the women are put into some sort of exile so that people won't talk," said Wanti Maulidar, head of Women's Solidarity of Aceh.

"When we asked the community elders, they said the men and women performed sexual acts on the basis of mutual consent."

Oxfam said the gender imbalance needed to be factored into reconstruction -- as women feared they would face more work to look after extended family and pressure to have more children.

Other tsunami-hit nations such as Sri Lanka faced the same issues but Oxfam said there were variations, such as the absence of alcohol abuse from staunchly Muslim Aceh.

In southern Sri Lanka on Saturday, Buddhist monks in saffron robes marked three months since the tragedy by laying out 2,500 oil lamps in the coastal village of Peraliya, where the tsunami slammed into a train.

Around 20 monks will chant ancient mantras all through the night in preparation for a bigger alms giving ceremony on Sunday.

More than 1,000 people on board the train and hundreds more who lived nearby were killed.

RECONSTRUCTION PLANS

Indonesia plans a new agency to coordinate the reconstruction of Aceh, which some say could go to $5 billion or more with more than 100,000 homes needed.

At a meeting with Acehnese leaders, Planning Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati promised to allow people to return to their former land -- putting aside a controversial plan for a 2 km (1.2 miles) buffer zone between houses and the ocean.

The buffer zone idea had upset survivors who feared they would have to battle to prove ownership and gain compensation for their former homes.

Indrawati said compensation was on offer but people who insisted on returning to their old land could do so.

"There will be no coercion on the people to move. But if their area is really dangerous, it is required for the area to have an escape plan, an escape route," she said.

The draft plan is to be reviewed by Acehnese officials, academics and clergy before going to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for him to sign.

Indonesia officials said, contrary to some suggestions, foreign aid agencies would not be barred from the reconstruction work but the government would study the resources and capabilities of the groups for a further month.

"We don't want duplication ... There is no such thing like we will be denying entry for any NGO. But we will decide whether they should merge or stay under their own umbrella," said Chief social welfare minister Alwi Shihab, who is in charge of post-tsunami relief and reconstruction.

On Thursday, the U.N.'s refugee agency, the UNHCR, left Aceh after Jakarta commented that its scope of work, which includes giving asylum, was not suited in a province where government troops and separatist rebels have fought for decades.

From: http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5631182