The First Week In Thailand
The key issue now is to ensure the communities affected are involved in the decsion-making on their lives. The hidden issue is LAND as most fisher folk are vunerable to having their LAND taken away.
HERE

A photo report from Baan Namkem of the The 1st Week
How the camp Baan Muang was established
3 parts Diary of Baan Namkem - HERE

The Second Week
- the immediate issue is Relief & Rehabilitation - the HIDDEN issue - yet to be acknowledged by conventional sources is PEOPLE a PLACE TO LIVE - LAND more HERE

JAN 18
The People's Camp - Bang Muang Thailand HERE

JAN 26
First Tsunami Regional Meeting Recommendations
We brought together small teams from Indonesia, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand to discuss the current situation and future strategies for a people centred rehabilitation. We have posted 2 reports coming form the meeting. Both are under review from participants.
1. Recommendations on People Centred Rehabilitation
2. A Report on the Meeting from Peter Swan

FEB 15        THAILAND
Community Issues Gaining Ground / Land
Here are a few developments and news about what's been happening in February in Thailand

BY THE BEGINNING OF MARCH
Governments and People
What we are seeing in Week 4 is that governments are saying very clearly,
" No!   We don't need any people's process now.   The government is going to give housing to people, and we just need you to get the people to go into these government housing projects."   - they will not accommodate any of the life-style requirements.
But people themselves are developing alternatives plans that will keep their communities and livelihoods in tact.      .... ACHR      More   HERE   THAILAND way down this page  

ACHR - after the first week

"It is very important that poor people, the victims themselves start speaking on their own behalf  - about what they want, as a group.  Otherwise, in cases like this, the victims will be just objects of assistance from others outside, and this will increase their powerlessness. They will forever be dependent on other's decisions on what to do, how to live, where to go. 

The key issues now are not relief   -  
we can get carried away with this and it becomes an end in itself -
No. 
The issues is on how we can relate the relief attempt with longer term settlement issues.  How to rebuild their future, their community, their lives, ... this is the real challenge and the real name of the game. 

The situation in Thailand ( and I think - many Asian counties) is that most fisher-folk villages stay on land that has unclear title,   - sometimes semi-public land.  Most communities were very insecure and many were under threat of eviction most of the time.  In the case of Thailand I would say about 90% are under this category.  I would think it may be the same in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Burma.

Recommendations for a People Centred Rehabilaitation HERE

 

Aceh - The First 2 Months

A letter from the field Feb 15
The "war" between people's wishes and government plans for survivors

Week 5
Fisher Folk Vs Government
Villagers Forced from Camps
Aceh and the Land Mafia
Aceh as an Investment Field

Week 4
Miltary Violence in Camps
Local groups plan to go back

Week 3
The situation in Indonesia
Plans of Action for the futrue
Notes on ACHR visit to Aceh
Why the new Camps are not the best option
Indian Collaboration Plans

Week 2
Earlier News from Indonesia

Indonesia Extras - The early days

The Camps - Why the camps are not the solution.
Let Them Return Home:
Displaced Acehnese Now Face Fears of Dispossession Daniel Fitzpatrick
Speaking of OIL .....

March to August in Sri Lanka Here

Sri Lanka The Early Weeks HERE

Sri Lanka Policy Issues and Concerns Download or Read on this site

Tsunami Regional Meeting in Phuket
19-20 Jan 2005 -ACHR

Problems Emerging in Tsunami-affected areas of Asia

•  In many cases, the enormous outpouring of relief assistance is not reaching the people on the ground properly, is not meeting their real needs, or is not helping their battered communities to get back on their feet again.

•  Tsunami survivors are not being involved in the relief and rehabilitation processes.

•  Where the tsunami-affected areas are under forms of military control (as in Indonesia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka) the immediate and long term needs of affected people are not being effectively met because of larger political agendas.

•  In more economically advanced countries like Thailand, where powerful business interests have enormous influence on political agendas and there is no mechanism through which the poor can have a say, the process of rehabilitation is being made more difficult.

•  In much of the post-disaster planning that is already underway and in the new environmental regulations that are being invoked, the traditional rights and current needs of indigenous people and fishing communities are not being seen as a primary consideration.  

•  For environmental, military or commercial reasons, many coastal fishing communities affected by the tsunami are now in danger of being evicted from the land they have occupied for decades - or centuries - and of losing their traditional livelihoods).

•  The tsunami disaster has exposed many pre-existing social and political problems such as the extremely poor and vulnerable groups of minority communities and migrant workers.

 

Diary of Baan Namkem -
The 1st Week in 3 parts HERE

"Finally the group said we shall just occupy the land ... that's the easiest way ... to come and occupy it ... and do what we have to do ... so they did. "

The camp - a place to Re-group .. Reflect and Plan - together

"It's a very important center   - psychologically - since people are together again - and strategically, it is a place for future planning - a place for people to rebuild their lives together. 

And so it goes .......
- from a visit Jan 2 & 3 2005