UK: tsunami aid not used to uproot people

By David Cronin

Date: 22/12/05

The UK presidency of the EU has contested claims that aid for countries affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami could be used to forcibly displace local communities.

The charity ActionAid yesterday (20 December) alleged that some EU funding was going to projects that could undermine the livelihoods of poor people.

But Gareth Thomas, the UK's international development minister, said he had visited Sri Lanka and was aware of allegations that hotel and tourist schemes funded by Western aid money could uproot locals from their land. "My understanding is that these concerns are being addressed and that it hasn't panned out in the way a number of people had feared," he told European Voice.

Thomas was in Brussels this week to take stock of the EU's contribution to relief and reconstruction efforts as the first anniversary of the 26 December tsunami approached.

He said that it was "absolutely crucial" that the Union's member states contribute to the UN's Central Emergency Revolving Fund (CERF), which is to begin operations in March. So far only six of the 25 member states have pledged money to this fund, which is designed to ensure that finance will be constantly available for responding to humanitarian crises. The six are Belgium, Britain, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden.

ActionAid spokesman Pushpendra Kumar Singh said that EU institutions and governments needed to insist that any relocation that occured in the countries affected was undertaken voluntarily. The Maldives, he added, was seeking to use Western aid to finance a relocation programme called Safe Islands. While the archipelago's government has described the scheme as voluntary, its assurances have been treated with circumspection by some relief agencies.

The total aid from the European Commission and EU governments for tsunami-hit areas is around EUR 2 billion.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the commissioner for external relations, said that the EU had delivered on its promises but that victims were often still living in "dire conditions". Establishing the precise property rights of those whose houses had been destroyed had been fraught in many cases. "The reconstruction should not only be speedier, it should also be wise," she added.

Review of the EU's contribution to relief and reconstruction efforts at the first anniversary of the 26 December 2006 tsunami disaster.