Audio News

[Reza1969]

US Lawmakers Hail Zarqawi Death

By Dan Robinson
Capitol Hill
08 June 2006

Members of Congress are welcoming the death in a U.S. air strike in Iraq of terrorist Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, calling the event a new opportunity for progress in Iraq.

Lawmakers reacting to the death of Zarqawi praised U.S. military forces, and expressed hope the development could give Iraq's new government and its people a new chance for peace.

In the House of Representatives, speaker after speaker took to the floor describing Zarqawi as a bloodthirsty terrorist responsible for the brutal deaths of Iraqis and foreigners.

"I commend U.S. and Iraqi forces for this extraordinary accomplishment," said Mike Pence, a Republican from Indiana. "The leading enemy of freedom in Iraq is dead. Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi is gone, let freedom reign in Iraq."

House Majority Leader John Boehner spoke to reporters.

"The elimination of the terrorist Zarqawi represents another important milestone achieved for the Iraqi people and the global war on terror. It is an important tangible success, and Americans today, I think, are safer as a result," he said.

Other reaction came from House Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi, who praised U.S. forces for finding Zarqawi as well as the filling of two important posts in the Iraqi government.

"I salute the efforts of the American troops who worked tirelessly to track down the terrorist Zarqawi," she said. "His death and the naming of the Iraqi defense and interior ministers, should hasten the day when Iraqis take responsibility for their security and American troops can come home."

While there was widespread praise in Congress for U.S. military forces and the intelligence efforts that went into the air strike that killed Zarqawi, some lawmakers used the development to renew calls for a plan to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq.

"We need to declare victory with the Zarqawi killing and this is a time too [to] also declare that the Iraqi government has completed the formation of its cabinet and we can start withdrawing our troops," said Diane Watson, a California Democrat.

Asked if it was premature to suggest that the elimination of Zarqawi could help speed the departure of U.S. forces, House Democratic leader Pelosi said it should be viewed in conjunction with the appointment of Iraqi defense and interior ministers.

That was echoed by Senate Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist. He said both developments are major steps forward, adding that while major challenges remain he is more optimistic than ever that a free and stable Iraq can be achieved.

There was also this reaction from Senator John Cornyn.

"Our intelligence and military forces have demonstrated their exceptional abilities and reminded us yet again that through patience and resolve we will continue to win the war on terror and advance the cause of freedom around the globe," he said.

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Pete Hoekstra, said that while the killing of Zarqawi is a significant step forward in the fight against radical Islam and its campaign of terror, the job is far from complete.

Source : VOA News

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[Reza1969]

Islamic Group Controlling Somali Capital Faces Authority Challenges

By Alisha Ryu
Nairobi
08 June 2006

After months of fighting against an alliance of secular Somali factional leaders to seize Mogadishu, an organization called the Union of Islamic courts says it is now in control of the capital. The union is already facing major challenges to its authority, and Somalis are once again bracing for a new round of fighting.

It has been three days since the Islamic courts' militia pushed a self-styled, anti-terror coalition of factional leaders out of the city and declared victory.

But the African program director of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, Suleiman Baldo, tells VOA that it would be premature to assume that the Union of Islamic courts is now fully in control.

"Now, it is the test of governing Mogadishu, the test of surviving clan politics," he said. "This is the reality of the place, and they have to show an ability to navigate the complexities. I think the issues of administration of Mogadishu and clan politics overlap, because to have a stable administration that is acceptable to all, they need to associate with all of the major clans and influential players in Mogadishu, and not to impose an administration of their own exclusively."

The clan based Union of Islamic courts was established more than a decade ago to try to restore law and order in a country torn apart by warlords and factionalism.

But experts on Somalia say the Islamic group's efforts to promote a conservative religious agenda at the expense of clan allegiance have bred resentment among some clan elders. Now, there are signs that the Union of Islamic courts is on a collision course with at least one of the country's powerful sub-clans.

On Tuesday, the influential Abgal sub-clan in northern Mogadishu held a large demonstration, vowing never to accept the authority of the Islamic courts.

Abgal leaders have appealed for clan unity in fighting the Islamic courts, and to defend the town of Jowhar, 90 kilometers north of the capital, where the defeated Mogadishu-based factional leaders are now said to be regrouping to launch a counter-attack.
Jowhar is a stronghold of Mohammed Dheere, one of the leaders of the 11-member, anti-terrorism alliance and an Abgal sub-clan member.

Meanwhile, a top Islamic courts official, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, has announced that he is stepping down as chairman. The cleric is an Abgal, prompting some in Mogadishu to speculate that pressure from clan elders may have played a role in Ahmed's decision to resign.

Ahmed was seen as a relative moderate in the courts' leadership, which includes Sheikh Hassen Dahir Aweys, a hard-line radical cleric accused of having ties to al-Qaida.

Suleiman Baldo at the International Crisis Group says he believes, if Aweys is chosen to replace Ahmed as expected, there is little chance that peace talks will ever be held with factional leaders, or with Somalia's transitional government in Baidoa.

The president of the transitional government, Abdullahi Yusuf, once spearheaded a successful campaign in the northern region of Puntland against al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, a radical Somali Islamist group headed by Aweys.

Source : VOA News

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[Reza1969]

Afghan, NATO Officials Confident of Alliance's Expanded Role

By Al Pessin
Brussels
08 June 2006

Afghanistan's defense minister and the chief of NATO expressed confidence that alliance forces will be effective at taking responsibility for security in most of the country, in spite of the recent increase in attacks by insurgents and criminals. The two men spoke at a NATO defense ministers meeting, the first such gathering to be attended by an Afghan defense minister.

Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak says he is confident the NATO forces are up to the job of fighting Taleban and al-Qaida insurgents, drug traffickers and other criminals.

"We are fully confident that NATO is quite capable to expand to stage three, and later on to stage four," he said.

Stage Three is the NATO expansion into southern Afghanistan, scheduled for the coming months, and Stage Four is NATO's expansion into eastern Afghanistan, expected by the end of the year. At that time, NATO will have responsibility for security in all of the country, except the capital, with U.S. troops leading the active hunt for insurgents.

The move has raised concern among some Afghans that there will be less security than the U.S.-led coalition has provided. Standing with the Afghan defense minister, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de hoop Scheffer said that is a misperception.

"Let no one doubt NATO's resolve nor doubt our capability to carry out this mission, because that is exactly what we will do," he said.

But Scheffer also acknowledged that the expanded Afghanistan mission will be a challenge for NATO's multi-national command and the many governments that must support the effort.

"Yes, we will be tested, but we will react robustly, as has already been done by British forces, Canadian forces, Dutch forces. And nobody should be under any illusion that NATO will be chased away from that region. We will not be," he said.

Minister Wardak said he believes his forces, along with coalition and NATO troops, will get control of the situation in the south within a couple of months.

"We will have maybe one or two months [in] which there will be a little bit of crisis. But with the measures already taken, I think that in a short period I think we will see a drastic change in the security situation in the south," he said.

Minister Wardak said he does not believe the recent spike in violence is a resurgence by the Taleban. Rather, he said the group is trying to take advantage of the transition to a greater NATO role, and trying to convince Europeans to oppose the deployment of their troops in Afghanistan. Both he and the NATO leader predicted that the insurgent effort will fail.

Source : VOA News

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[Reza1969]

AU Struggles to Seal Peace Deal in Darfur

By Noel King
Debbis, Darfur, Sudan
08 June 2006

The task of urging holdout rebels to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement has fallen to the African Union, which brokered the deal in Abuja, Nigeria. It is a difficult job, and across the region, AU peacekeepers are working relentlessly to entice the rebels into accepting the Darfur deal.

Colonel Richard Lourens and his team of a dozen African Union troops and observers are flying deep into rebel-held territory.

This is not a combat mission. Instead, it is an attempt to coax holdout Darfuri rebels into accepting a peace agreement that they do not want.

Rebels from a holdout faction of the Sudan Liberation Army have agreed to meet Lourens outside of the tiny village of Debbus.

But the meeting begins poorly as the heavily armed rebels say they have decided that they don't want to speak to Lourens.

The colonel is clearly frustrated.

"I want them to understand that I am here to assist and I am here to help," he said. "And they must understand that there is a peace process going on. And I want to come and help them, but they must help me to help them."

These rebels are aligned with Abdel Wahid Moahmed Nur, a commander with the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) who says the May 5 Darfur Peace Agreement does not offer Darfuris enough.

Nur wants more compensation money for victims of this brutal war and a Darfuri vice president.

Since the signing of the accord, violence has intensified between supporters of Nur and Minni Minnawi, the SLA commander who did sign the agreement.

The rebels in this region call Minni Minnawi a traitor for accepting the peace deal.

Rebel Commander Ibrahim Abdallah is one of the first to air his concerns.

"This is not peace," he said. "Minni has no ground here, no civilians, no forces, nobody in Darfur. Minni has nothing in Darfur. What he signed is a peace agreement between him and the government. This is not for the Darfuri people. I am standing in front of you to tell the international community that they must know: our rights first and then peace later."

The Sudan Liberation Army split in November, with many rebels allying themselves with Minnawi. But Nur has retained immense popular support on the ground and these people think of him as a hero for refusing to accept the peace agreement.

The rebels tell Lourens they believe the African Union is conspiring with the Sudan government. They demand international intervention in Darfur.

Sudan is under intense pressure to allow a United Nations peacekeeping force to take over from the African Union, which has struggled with funding problems and a weak mandate.

But the nation has taken a hard-line position, comparing international intervention in Sudan to that in Iraq and Vietnam.

After deliberations, the rebels agree to lead Lourens to their village so that his team can inspect the humanitarian situation there.

A few hundred women and children have stayed in Debbus despite raids by militias known as janjaweed. The rebels are protecting them from the janjaweed.

It is clear that the people here will not accept the peace deal until the rebels do.

Kultuma Mohamed has lost four sons to the war, and says she will stay in Debbus despite the dangers.

"I won't go to the camps. I will stay here and die with my sons, the rebels," she said.

It is a difficult afternoon for Lourens, but he remains upbeat.

He hands out African Union caps to the men who inspect them before tugging them on. He gives candy to the children and cold drinks to the women.

By the end of the afternoon Lourens is optimistic and says he is certain the people here have come to understand that the African Union is here to help.

The rebels are not so sure. Ibrahim Abdallah told VOA, "We don't trust him yet."

Source : VOA News

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[Reza1969]

Bush Hosts Chilean President at White House

By Scott Stearns
Washington
08 June 2006

President Bush and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet say they are working together to improve social conditions in South America. It was their first meeting since her January election.

President Bush welcomed the new Chilean leader to the Oval Office, hoping to build on warm relations with the previous Socialist government in Santiago.

While U.S. relations with other Latin American leftists, including Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Evo Morales, are often strained, President Bush has found a commercial and political ally in Chile - an ally he hopes to keep in President Bachelet.

"I appreciate very much your dedication to values that are important: human rights and human decency, the right for people to be able to speak freely and to vote," said Mr. Bush.

President Bush told President Bachelet that America shares that same sense of social justice and focus on education. He says it is very important for the United States to remain engaged in South America and continue good relations with Chile.

President Bachelet, a former political prisoner and defense minister, says it is her intention to continue that relationship.

"We have political, commercial relationships. We really are happy about how our relations have developed, and we have talked and shared opinions about how we can build a region in peace, about how we can fight together against poverty, for social justice, how we can help strengthen democracy in the region, and how we can look after issues [such] as energy innovation, education, health and so on," added Ms. Bachelet.

A 2004 free trade agreement between the countries has boosted commercial ties as the Bush administration has heralded capitalism in Santiago as a model for the region.

On a visit to the capital in November of 2004, President Bush also praised Chile's privatized pension system as a model for how he would like to change America's federal retirement program.

There are differences, chiefly Chile's support for an International Criminal Court that President Bush opposes. There is also Venezuela's campaign to fill the Latin America/Caribbean seat on the U.N. Security Council, a post that Washington would rather see filled by Guatemala.

President Bush and President Bachelet had lunch at the White House following their talks. Ms. Bachelet also visited a school outside Washington, which she attended in the early 1960s, when her father was the military attaché at the Chilean Embassy.

Source : VOA News

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[Reza1969]

Thailand Marks King's Diamond Jubilee with Spectacular River Procession

By Scott Bobb
Bangkok
08 June 2006

Thailand is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the coronation of its revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest reigning monarch. Dozens of royal leaders from around the world are attending the celebrations, which include religious ceremonies, royal exhibits and lavish tributes to the Thai monarch. The most spectacular of these is a procession Monday night of 52 royal barges down Bangkok's Chao Praya River before the king and his guests. Correspondent Scott Bobb has this report from the Thai capital on the months of preparations that go into the rare performance.

It is midday at the Thai Royal Navy boatyard on Bangkok's Chao Praya River and Captain Kamphol Rahong is barking instructions as his men prepare for the royal barge procession.

The 700-year-old ceremony displays the traditional way in which Thai kings travel for important events such as coronations and major religious ceremonies.

During the procession, four royal barges, each the length of several city buses and about two meters wide, glide down the river escorted by 48 other barges in a formation of five columns.

Kamphol captains the king's barge, which is the considered the most beautiful. It is called Suphannahongse after a swan-like steed from Thai mythology. Hewn from a single giant tree nearly 100 years ago, it is carved to look like a swan and is ornately decorated in gold and red.

It is powered by 50 oarsmen, and carries two steersmen, nine standard bearers and two officers.

The oarsmen of the four royal barges use a special stroke. They raise their oars high in the air, emulating a swan spreading its wings, before they dip them into the water.

There have been only 14 royal barge processions since King Bhumibol Adulyadej was crowned 60 years ago. The occasion this time is to mark the anniversary of his coronation. The king, the world's longest reigning monarch, is revered by the Thais, because of his many good deeds and his discreet intervention during several political crises.

Kamphol, who trains the 2,000 oarsmen in the procession, says the crews have been practicing for more than seven months.

"First, we practiced on land for 40 working days and then we practiced on the water for 49 days. We held minor rehearsals for two days and four nights, and finally three dress rehearsals," he said.

Two steersmen guide each barge. Standing at the stern, they use long oars to keep the boats in position in one of five columns in the middle of the river.

Chief Petty Officer Viroj Photites is the senior steersman on the king's barge. He says the greatest danger comes from the wind, which can blow the barges into each other.

"The Suphannahongse Royal Barge must stay in the middle of the river," he said. "If I cannot control it, the other steersman must help until we are out of danger."

The oarsmen synchronize their strokes by chanting. Lieutenant Nattawat Aramklua, the cantor, says all crewmen consider it a great honor to serve the king in this important part of Thai culture.

"It is Thai tradition, Thai culture inherited from the ancestors from a long time ago," he noted. "It's a tradition that links us to the king who is respected by every Thai."

During the procession, Nattawat will sing for more than two hours without stopping.

The song, written especially for this occasion, glorifies the king and praises his kingdom.

Once the oarsmen are seated in their boats for this rehearsal they pray and then practice their stroke.

The barges are then backed out of their berths and into the river channel.

The barges are positioned up the river and about an hour later they sail past the royal palace.

Thousands of spectators line the shores. Many are wearing yellow shirts, with the royal crest on the front, made especially for the occasion. They have been waiting for hours in the heat to watch this rare ancient performance.

As the stately barges glide by, silence descends on the crowd, and only the sound of the drums and the chanting of the oarsmen float across the river.

Source : VOA News

The audio file link :

[Reza1969]

More Foreigners Leave Lebanon

By Challiss McDonough
Beirut
19 July 2006

Israel launched fewer air strikes on Beirut Tuesday as foreign countries ferried their citizens out of Lebanon. But aid agencies and the Lebanese government are warning of a dire humanitarian crisis if the Israeli blockade of Lebanon continues.

There were far fewer air strikes around Beirut on Tuesday than on any day since the Israeli offensive in Lebanon began last week. The United States and several European nations have negotiated safe passage with the Israeli military to relay thousands of their citizens to safety.

The British destroyer HMS Gloucester docked in Beirut and took 180 people on board. The ship's commander said it would travel overnight to Cyprus and offload the passengers there before turning around and heading back to Beirut to pick up more. A second British destroyer will also join the evacuation effort.

In remarks broadcast on British television from the dockside, British Ambassador James Watt rejected criticism that the British response was too slow. "Well firstly, there was question of taking the entire British community on one destroyer. We were always going to do it in batches. We've made that clear in our public messages for days. We will be moving much bigger numbers tomorrow and even bigger numbers the day after that," he said.

The U.S. evacuation plan has come in for even more criticism over its slow pace. The Americans have evacuated a few hundred by helicopters, but mass rescues of the thousands of American citizens in Lebanon have not yet started. U.S. Embassy staff and the State Department in Washington said they will be ramping up the rescue efforts over the coming days, using military and commercial ships.

An unknown number of people, including both foreigners and Lebanese citizens, are still stranded in southern Lebanon, which has come under the most severe attack since the Israeli offensive began. Eight members of a Canadian-Lebanese family were killed in an air strike in the south on Sunday.

The roads leading out of the region have been destroyed, and continued air raids are making it nigh impossible for the United Nations or individual countries to get people out of that region. Ambassador Watt said they are his top priority. "There are others, and those are the ones who are really on my mind, who are stuck in the south of the country, who can't move up to Beirut and we can't go down there easily because of the difficult military situation. We are working on solutions for that. They're the ones we're really concerned for," he said.

In the meantime, the United Nations is bracing for a major humanitarian catastrophe if the Israeli blockade of Lebanon continues much longer. There are already some signs that people are hoarding essential supplies, like drinking water, in expectation of shortages over the coming weeks.

The acting head of the UN refugee agency's Beirut office, Arafat Jamal, said the agency is already planning to confront that situation if it arises. "For us, speaking for my agency, we have a lot of stockpiles for example in Jordan, and a few in Syria, that we are very much thinking of bringing over. These are basically contingency stocks mainly intended for Iraq, we thought there might be an emergency over there, but we will divert them to Lebanon now," he said.

UNHCR is sending an emergency response team to Lebanon to help with the crisis. The U.N. estimates that up to half a million people have been forced from their homes by the air strikes.

Source : VOA News

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[Reza1969]

Evacuation Not Option For Many Foreign Nationals in Lebanon

By Challiss McDonough
Beirut
18 July 2006

Western nations are moving to evacuate thousands of their citizens from Lebanon as Israel's air strikes there intensify. The airport and seaports have been closed after being repeatedly bombed, and most of the main roads out of the country have also been shelled. France and Italy have taken more than 1,600 Europeans out to Cyprus by boat, and Britain is planning to use two warships for its evacuation. But stranded citizens of some countries cannot turn to their governments for help.

An agitated crowd gathered Tuesday afternoon outside the Beirut office of the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), Western governments have been evacuating their citizens on ships, helicopters, planes and buses. But these refugees and migrants, mostly from Iraq and sub-Saharan Africa, have no homes to escape to.

Peter Tek came to Lebanon nine years ago from southern Sudan.

"As you know the situation is really very difficult, we left Sudan because there's a war," said Mr. Tek. "We are here, and we are facing the same fate."

Unlike the tourists from Western countries who are leaving Lebanon in droves, Somali refugee Hassan Adahu does not have a government he can turn to for help.

"I'm from Somalia. I don't have money, I don't have food, I don't have anything," he said. "What I can do? Somalia, it doesn't have an embassy here."

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says there are about 20,000 Iraqi refugees living in Lebanon, most of them in the Shi'ite areas of the south that have come under the heaviest bombardment. The agency fears some of them are still trapped, along with an unknown number of Lebanese citizens who have not been able to get out of the south yet.

The UNHCR is trying to help move everyone who needs help, both Lebanese and foreigners, to safer locations. Arafat Jamal, the acting officer in charge at the UNHCR in Beirut, says the agency's own workers have also been affected by the violence.

"Because of the emergency, many of our national staff, who form the backbone of this office, have fled to the mountains," he said.

Jamal says the agency is managing a massive crisis with only a fraction of its usual staff. Not only does it have to work with the refugees it normally deals with, but the U.N. refugee agency is also helping find shelter for hundreds of thousands of displaced Lebanese.

Jamal says it is still not clear exactly how many people have fled their homes.

"To be honest, a few days ago the figure was 22,000. And by yesterday, I heard that the government was saying was 400,000. I'm inclined to believe the bigger figure. It seems that it is a massive displacement problem," he added.

Jamal says Lebanese citizens and foreigners, such as the refugees outside his office, are all being offered the same options and the same support. And rather than see his staff shortage as a problem, Jamal says the U.N. refugee agency is using its own displaced workers to scout out new shelters in the mountains than can host more people, and to assess the needs of the ones already there.

But although finding shelter for displaced people is a priority, Jamal says the most urgent thing right now is getting what he calls the "besieged population" out of the heavily bombarded south.

"I would say that probably the more critical area is evacuation from areas of danger," he explained. "That's obviously a lot harder to do. We're trying to negotiate humanitarian corridors, both to get people out and in, but this is a much more complex issue."

Aid workers and the Lebanese government have been turning schools around the country into temporary shelters for people who have been forced to abandon their homes. Although that is working well so far, Jamal, head of the UNHCR office in Beirut, says it is only a temporary solution.

"I think the worry is that two weeks from now, if the blockade continues, these places are going to be a disaster, particularly in terms of sanitation, n terms of once the water closes up, once the toilets clog up, children, diseases, et cetera. Then it's going to be a big problem, and then the U.N. will be needed in terms of supplies."

It is not clear how much longer the Israeli military offensive in Lebanon will last. A top Israeli general told Israel Radio on Tuesday that it could last "a few weeks."

Source : VOA News

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[Reza1969]

Iraqi Christians Flee Fighting

By Margaret Besheer
Ainkawa, Iraq
18 July 2006

Caught up in the sectarian attacks claiming dozens of Iraqi lives each day is the country's small Christian community. The Dora neighborhood of Baghdad has traditionally been home to many Iraqi Christians, but many have fled to the calm of the northern city of Ainkawa, where they are trying to resume their lives.

Hundreds of years ago, Christian missionaries brought their faith to parts of what is modern-day northern Iraq. A small community of mostly Chaldean Catholics and Assyrians has grown in cities across the north, as well as in the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad and to the south in the port city of Basra.

Today, Iraqi Christians account for between two and three percent of the country's nearly 27 million people.

As sectarian violence grows between Shi'ites and Sunni Arabs, the Christian community has stayed out of the conflict. But many Christians have become victims of the violence, some caught in random acts of terror, others targeted because they are not Muslim.

Many have fled the capital for the Christian town of Ainkawa, near the city of Irbil, in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.

Youssef owned a restaurant in Baghdad's Dora district. Forced to flee the violence, he now works as a security guard at a church in Ainkawa. "I left my restaurant and brought my sons here because the terrorists kill everyone: the barber, the baker, the supermarket owner. They just kill indiscriminately," he said.

Firas also lived in the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad. He left two months ago and says very few of his neighbors are still there. He says he left because he feared for his life. "If you are in a Shi'ite neighborhood and they see your identity is Christian, okay, you will at least suffer or they will kill you, easily. Same in Sunni places," said Firas.

Sometimes, those who have fled have experienced the worst horrors. A businessman we will call Fouad, to protect him and his family, was kidnapped in Baghdad. He is reluctant to recall his ordeal. "I do not want to remember it. Leave it," he said. "What is the use of this story? Every day hundreds are kidnapped in Baghdad."

But after some prompting, he told VOA that gunmen abducted him and held him for five days. He does not know where they took him, as they covered his head with a hood the entire time.

He says the first two days he was sure they would kill him. In the end, his family paid the kidnappers $170,000 for his safe return.

But Father Tariq from Saint George Church in Ainkawa says it is not just Baghdad Christians who are fleeing the violence. He says families came from Basra, Mosul and Kirkuk, as well as Baghdad. Altogether, about 700 families have come to the area.

Sally is a Christian from Kirkuk. She left the city about a year ago and came to Ainkawa. She says the situation in Kirkuk is very bad: there are bombs, explosions and kidnappings.

Randa is also from Kirkuk. She used to work at a church there, but fled two months ago. She says car bombers attacked three churches in the same day. "It was horrible, and we were afraid, so I left my job and my home," she said.

Many who have fled say they hope they will be able to return to their homes in a year or two. But others say they will stay in their Christian enclave in the north.

Source : VOA News

Audio file link :

[Reza1969]

Victims Struggle to Rebuild Weeks After Indonesia Quake

By Michael Coren
Jakarta
18 July 2006

Hundreds of thousands of people in central Indonesia still spend each night under plastic tarps - more than six weeks after their homes were destroyed in an earthquake. The government hopes to house about 1.2 million displaced people before the heavy rains return in November. But reconstruction cannot begin until officials ensure new buildings will withstand another earthquake in this disaster-prone region - such as the one that struck only on Monday July 17, causing a deadly tsunami. Michael Coren recently visited Yogyakarta, which was hardest-hit by the May 27 quake, and has this report on the recovery process.

In the Bantul district outside Yogyakarta, piles of bricks and splintered beams line the roads. Scraps of clothes, packets of noodles and shattered bedroom furniture tell of life before the 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit the densely populated island of Java in May.

At least 5800 people died in the quake and 50,000 were injured - a far smaller toll than that inflicted on Indonesia's Aceh province by the 2004 earthquake and tsunami. But the tremors here toppled more than 150,000 homes, leaving 1.2 million people without housing - a far greater number than in Aceh. And hundreds of thousands of other homes need major repairs.

Here in the hardest-hit area of Bantul, Surawan, a 56-year-old teacher, has spent weeks repairing their shattered home for his wife and two children. Strips of bamboo form unfinished walls. Squares of battered plastic and canvas serve as a roof.

Surawan says he is rebuilding with anything he can find. Although he is unsure how his home will look or how long it will last, this is the best he can do.

The World Bank says it is the need to rebuild and repair all those homes that has made the May earthquake one of the most costly in the developing world in a decade. The World Bank and the Indonesian government estimate full reconstruction will cost $4 billion - at least $700 million for housing alone.

That is a heavy burden for the Indonesian government, which also is coping with the effects of the tsunami and a 2005 earthquake on the island of Nias.

Help from overseas has poured in - volunteers, medical supplies, water and tool kits. Christine McCormick is the emergency coordinator for the relief group Save the Children.

"Things to a certain extent have improved," she said. "If you go around Yogya (Yogyakarta), you can see people are doing their best to get back to normal, rebuild their homes, getting on with earning a living. But there's still a lot that needs to be done."

The survivors are scattered across hundreds of square kilometers of rice paddies, forest and isolated villages.

"Mainly people are living close to their homes or what's left of their homes … and living in whatever they can make into some sort of shelter," she said.

George Soraya, a senior official at the World Bank, says blame for the disaster's price tag can be laid on the doorstep of the houses themselves.

"The earthquake was as damaging but it should not have created that much if the houses were of a good quality," he said.

Families in Central Java often build homes simply by stacking bricks atop layers of dirt. When the ground began to shake on May 27, the unsupported walls gave way almost instantly.

The government plans to subsidize new homes and enforce neglected building codes - so that new structures will survive future quakes. However, donations and government funds have been slow to arrive to fund the housing reconstruction.

Few believe government assistance will arrive from Jakarta soon. Muhammed Sulaiman, public works director for the city of Yogyakarta, echoed concerns from aid agencies that national rebuilding efforts have stalled for financial and bureaucratic reasons, as the government struggles to cope with the cost of three disasters.

"All I know is that it's not enough. It's a very small amount that is ready. This money is not sufficient for all the needs," he said.

The government and the victims of the quake decided not to repeat the practice seen in Aceh, where homeless people were quickly placed in temporary barracks often far from their homes. Instead, most people independently formed rough shelters near their destroyed homes, and now wait for aid to rebuild. Many recovery workers say they may wait for months before construction begins.

Source : VOA News

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