[E-rundbrief] Info 188 - Tsunami Relief Fund for fishers/ peasants
Matthias Reichl
mareichl at ping.at
Mi Jan 12 22:23:25 CET 2005
E-Rundbrief - Info 188 - Via Campesina: Tsunami Relief and Reconstruction
Fund for fisherfolk, peasants, family farmer, farm worker, indigenous,
landless peoples in South- and Southeast Asia.
Bad Ischl, 12.1.2005
Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
www.begegnungszentrum.at
===========================================================
Via Campesina Tsunami Relief and Reconstruction Fund
WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN No. 2, January 12, 2005
Via Campesina - the global alliance of peasant, family farmer, farm worker,
indigenous, landless peoples and women's organizations, and other rural
movements - calls for solidarity with the millions of people affected by
the tsunami disaster and is launching a global fundraising campaign to
channel assistance to affected communities of fisherfolk and peasants, for
our own relief and reconstruction efforts, through our grassroots member
organizations (http://www.viacampesina.org) and our sister organizations of
fisherfolk.
The Via Campesina Tsunami Relief and Reconstruction Fund is collecting
funds for direct emergency support to our own communities to provide basic
needs of food, clean drinking water, shelter and health care to our
fisherfolk and peasant communities affected by the tsunamis, as well as to
help initiate the long term work of reconstructing our communities and
rebuilding our livelihoods. DETAILS ON FUNDS COLLECTED AND HOW THEY ARE
DISTRIBUTED CAN BE FOUND BELOW.
To make a secure, on-line donation using your credit card:
https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=4589
For instructions on other ways to give:
http://www.viacampesina.org/art_english.php3?id_article=502&PHPSESSID=cffcf1cd5a7065dbe4f4e177530ad21e
PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY
Campaign contact: Nico Verhagen, Via Campesina, nico.verhagen at t-online.de
INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO GIVE BY MAIL OR BY WIRE TRANSFER
1. If you are in Europe, you can deposit funds in the following account:
Account number: 3035 0022 4202 2005 5606
Beneficiary: Via Campesina-Solidaridad-Tsunami
IBAN code: ES23 3035 0022 4202 2005 5606
BIC/SWIFT code: CLPEES2M
Bank: Caja Laboral
Bank address: Calle 8 de enero, Guernika, Pais Basco
Tel: +34 94 625 0098
Fax: +34 94 625 6662
Please send an email alerting us of your donation to:
nico.verhagen at t-online.de
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE
PART I: Reports from Via Campesina member and friend organizations
1. Thailand: Fisherfolk Support Teams in 6 Southern Provinces of Thailand
2. Indonesia: KSKBA Calls for International Support and Denounces GMO Food
Aid from Mainstream Donors
3. Sri Lanka: A Second Tsunami of Corporate Globalization and Militarization?
4. Sri Lanka: MONLAR Peasant Organization, a Member of Via Campesina, Calls
for Alternative Approaches
5. Indonesia: Protest at Aid Summit Disbanded by Police
6. India: Reflections from the International Collective in Support of
Fishworkers (ICSF)
PART II: About this Campaign
1. Solidarity Campaigns in Turkey and the USA
2. A Message from the National Farmers Union of Canada
3. How We Distribute Funds
4. What We Have Raised So Far
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
PART I: Reports from Via Campesina member and friend organizations
1. Thailand: Fisherfolk Support Teams in 6 Southern Provinces of Thailand
The tsunami hit the southern part of Thailand in 6 provinces, Phu-ket,
Phang-nga, Ra-nong, Kra-bi,Trang and Sa-tul. This is a really hard time
for the 418 poor fisherfolk villages in these provinces as the Tsunami has
taken away their life, husbands, wives, children, cousins, houses, boats,
fishing gear, and most important, their hope and human dignity.
Two days after the Tsunami hit, the Federation of Southern Fisherfolk,
which is part of Assembly of the Poor and Via Campesina, together with 30
other civil society groups, NGOs, and academics in the South, North, West,
Northeast, and Central have formed themselves the Coalition/Network for
Andaman Coastal Community Support, to immediately help these fisherfolk
communities in their own relief and reconstruction efforts. The network has
sent relief teams to most of the fishing villages for the last 9 days.
So far our network and the Federation of Southern Fisherfolk has surveyed
186 fishing villages. We have found 272 members dead, 26 missing, and 99
injured, so far. Members lost 2,477 small fishing boats, 15,534 fishing
nets (kra-chang), 2,448 crab fishing gear, 939 shrimp fishing gear, 3,277 fish
fishing gear, 21,245 small crab fishing nets (Sai-Poo), 915 small fishing nets,
8,271 squid fishing nets, and 292 floats. We have 232 more villages to
survey. This still excludes Nam-Kem and Kao-lak villages, and PiPi Island,
which are still very difficult to reach. We estimate 4,900 people dead
and 6,000 still missing in this area.
In the most critical areas, the network has sent teams to help with
temporary camps and house construction, health care services, maternal and
child care, and to help give hope and moral support to lift spirits. With
some families who are in better condition, the teams have started to
support boat repairing, engine repair, and are providing new fishing
gear. For the next phase, we will help re-build their fishing
communities. In the long term, the communities will work on their local
organizations for community and coastal resource recovery. The heart of our
efforts is to build up and support local fisherfolk groups as the key
actors in their long term recovery. Our volunteers and work teams now need
a lot of support. The immediate urgent needs are for temporary house
construction, boat repair and buying fishing gear to help fisherfolk
survive and recover their lives again.
[Contact: Pontip Samranjit, Assembly of the Poor, pongtip at rrafa.org,
rrafa at loxinfo.co.th]
2. Indonesia: KSKBA Calls for International Support and Denounces GMO Food
Aid from Mainstream Donors
KSKBA is the Humanitarian Solidarity Team for the Tsunami Disaster in Aceh
& North Sumatra Provinces, Indonesia, and includes the Indonesian
Federation of Peasant Movements (FSPI) among its members. Beside the
emergency work we reported on the last issue of this report,
see
http://www.viacampesina.org/art_english.php3?id_article=503&PHPSESSID=af6e2bf9180a97934b9a66c5563c3961
KSKBA has now developed a one year work plan. Part of the strategic agenda
we have developed with other alliances is:
1. In our relief and reconstruction efforts in Aceh and North Sumatra, we will
not collaborate with the international organizations and the transnational
corporations that push the neoliberal policies which impoverish Indonesia.
2. We will work with the affected people not only from the angle of
emergency aid but we also focus on helping to recover and strengthen local
peoples organizations for the long term, based on the local people's strong
spirit. In our humanitarian aid mission, KSKBA acts as a coalition of
people's organizations from the fisherfolk, peasant, labor, urban poor,
youth and NGO sectors, created to support local grassroots organizations in
the affected areas.
3. We want to clarify that KSKBA is a group of organizations that supports
the principles of struggle of Via Campesina, and is moved by the spirit of
struggle and leadership of Via Campesina
(http://www.viacampesina.org). KSKBA is confronting the neoliberal
paradigm and organizing relief based the principals of food sovereignty
(http://www.viacampesina.org/art_english.php3?id_article=34) and we are
anti-GMO, pro-agrarian reform, etc.
4. Thus we are critical of the World Bank aid package which pushes more
neoliberal reforms, and we are against GMO-food aid from the World Food
Program (WFP) and other donors. We say do not send international food aid
which depresses Indonesian crop prices and hurts peasants, but rather buy
food for aid inside our country and support Indonesian peasants. To the
NGO's like Save the Children that are distributing the free rice without
specifying it's origin, we say you should adjust your aid policies along
the lines of food sovereignty.
5. KSKBA is in the front line of struggle of Via Campesina
internationally, and we ask for the strong political support of other Via
Campesina members and supporters in the future. We propose that December
26th (the day of the tsunamis) in the future commemorated internationally
as a special day for Via Campesina.
[Contact: Irma Yanny, FSPI, <seca5_1999 at yahoo.com>]
3. Sri Lanka: A Second Tsunami of Corporate Globalization and Militarization?
Here the situation is a bit tense as US Marines, and Indian, Pakistani and
Canadian troops are already here. The Bush administration has clearly
mentioned that the situation in our region is considered to threat to them.
We are worried
that an eventual American occupation could give us more devastation than
the Tsunami.
President Chandrika Bandaranaike has appointed a special task force to
rebuild Sri Lanka, filled with top class investors representing the
business community. There are no civil servants or civil society
representation at any level. The World Band is to play a very vital role
in rebuilding Sri Lanka. President Chandrika said that they are not going
allow affected fisher communities to rebuild houses within 300 meters of
the coast for protection against future Tsunamis, but we doubt this is the
real reason. We believe this is actually part of an accelerated Tourism
master plan to get poor people out of tourism development zones.
They are also bringing high-tech fishing here from Canada. I do not know
what type of fishing they are promoting. A fleet of 2000 fishing boats from
Canada will arrive. We see this as the plan of action amidst the tsunamis
crisis to hand over the sea and the coast to foreign corporations and
tourism, with military assistance from the US Marines. If any one goes
against the plan they will be in jail, according to the president. At the
same time this will jeopardize the whole process of peace-building during
the last 3 years.
We who represent the national alliance for protection of national resources
and human rights met yesterday and discussed this thoroughly. We will have
a conference on how we see the rebuilding of Sri Lanka and the
alternatives. This situation must be shared with our members as we, our
country, fisheries and poor will be the victims of the present development
plans. This could wind up being a bigger destruction than the tsunamis. We
would like to raise this point with the international community. How do
you see this situation, and can you help the victimized people rid
ourselves of the second tsunami of the accelerated process of corporate
globalization and militarization? Meanwhile we urgently need financial
donations to support the rebuilding efforts of our affected fishing
communities.
Meanwhile, we are working hard on our releif and reconstruction
mission. In the last few days we have:
We sent volunteer groups from non-affected areas to Ampara, Galle,
Kaluthara, to clear wells, roads and damaged houses.
We sent a team from Negombo to repair damaged boats at Galle.
We are trying to provide clean water to affected people, and we are
clearing wells and trying to get water tanks to refugee camps.
We are starting a mobile health service for injured people in Ampara District.
We are setting up boat repairing at Galle and Mathara, and hope to spread
it island wide.
We are providing food and cooking gear to affected people, including
earthen pots, cooking pots, plates, knives, and coconut scrapers, as well
as bed sheets, pillows and mats.
[Contact: Herman Kumara, NAFSO, fishmove at slt.lk]
4. Sri Lanka: MONLAR Peasant Organization, a Member of Via Campesina, Calls
for Alternative Approaches
The official "rebuilding" could be a much bigger disaster for the poor and
working people in Sri Lanka than the Tsunami itself. We feel there should
be a very wide process of understanding these possibilities and responding
in solidarity among all progressive international forces.
We MONLAR and ANRHR (Alliance for Protection of National Resources and
Human Rights) will closely monitor this process and keep all people's
organizations inside the country and internationally informed, so that an
adequate response is built within and outside the country. We have worked
on alternative approaches and policies for reduction of poverty and
pro-people economic development for more than ten years, and these
alternatives are still very valid and workable. They are not based on
large international capital, but rather on peoples initiative and
resources. We appeal to all groups in solidarity with the people of Sri
Lanka and other people affected in other countries to join in building such
a response, the only way to prevent a new disaster. We await for your quick
response.
[Contact: Sarath Fernando MONLAR, <monlar at sltnet.lk>]
5. Indonesia: Protest at Aid Summit Disbanded by Police
On January 5th the Anti-Imperialist Humanitarian Coalition held a protest
rally outside the multi-government summit on the Tsunami disaster, which
was broken up by the police and military. The Coalition consists of
Koalisi Anti Utang (KAU), the Federation of Indonesian Peasant Unions
(FSPI) - a member of Via Campesina -, the student movement in Jakarta, and
some Jakarta NGOs. The coalition is demanding: (i) that the Indonesian
government not use the Tsunami disaster as the pretext to acquire new loans
and more foreign debt or make more political concessions; (ii) to make debt
cancellation the priority of the Tsunami summit, not just debt relief or
debt moratorium, which would allow the government to fulfill its obligation
to develop or rehabilitate the devastated regions and achieve people's
sovereignty; (iii) to cancel the plan for hikes in fuel prices and for the
selling off of more public sector assets through the privatization program;
(iv) to clean the government of ideological and policy infiltration by the
international financial institutions like the IMF, World Bank, ADB and WTO;
as well as other demands.
6. India: Reflections from the International Collective in Support of
Fishworkers (ICSF)
The post-tsunami period has seen many relief and rehabilitation initiatives
and there is now some reflection on longer-term rehabilitation issues. It
is important to share some of the views being discussed here in India, and
perhaps to develop a shared understanding of rehab issues from a
small-scale fisheries perspective in all countries affected by the tsunami-
Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia in particular.
The tsunami has reinforced (in a dramatic way) the need to address the
long-standing vulnerability that our communities are exposed to on a daily
basis. It is essential to address issues such as:
(a) Securing land rights for communities, while retaining their primary use
rights of coastal spaces for fishing (to ensure that these spaces are not
taken over by tourism and other commercial interests).
(b) A focus on developing social infrastructure: appropriate housing,
sanitation, education, health, etc., which will also contribute towards
providing livelihood options to communities, other than fishing.
(c) The replacement and/or repair of traditional boats, motors and gear
affected
during the tsunami on an urgent basis.
(d) The post-tsunami phase should provide an opportunity to review forms of
fisheries development which were economically/ecologically problematic in
the first place, for example, trawling and pushnetting. There are offers
of aid from abroad in the form of boats, gear and motors. These offers need
to be carefully evaluated to see if such technology is appropriate for
local conditions and does not create local overcapacity/overfishing.
(e) The same for aquaculture. Where, even in the pre-tsunami phase there
were concerns about the ecological, social and economic impact of
industrial forms of coastal aquaculture, the post-tsunami phase should
offer the opportunity prioritize instead the need for coastal mangrove
shelterbelts.
(f) Rehab in the post-harvest sector should focus on improving
traditional processing techniques and providing appropriate
infrastructure for the same, and to improve marketing infrastructure.
Processing and marketing are both areas in which women are more
active. There is a need to ensure that aid money does not go towards
developing expensive cold chain infrastructure, which will benefit
only a wealthy minority.
(g) Rehab measures should also help towards developing appropriate
social security measures (health, accident and old age) for men and
women of local fishing communities as well as increased coverage for them
of life insurance/insurance of vessels and motors. There is a need also for
fishery disaster insurance schemes for artesanal fishers that will cover
loss of life and property as a result of natural disasters.
These are some of the issues being discussed here. It would be most
useful to have feedback on the debate on rehab in other countries.
[Contact Chandrika, ICSF <icsf at vsnl.com>
PART II. About this Campaign
1. Solidarity Campaigns in Turkey and the USA
In Turkey people are planning a solidarity fundraising campaign for FSPI
and Via Campesina tsunami relief. It will last for 2-3 weeks, with a
concert as final. The initiators are peace campaigners and progressive
musicians. [Contact: F. Levent Sensever, "Lewo" <levent1956 at gmx.net>].
In the USA, the Pacific Bakery (http://www.pacificbakery.com/campesina.htm
) is planning a publicity campaign to let people know about the Via
Campesina Tsunami Fund. [Contact: Chuck Lowery, <chuck at pacificbakery.com>]
2. A Message from the National Farmers Union of Canada
To the Asian Via Campesina members:
The National Farmers Union in Canada extends its sympathy and solidarity to
you in this time of tragedy. We know that you are dealing with terrible
losses of lives, communities, property and livelihoods. The incredible
grief and destruction which this Tsunami leaves in its wake demands a
response of solidarity from people everywhere. We, in the National
Farmers Union, are joining in efforts to help through the Via Campesina. We
recognize the need for the immediate emergency assistance as well as longer
term resources for reconstruction. We want to assure you that we are
committed to supporting your work of aiding and rebuilding in the aftermath
of this disaster.
[Contact: Nettie Wiebe, NFU <wieben at duke.usask.ca>]
3. How We Distribute Funds
As Via Campesina (http://www.viacampesina.org) we have a number of member
organizations in the region that are active in relief work and will be part
of the reconstruction process. These include, for example, the Indonesian
National Peasant Federation (FSPI), MONLAR in Sri Lanka, the Assembly of
the Poor in Thailand, and others. We are also working closely with two
fisherfolk organizations that are members of the World Forum of Fisherfolk
People (WFFP), with whom we have been collaborating for several years in
different spaces at the international level. These are NAFSO in Sri Lanka
and NFF in India.
At the moment, as we are in an emergency situation we are distributing the
funds
that come in equally among 4 countries. At the moment the first transfers
have been made, in India to the NFF, in Thailand to the Assembly of the
Poor (one of their members is the Federation of Southern Fisherfolk), in
Sri Lanka to NAFSO, and in Indonesia to FSPI. This may change over time as
we move from emergency relief to reconstruction, and if we add more
countries (i.e. Malaysia, Burma, etc....) and organizations.
4. What We Have Raised So Far
The fundraising campaign began on 12/30, and as of 1/10 we had about USD
$43,000 in 413 credit card donations coming from the United States, France,
Norway, Thailand, Belgium, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Switzerland, New Zealand,
Australia, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Great Britain, Spain, El Salvador,
Italy, South Korea, Denmark, and Ecuador. The smallest credit card gift
was USD $5, and the largest was $2,500, while the average donation was USD
$104. In addition we have received a number of checks in the mail and wire
transfers in totalling some USD $8,000 more. We URGENTLY need to boost
these amounts, so please give generously and circulate this information
widely.
To make a secure, on-line donation using your credit card:
https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=4589
For instructions on other ways to give (checks, money orders, wire transfers):
http://www.viacampesina.org/art_english.php3?id_article=502&PHPSESSID=cffcf1cd5a7065dbe4f4e177530ad21e
For more information, refer to: http://www.viacampesina.org
Campaign contact: Nico Verhagen, Via Campesina, nico.verhagen at t-online.de
PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY
===========================================================
Matthias Reichl
Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Wolfgangerstr.26
A-4820 Bad Ischl
Tel. +43-6132-24590
e-mail: mareichl at ping.at
http://www.begegnungszentrum.at
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