The shock wave that hit yesterday Southeast Asia yesterday claiming over 50,000 lives may have a lasting effect on the region.
Government-led aid efforts offer a possibility for political reconciliation in the embattled regions of Sri Lanka and Indonesia’s Aceh province. The key issue is how the Sri Lankan and Indonesian governments organize aid distribution.
“Disaster relief could provide a window of opportunity for the warring parties to put their differences aside and cooperate. This could improve the chances for political solutions,” says Ooi Kee Beng, a visiting research fellow at Singapore’s Institute of South-East Asian Studies (ISEAS).
“How humanitarian aid is distributed could actually make problems worse since the central governments might be tempted to favour certain groups at the expense of others. There is also the issue of whether aid relief might be distorted by corruption,” says Chin Kin Wah, a professor at ISEAS.
Greater role, in the opinion of the politicians, needs to be attributed to the international aid agencies. Indonesian government has rekindled hopes for reconciliation in Aceh province after it allowed foreign aid agencies access to the province where 27,000 people are estimated to have died in one of the bitterest insurgencies in Asia.
The natural disaster could curb the development of the tourist industry in the region as hundreds of foreign tourists are still reported missing or unaccounted for.
"There are lots of dead foreigners because it is during our high season and Christmas. It is a family vacation time," Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told reporters on Tuesday.
So far 167 foreign tourists were reported missing in the area affected by the shock wave, although the real number is believed to be much higher.
Southern Asia was hit yesterday by the most powerful earthquake in 40 years, resulting in a huge tsunami reaching 20 feet in height in some places that crashed on the shores of at least eight countries. The total death toll is reported to have surpassed more than 50,000 people, with more casualties to be reported as thousands are missing.
The quake that measured 9.0 in magnitude struck in the Indian Ocean, not far away from the northern part of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. U.S. Geological Survey officials report that the earthquake was the biggest since the 9.2 magnitude earthquake that hit Alaska in 1964, and fourth largest since 1900.
Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and Thailand were most seriously hit, accounting for the bulk of casualties. Deaths were also reported in Malaysia, Bangladesh, the Maldives and in Africa.
The tsunami that rose after the quake spanned the vast space of the Indian Ocean from Sumatra to the coast of Africa. As shock waves are not typical of the Indian Ocean the countries it washes lack an efficient system of early warning that is well developed in the Pacific Rim.
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