Asia-Pacific, Development & Aid, Environment, Global, Global Geopolitics, Headlines

TSUNAMI IMPACT: Conference Feels the Aftershocks

Hilmi Toros

PORT LOUIS, Mauritius, Jan 10 2005 (IPS) - The emotional aftershocks of the tsunami were felt at a major United Nations meeting that began here Monday to ease the vulnerability of small island developing states.

After a minute of silence in memory of more than 150,000 who died, arose the questions. Could it have been avoided? What next?

Mauritius Prime Minister Paul Raymond Berenger told the solemn opening session attended by representatives of 110 nations: “Many lives could have been saved had here been an appropriate early warning mechanism in the Indian Ocean.” He asked the conference to address “the immediate task of setting up such early warning systems.”

Representatives of both North and South have agreed in closed consultations that the final document will include plans to counter the tsunami threat, conference sources told IPS. Tsunami dangers have now become the main concern at the small island developing states (SIDS) conference, scheduled long before the disaster struck.

An agreement on an early warning system in the Indian Ocean is likely to be taken forward at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction scheduled in Kobe, Japan, Jan. 18-22.

Conference secretary-general Anwarul K. Chowdhury has asked meanwhile for creating a network that makes data from existing systems available to national focal points. “If this had existed, we could have saved thousands of lives,” he said.

But the disaster has also unified the world, Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom said in a message to the conference. “We should act together now,” he said. He called for a “global partnership” to save people becoming “environmental refugees”.

Gayoom said the damage to his country would exceed one billion dollars, not counting environmental consequences like crippled vegetation and freshwater reservoirs that may need years to recover.

A natural barrier protected the pristine beaches, lush greenery and extensive resorts along the 90 km coast of the host country. Mauritius has one of the world’s largest coral reefs, which act as wave breakers.

But in other small island countries reconstruction costs could be higher than their annual gross national income, Berenger said.

A parallel civil society forum attended by more than 200 participants welcomed the debt freeze for the stricken nations, but called further for cancellation of all debt. It said reconstruction should involve local communities.

“It is also time to look ahead,” coordinator of the forum Pynee Chellapermal said. “We need to change how we build houses and roads.” He said measures being taken against cyclones should be extended to protection from tsunamis.

Although overshadowed by the tsunami disaster, the Mauritius conference has the critical trade issue to settle. Developing nations are seeking relief for the loss of export on preferential terms. They say many SIDS are being marginalised in a liberalised global economy. The West is against excessive concessions.

The share of SIDS in global trade diminished by half over the past two decades (from 0.4 percent of world merchandise exports in 1980 to 0.2 percent in 2000), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) reports.

“Finding alternative compensatory measures to offset the evident cost…is of paramount importance,” Habib Ouane, an UNCTAD director told the meeting. “This is unlikely to imply any major sacrifice on the part of large development or trading partners, and we believe there is now a moral duty to call for a number of systematic changes in relevant multilateral areas so as to provide broad-based support for SIDS.”

Conference sources say the two outstanding issues at the conference – climate change and trade – could lead to agreements by the end of Tuesday. That would clear the way for a Mauritius Declaration that would draw political commitment to implement a decade-old plan of action to assist SIDS.

The plan was adopted at a UN Conference in Barbados in 1994 to ease the plight of SIDS – 37 remote and isolated nations far from the hubs of global activity.

The Barbados plan had recorded it would be resourced by “effective means, including adequate, predictable and additional financial resources.” When the plan failed to receive resources, the UN General Assembly asked in 2000 for “speedy and full” implementation by 2015. The Mauritius meeting was called to that end.

There is no price tag for putting the Barbados plan into effect. The current emphasis is on “partnership” – a grand alliance of governments, international and regional organisations, business and civil society.

While the approach to partnership is global, secretary-general Chowdhury is making a pitch for more cooperation among SIDS themselves, through measures such as regional integration.