Tsunami survivors share stories with UTA panel

Tsunami survivors share stories with UTA panel

by By Patrick McGee
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
1/26/2005

ARLINGTON -- A group who gathered at the University of Texas at Arlington early this morning heard from Sri Lankans who talked about the deadly tsunami waves that hit them a month ago and about efforts to rebuild the island nation.The UT-Arlington audience and participants from 11 other sites -- including Yale and Oxford universities -- heard from the Sri Lankans via a teleconference organized by Americans for Informed Democracy.A Sri Lankan woman told of literally running for her life from a wave and struggling to cling onto something and keep her head above water when it overtook her.Kumudini Fernando said she grabbed a child and held his head above water, too."Then we heard the villagers crying out for their children, all in pain," she said.The day that started as a family outing ended, she said, by finding two of her relatives dead, stuck in the mud.Dr. Kan Tun, the World Health Organization's representative to Sri Lanka, talked about some specific efforts and cast the relief work as a challenge to human dignity."We call on every one of you in the audience today and in the world at large to reach out to this beautiful country and its lovely people," he said. "Our very humanity is being put the test."Speakers in the teleconference did not always identify themselves, but the exchange quickly turned into a substantive conversation about how to keep incompetence and corruption from preventing the most effective use of donations and relief efforts.Lalith Wikramanayake, chairperson of the Environmental Foundation in Sri Lanka, said the rule of law was important for long-term reconstruction success. He said people were illegally resettling on land that is not theirs and building unsafe structures to live in.Tun said the most urgent need is to re-establish the country's disease surveillance. He said work has already shown success, since there have been no major outbreaks of disease.Patrick McGee, (817) 548-5476 pmcgee@star-telegram.com