No houses for Katrina's poor, Sri Lanka war halts tsunami recovery, and rights groups say Israel and Hizbollah broke humanitarian law in Lebanon crisis...

A year since Katrina

As the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, aid agency Oxfam says not only has reconstruction failed to help the poorest communities of the southeastern United States, but official policies have made it even harder to find affordable housing.

Hurricane Katrina, which killed more than 1,300 people on the U.S. Gulf Coast a year ago, highlighted to the world the massive inequalities between rich and poor in this corner of the wealthy world, and authorities pledged to confront that when it came to reconstruction.

But the publication, "Forgotten Communities, Unmet Promises: An unfolding tragedy on the Gulf Coast", accuses both Louisiana and Mississippi states of breaking their promises and failing to allocate adequate funds to replace affordable rental housing lost in the storm.

It looks at three vulnerable and deprived communities outside New Orleans - the urban neighbourhoods of East Biloxi, Mississippi, and the rural communities of Vermilion and Plaquemines parishes in Louisiana.

Surprising findings include:

• In Biloxi, before helping residents with low incomes, government officials acted first to save the city's battered casinos by convincing state lawmakers to allow gaming on land.
• Despite almost $17 billion approved by Congress to rebuild homes and community infrastructure in Louisiana and Mississippi, by early August not one house in the two states had yet been rebuilt with the money.
• Hundreds of Mississippi families in Gulfport and Pascagoula could lose their homes because the regional housing authority plans to sell or transfer the buildings in which they live.
• Confusing planning requirements have slowed house-rebuilding progress in Vermilion.
• Independent commercial fishers in Plaquemines have received little public money to help restart their trade.

"All Americans expect the rebuilding to be fair and to help those who need help most," Minor Sinclair, director of Oxfam America's grant-making programme, said in a statement. "But so far, that's not happening, and for some of the region's poorest residents, things have only gotten worse during this recovery."

The report also contains portraits by Time magazine photographer Steve Liss of individuals struggling to recover from the crisis, stark illustrations of poverty and hardship in one of the world's richest countries.

What's legal in war?

Rights group Amnesty International has added its voice to that of Human Rights Watch in accusing both Israel and Hizbollah of violating international humanitarian law during their recent conflict.

Amnesty has published a report pointing to "an Israeli policy of deliberate destruction of Lebanese civilian infrastructure".

It says the destruction of whole neighbourhoods and villages, and attacks on bridges and roads, as well as water and fuel storage plants, were "an integral part of Israel's military strategy in Lebanon, rather than 'collateral damage' resulting from the lawful targeting of military objectives".

Food shops were also hit and aid convoys blocked. Amnesty says statements by Israeli officials indicate the destruction of civilan infrastructure was a goal of the military campaign.

Israel says it did not target civilians and that it warned non-combatants to leave south Lebanon. (It has published English translations of leaflets dropped by its air force here). Israel also accuses Hizbollah of launching rockets from civilian areas.

But Amnesty says "...the pattern and scope of the attacks, as well as the number of civillian casualties and the amount of damage sustained, makes the justification ring hollow".

Both Amnesty and HRW have called for a U.N. inquiry into alleged violations of humanitarian law.

HRW said in a statement to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Aug. 10 that Israel had carried out "dozens of attacks" in which civilian structures or vehicles were struck "with no apparent military target in the vicinity".

"By failing to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military campaign, Israel has violated one of the most fundamental tenets of the laws of war: the duty to carry out attacks on only military targets," it added.

As for Hizbollah, which fired rockets into northern Israel during the conflict, HRW said that "most of the rocket attacks appear to have been directed at civilian areas and have hit pedestrians, hospitals, schools, homes and businesses".

For now, the international community has its hands full trying to put together a U.N. peacekeeping force to oversee the fragile truce in Lebanon. But there's likely to be continued pressure for the United Nations to investigate and respond to the rights' groups allegations.

Megan Rowling
AlertNet journalist

War stops tsunami recovery

Escalating violence in the northeast of Sri Lanka has effectively halted most tsunami reconstruction work in the region.

Aid agencies say they are having to prioritise emergency work to feed and shelter tens of thousands of people who have been forced to flee their homes in the last few months because of fighting between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels.

"We've gone down to just live-saving activities and dealing with the displaced," Care International's assistant country coordinator Sally Austin said.

The December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami displaced more than 450,000 people in Sri Lanka.

This included around 140,600 in Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts in the east, which have been affected by a major rise in violence this month. The tsunami uprooted another 40,000 or so in Jaffna in the north, where fighting is also raging.

But even before the current flare-up, the worst since the 2002 ceasefire, projects to rehouse tsunami survivors and develop employment opportunities were going far slower than comparable programmes in the south of the country or in neighbouring India.

Christian Aid, which is working on reconstruction and livelihood projects in the north and east, says rebel and government road blocks make it far trickier to move building materials around. Regional strikes and curfews, often called at short notice, can disrupt or halt work altogether for days on end.

Some relief agencies have also pulled staff out of Trincomalee following the execution-style killing of 17 Action Contre La Faim aid workers in the northeastern town of Mutur.

The U.N. refugee agency says it has recorded around 169,000 people who have been uprooted by violence since April. This includes nearly 6,700 who have left Sri Lanka and taken boats to India's Tamil Nadu state just across the water.

For up to date news on the conflict and the background click here.

Emma Batha
AlertNet journalist

Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Reuters.