Advertisement
Natural disasters
This Week in AsiaSociety

Caught between an earthquake and sex abuse in Indonesia

For women fleeing natural catastrophes in Asia, reaching shelter doesn’t mean safety. Often, it’s where the real suffering begins

Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
Soldiers prepare to evacuate Mount Rinjani. Photo: AP
David G Rose
Homes destroyed. Crops ruined. Livelihoods snuffed out. This week witnessed another trail of devastation caused by catastrophes in Southeast Asia, scenes that are depressingly familiar in the world’s most disaster-prone region.
At least 16 people died and more than 500 hikers needed rescuing from the slopes of Indonesia’s Mount Rinjani after an earthquake struck on Sunday night – while more than 5,000 local residents on the island of Lombok were effectively left homeless.
Meanwhile, flash flooding deprived entire communities of food, security and shelter in south-eastern Laos, and across the border into Cambodia, following the collapse of a hydroelectric dam. At least 20 died and hundreds were reported missing and 6,600 people were left stranded or seeking refuge in makeshift refugee camps and evacuation centres.
Villagers affected by the collapse of a dam in southeast Laos register at one of five rescue centres in Sanamxai district. Photo: Bart Verweij
Villagers affected by the collapse of a dam in southeast Laos register at one of five rescue centres in Sanamxai district. Photo: Bart Verweij

Less well reported are the human tragedies that tend to follow these catastrophes. Not the immediate fatalities, injuries or loss of homes and incomes caused by the disasters themselves – though they are frequently severe – but rather crimes and violence, particularly against women and children, in the aftermath.

A new report by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) that examined various emergencies in Southeast Asia and asked the question “what happened next?” makes for grim reading. The researchers interviewed more than 1,800 survivors and aid workers who experienced events including Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013, the 2016 earthquake in Aceh, North Sumatra, and chronic flooding in areas of Laos in 2016.

Advertisement