India accused of putting security ahead of relief

NEW DELHI - Aid agencies are worried by India's rejection of relief for the badly damaged Andaman and Nicobar islands, which house military bases.

Junior interior minister Prakash Jaiswal said the Indian Government was grateful for all offers of help, but believed it could cope.

But Oxfam said India was restricting aid to some of the most desperate survivors.

Thousands of people remain cut off in the remote chain of 500 islands, many living off coconuts in thick jungles.

Although most of the low-lying atolls are uninhabited, some are home to hundreds of stone age tribespeople.

Shaheen Nilofer, Oxfam's programme manager for Eastern India, said Indian Government policy was "accelerating the miseries of the poor people".

"Somewhere, someone has to be responsible. If you don't take care of the survivors, the number of deaths can far outnumber the deaths from the tsunami," she said.

A handful of Indian volunteer groups and Government officials allowed access to the islands are conducting an island-by-island search for the 5681 people missing, feared buried under layers of debris and mud.

The numbers represent about a third of India's overall death toll.

Survivors have been ferried to the Andamans capital of Port Blair, which Oxfam said was unnecessary.

"Relief should have reached the doorsteps of the people, and it was possible to do so rather than shunting them all here," said Shaheen Nilofer, who said the camps were being run in a haphazard way.

"The whole issue is one of trauma, care and support, not just providing food and shelter. People in distress deserve to be treated with dignity.

"They didn't even have the opportunity to mourn their dead. They were just evacuated and thrown into relief camps."

The islands, off-limits to foreigners and mainland Indians alike, lie 1200km east of the Indian mainland and near one of the world's busiest shipping routes.

- REUTERS