Disaster Relief: Sri Lankan lawyers yet to receive UK donations to help rebuild lives

Nine months after the tsunami ravaged the southern and eastern coastlines of Sri Lanka, much of the money donated by UK lawyers to help their Indian Ocean colleagues has yet to be sent and the president of the Sri Lanka Bar Association has called for more international support.


The International Bar Association (IBA), in association with Oxfam, raised £23,000 to give to the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) to provide office equipment and books to the hundred or so lawyers in Galle, Mantara and Paria who lost their homes and offices in the disaster. However, the money has yet to be distributed.


Desmond Fernando, BASL president, said: 'It has been nine months since the tsunami and you cannot expect the lawyers to sit and do nothing. Some have obtained bank loans so they can start work again. We would like to use some of the money raised to help them repay those loans.'


He explained: 'Some lawyers did have insurance but not against a tsunami, and many have lost relatives as well as their homes and offices. Briefs and original documents have been washed away.'


But the tsunami killed 30,000 people and made half a million homeless in Sri Lanka, so rebuilding the lives and practices of lawyers has not been a priority.


In a report written following his visit to the country earlier this year, former Bar Council chairman Lord Brennan said: 'In their culture, lawyers could not acceptably stand in any queue for help, not only because of their sense of maintaining dignity, but nobody would believe that they were bereft of means.'


Lord Brennan said the cost of helping was, in UK terms minimal - a Sinhalese typewriter costs about £75, an English one £40, and a set of law reports about £80. A mere £500 would give each lawyer a fresh start.


Mr Fernando thanked those who had already helped but asked for more financial help.


He said: 'Because of the poor exchange rate, even the smallest amount could make a difference.'


Francis Neate, president of the IBA, said: 'As soon as we can agree the procedure for distributing the money, it will be sent.'