Clinton visits tsunami reconstruction

By GRANT PECK, Associated Press Writer
Sat Dec 2, 9:59 AM ET

HIN LOOK DIO, Thailand - Touring a Thai gypsy village damaged by the 2004 tsunami, former
President Clinton on Saturday expressed concern that most of the people left homeless by the massive waves are still living in temporary shelters.

"Only 30 to 35 percent of the people have been put back into permanent housing," Clinton said of the nearly half-million homeless survivors in a dozen countries. "We have to do better than that."

Clinton, on his final trip to the region as the top U.N. envoy for the tsunami recovery effort, also promoted a conservation program to rebuild Thailand's Andaman Sea Coast, where the tsunami killed more than 5,400 people.

Noting that coastal deforestation significantly worsened the destruction from Hurricane Katrina, Clinton praised the villagers in Hin Look Dio for attempting to preserve their natural habitat. Known as the Moken, the gypsies are seafaring people who live in Thailand and Myanmar.

"This little tree is symbolic of a balanced life and how they (the Moken) help each other preserve their villages," he said as he planted a mangrove sapling.

Nearly a quarter-million people in 12 Indian Ocean countries died in the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami caused by a magnitude 9.3 earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra island.

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