Tsunami aftermath

An article on CNN reports that three times more women then men were killed by the tsunami on December 26th, 2004. As a result, there have been many reports of rape and forced marriage upon the female victims of the tsunami. The male to female ratio in Indonesia is currently 10-1 and it appears that 80% of the victims were women. A report done by Oxfam International, a British based charity, stated that the reason for the disproportionate number of victims was due to difficulty outrunning the waves or because they were at home and the men were out on the field.
The article states,
As a result, men now far outnumber women in crowded camps and scattered settlements where they are vulnerable to a range of abuses, the report said.
Sri Lankan women have reportedly been sexually assaulted in camp toilets and domestic violence is on the rise, the report found. Indian widows are now placed on the lowest rung of society where they can never remarry and must depend on their in-laws to survive.
Indonesian women, according to Oxfam and women activists, are being sexually harassed in camps, forced or rushed into marrying much older men and victimized by abusive Indonesian soldiers who reportedly have strip searched them.
There aren’t too many official stats at this point, but Becky Buel, Oxfam’s policy director says that this will be a problem for years to come, unless the international community and aid efforts focus and address this problem immediately.