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CNN Live Today
Some Sri Lankan Survivors to Move Away from Coast; Survivors, Artifacts Tell Tales of Loss; Friend of Murdered Civil Rights Workers Reflects on New Trial; Adoption of Tsunami Orphans May Not Be Best Solution
Aired January 07, 2005 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CO-HOST: And here is a look at what is happening right now.
Utter destruction, mile after mile. That is a direct quote. It's how U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan described the scene after touring tsunami stricken areas of Indonesia. We're going to get a live update from the region on relief and recovery efforts and the very latest pictures, as well. That's coming just ahead.
The head of the U.S. military responds to the tsunami disaster says that operations have reached a key stage. He says the focus now is on mapping out long-term strategies and relief efforts. The U.S. has about 13,000 military personnel that have been responding thus far to this crisis.
Thousands of people are waiting to return to their homes near the site of the deadly train collision and that chemical spill. Eight people died as a result of the accident. This is in Aiken County, South Carolina, by the way. The collision caused one of the train cars to rupture, releasing toxic chlorine gas.
A Mississippi main is facing arraignment in that 1964 murder of three civil rights workers. White supremacist Edgar Ray Killen was arrested at his home yesterday. He's charged in the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. The case was dramatized in the movie you may recall in 1988. It was called "Mississippi Burning."
Good to you have back; 11 a.m. on the East Coast, 8 a.m. out west. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Rick Sanchez.
DARYN KAGAN, CO-HOST: And good morning once again. I'm Daryn Kagan.
We are going to begin this hour in South Asia. Nearly two weeks after the tsunami disaster, the devastation still evokes a sense of disbelief for those who are seeing it firsthand.
Secretary of State Colin Powell says it's more than buildings that have been crushed but lives that were snuffed out. Powell made the comments after visiting hard-hit areas of Sri Lanka today.
A telethon in Saudi Arabia has raised more than $77 million to help tsunami victims. And the Islamic Development Bank based in Saudi pledged $500 million in aid.
Thousands of tourists and others are still missing or unaccounted for. Britain today raising its number of dead to 49. In all, at least 375 non-nationals were killed in the disaster.
SANCHEZ: Secretary of state Colin Powell today promised at least $25 million in aid just to Sri Lanka. That's part of the $350 million pledge to the region from the United States we had reported on in the past.
Sri Lanka was Mr. Powell's last stop on his visit to tsunami- ravaged areas in south Asia. You see him there in the middle of the screen walking with some associates. Earlier he surveyed damage in Indonesia and Thailand, as well.
Now, our John King has been traveling with the secretary of state throughout the region, and he spoke with Powell about the destruction caused by the tsunami. Here now is part of this CNN exclusive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: No briefing book, no television picture, really, can convey what really happened here.
Drive through the town. You'll see all these fishing boats that have been tossed up on the shore, to see an 800-ton freighter that literally was taken out of the ocean and simply plopped on the wharf. And it sits there until something big enough can come along and get it off.
And to hear stories about young children, children who saw the tide go out suddenly. And not knowing what that meant, ran down to the beach to see why the tide went out so suddenly and picking up fish, only a few minutes later to see this monstrous wave coming and taking their lives.
Women and children were the bulk of the losses here, because men had the strength to hold on to something. Mothers trying to defend their children were washed out to sea.
To realize the power of nature and the power of this tsunami, and how it affected not just the side of the island that was facing the earthquake but it was able to go around. It was able to go past here, hit the Indian coast and come back and rebound and hit the west coast of Sri Lanka. It's just amazing, the force that was unleashed here.
To think of what it must have been like when that wave hit. And the horror that must have been in the hearts and minds of these people, knowing they were facing sudden death.
And you now see cleanup activity under way. You see buildings knocked down. What you don't see any longer are the people who were here, the thousands upon thousands of people who simply lost their lives in a matter of moments.
So every building that I saw that was knocked down or the debris that I saw, that represented human beings that lost their lives here in one terrible, horrible, devastating moment on December 26.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Some powerful words matched by our images by the secretary of state. If you're wondering now what Secretary of State Powell will do with this information and what he's learned there, he's telling us he plans to have a meeting with the president to tell him what he found Monday.
KAGAN: More now from Sri Lanka. It did suffer some of the worst destruction from the tsunami, second only to Indonesia. The town of Ampara on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka was especially hard hit.
Harris Whitbeck is there and joins us by videophone with an update -- Harris.
HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
In the Ampara province, 23,000 homes were destroyed; 183,000 people are now displaced and living in refugee centers. As time goes by, they begin to wonder about when and, more importantly, where they will find a new home. And they're also beginning to try to assimilate the violent changes in their lives.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WHITBECK (voice-over): Abdul Rashid (ph) digs through rubble and salvages a cooking pot from what is left of his family's kitchen.
Next door, his neighbors' children dig through the remains of their house, making a game out of salvaging what is left of their lives. But this isn't child's play. This is the new reality for Abdul, his neighbors and thousands more like him in the village of Akbar in the Ampara province of southeastern Sri Lanka.
"Before we had everything we ever needed," he says. "Now we're like orphans."
This field of litter and debris was once a model village in the province. Built by the government in the 1980s, Akbar was a prosperous, thriving town, the very picture of idyllic life on the beach.
(on camera) The beachfront had been developed for people's enjoyment. This was the main road that had recently been refurbished. There was a parking lot, and there were hotels and small restaurants where local residents would come to spend the last hours of the day by the sea.
(voice-over) For most of the survivors from Akbar village, the idyll has been lost forever. Abdul lost 15 members of his family. Only his younger brother and sister remain.
"I'm not even able to think about what I'm going to do now," he says, "but I do know I will not stay here." His neighbors feel the same way. They're thankful their entire family is alive. The children survived because they were all in school at the time, and the husband found the wife clinging for life to a tree.
But they'll take all they have left, themselves, and move away from the sea they came to fear.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITBECK: Now, for those who have decided to stay in that particular area or who don't have anywhere else to go, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees has begun distributing plastic sheeting and cooking sets so that they can at least go back to the land that they still own, set up camp, try to start clearing the rubble.
And then the U.N. HCR office says that within three to four months they should have semi-permanent housing set up for these people -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And then ultimately, how do they plan to make their living?
WHITBECK: Well, that's the big question, because many of the people along the coastline, as you know, lived -- lived off of the sea. Many of them were fishermen. Many lost their boats.
So one of the big problems that we will see, further down the road and not too further down the road, is the question of -- of employment. Many people are hoping that they will get access to small loans so that they can buy new boats or try to repair the boats that were damaged so that they can get back out into the water to make their livelihood.
KAGAN: Harris Whitbeck from Sri Lanka. Thank you.
SANCHEZ: Let's show you other pictures now. These are coming from the area of Sumatra in Indonesia. Keep in mind: this is the area that's closest to where the earthquake actually hit. So it would put them closest to the first tsunami waves.
It's mile after mile of the coastline there. Waves swallowed just about everything in sight, but occasionally, you'll find someone or something that just simply refused to give up to that rushing water.
Here's ITV's John Irvine. He reports from Banda Aceh. A warning here: some of the video in this report you may find disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN IRVINE, ITV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It may look like a cinematic image, but it's not. It's a view of the city center from a window in this, the last house still standing on the way down to the sea.
Between this dwelling on the coast, where before Boxing Day, there was a thriving community, there's now just wilderness and decay.
It's a huge acreage where the tsunami was at its most thorough. We feel compelled to keep coming back to this area to try to bring home what's befallen these homes and their inhabitants.
In the last house lived a family of five. The eldest child was a teenage pop fan. The other two had bedrooms side-by-side, pink for a girl, blue for a boy. He was a soccer fan.
We find the family photograph album lying open, a chronicle of three generations. There were wedding pictures. Births had been recorded, as were religious ceremonies.
And perhaps the most poignant was this: a seaside snap.
(on camera) They probably had only a few seconds to decide what to do. From what we can tell, they rushed upstairs to seek refuge in this corner of the house. They were extremely unlucky, for it's the only piece of the building that collapsed under the weight of water.
(voice-over) We have no miracle to report. For we find the parents' bodies in the rubble, their hands reaching out to each other in death. What happened to the children, we don't know.
When you look at the destruction, its enormity, it is incredible that anyone got out alive.
We talked to a boy who was carried more than a mile and survived by clamoring on to this balcony. That said, in terms of immediate family, the 14-year-old Arees (ph) is now alone in the world. He lost his parents and four siblings.
The house he had scrambled onto belongs to a doctor, a retired G.P. with three children of his own. He has now adopted Arees (ph) as his fourth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No different. No difference.
IRVINE (on camera): So he's like your son now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes.
IRVINE (voice-over): Understandably, they're trying to keep the boy busy. But often, even during our brief time here, he lapsed into a thousand yard stare as his young mind tried to contemplate what is bereavement beyond belief.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: That story from John Irvine.
We do have a story that might, among all this, sound like a miracle story from the tsunami coming up. Christiane Amanpour will take us to an orphanage in Sri Lanka. The orphanage was wiped off the map. But you're going to hear the amazing story of how the children survived. That's coming up. SANCHEZ: Thousands of children in South Asia become orphans after the tsunami. And many people are wondering who should take care of them. We're going to speak to one international adoption expert.
KAGAN: And then back here in the states, an arrest more than 40 years after the killings of three civil rights workers in Mississippi. You're going to hear from one of the victims' friends, who's been campaigning for justice all these years. And that's coming up right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(STOCK REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: Mississippi now is bringing the first murder charges in a 40-year-old civil rights case. It is perhaps the most notorious killings of the era.
Reputed white supremacist Edgar Ray Killen is now being arraigned today in Philadelphia, Mississippi. He's almost 80 years old. Killen and others faced federal charges in 1967, but Killen's trial ended in a hung jury.
Three young civil rights workers, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Michael Goodman were ambushed on an isolated dirty road. The bodies were found several weeks later, buried in an earthen dam.
The story of Freedom Summer was dramatized in the 1988 movie, "Mississippi Burning."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PROF. SUSAN GLISSON, INSTITUTE FOR RACIAL RECONCILIATION: It would have been great if justice could have come a long time ago, but I'm glad it's coming now. I'm glad that we're finally standing up and saying that murder is wrong whenever it occurs. These three young men were cut down doing righteous work, and they should have justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Let's talk to somebody who's really tied to this story: Lawrence Guyot. He works with the organization Veterans of the Southern Civil Rights Movement.
Guyot knew Cheney, Schwerner and Goodman. In fact, he almost got into the car with them that night they were ambushed and killed. He's good enough to join us now from Washington to share his perspective.
Thanks so much for joining us.
LAWRENCE GUYOT, VETERANS OF THE SOUTHERN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT: It's a pleasure to be here. And I'm very -- I'm so glad that you just interviewed Susan Glisson, who's with the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, who was key to making this happen. SANCHEZ: Well, you know, in your case, there but by the grace of God go you. Had it not been for fate, you would have been in that car. I imagine that's why you've been so tied to this thing and have wanted to see it through to the end.
GUYOT: I don't know of anything I have been so tied to. I almost got in the car.
I -- I visited -- Michael Schwerner wasn't part of the volunteers. Michael Schwerner had been in Mississippi eight months before. I visited him in Meridian. I knew Chaney and Goodman. And I -- they asked me, "Should we go back to Mississippi?"
And I said -- back to Neshoba County -- I said, "Of course, with all of the national publicity about the Freedom Summer, nothing can possibly happen." I regretted those words every day of my life. I explained to the parents why I did it.
So this -- today is personal with me. It vindicates the two people in Mississippi who made it happen, Leroy Clemons and Jim Prince, who organized the Neshoba County Coalition. They met -- they called for this -- the re-opening of this case a year ago. They met in...
SANCHEZ: Well, you know, as you mentioned going through this again, there are people who will say, you know, Killen is a very old person, and this case is a long time ago. Why go through, with all this tax money and all these prosecutions now?
And to those you would say what?
GUYOT: I would say very clearly, there is no limitation on the prosecution for murder. This was the most politicized, open and most horrific political assassination in the '60s. There's never -- justice delayed should not be justice denied.
SANCHEZ: You know what's interesting about this case? As you read about it, and I'm sure you're as familiar as anybody, there are reports of former Klansmen who are on the record saying that the authorities there, deputies actually helped or conspired, according to these reports, and according to these quotes in this case.
What does that tell you about that era? Was there that big a tie between the white supremacists and the law enforcement officials in that time? And how have we changed? As you notice, there are two questions there.
GUYOT: Yes, very, very good. The officials of Mississippi, the sheriff, the vice-sheriff, were involved. The -- quite -- Reverend Killen was -- the reason this case is being re-opened is because Samuel Bowers, who was convicted of killing Mr. Dahmer in Hattiesburg, boasted that he was glad that he set a man free who was guilty of murder. That was Mr. Killen. So what we have is yes, the officialdom was involved. The churches were involved on the wrong side. But that is changing, and it is changing because of people like Leroy Clemons and William -- and Jim Prince, who formed the Coalition for Neshoba County. And on last night, they voted unanimously to get this book as the curriculum for Neshoba County as a living monument to Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman. SANCHEZ: And you're a -- you're a Mississippian, right? GUYOT: I'm a Mississippian. I was born in Mississippi. I tell people, I reside in the city of Washington, but I'm a citizen of the state of Mississippi. SANCHEZ: Proud Mississippian on this day, I imagine. We thank you, sir. GUYOT: Immensely.
SANCHEZ: We thank so you much for being with us. Interesting story, interesting perspective. We'll be back in contact with you again.
GUYOT: OK.
KAGAN: Let's go ahead and check in on weather. Orelon Sidney is watching that for us this morning.
Hi, Orelon.
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAGAN: Thank you.
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You're welcome.
SANCHEZ: We're going to take you a little further west out -- later on in the hour. A live report from Truckee, California, where, as Orelon just mentioned, the snow continues to fall. And that seems to be great news for these folks you're looking at in these pictures.
KAGAN: You go through Truckee if you're going skiing in Tahoe. Your geography lesson for the day.
Many Americans are asking why they can't adopt the orphans left by the Asian tsunami. An expert in international adoptions is going to explain the rules, regulations and the rationale when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: The plight of thousands of orphans across South Asia is bound to be a catalyst for international adoptions. But don't expect much activity on that front under the chaotic circumstances that currently exist.
With us to explain what adoption agencies are doing at present is Gary Gamer, head of Holt International Children Services, joining me now from Eugene, Oregon.
Gary, good morning.
GARY GAMER, HOLT INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN SERVICES: Good morning. Thank you for having me on this morning. KAGAN: A lot of the countries that have orphans that have been hit by the tsunami have put a freeze on any children leaving the country. Is that a good idea under current circumstances?
GAMER: Yes. It's not only a good idea, but it's -- it follows international protocols for how to handle children in this situation. The very first thing that needs to happen is to put out tracers to see if they can find the parents of these children, and if they can't, then to contact relatives to see if the relatives can help these kids.
KAGAN: Is it possible, do you know of other adoptions that were in process before the tsunami hit and those families now have hit a wall because the children can't leave the country?
GAMER: Well, I don't know if they've hit a wall because we're pressing forward with those cases. But certainly, you can imagine with the disaster of this proportion that all of the government agencies would be focused on trying to help the kids and provide social services to the disaffected people.
So maybe their attention is diverted, but we'll sure get back to trying to place these kids. And the governments, you know, are very cooperative in that regard.
KAGAN: You see these faces. You see these big brown eyes. They break your heart. Americans look at how much they have here and they say, you know, I want to bring a child here.
Is it possible, though, that these children are better off in their home countries?
GAMER: Well, that's what you want to do. Is we want to see if we can find families for these children in their home countries, either by reunifying them with parents or relatives or -- or finding adoptive families in those countries. And only in the absence of being able to find families for these children in their home countries would we then go on and find American families for these kids.
KAGAN: All right. Now you know some American families are watching here this morning. What should somebody know if they want to pursue those adoptions?
GAMER: Well, you can contact organizations like Holt International Children Services and you can inquire about -- about the prospects for adopting children, not just children in Thailand or India, but the immediate crisis renders a lot of children to be orphans.
But there's slow burning socioeconomic conditions that lead towards children being without families, burning all the time in many different countries. Tens of thousands of children are in need of families. And so please call organizations like Holt International, inquire if you're interested in adopting one of these children.
KAGAN: And then hopefully through your Web site or talking to you, people will be able to figure out what makes for a legitimate organization that knows if they're working with somebody who really is working in the best interest of the children.
Gary Gamer from Holt International, thank you so much.
GAMER: Thank you.
KAGAN: For more in-depth look at the tsunami's youngest victims, you can stay tuned to our special, called "SAVING THE CHILDREN." You'll see it only on CNN, beginning today at 1 Eastern, 10 Pacific.
SANCHEZ: There is some amazing new video of the tsunami. And whenever we get this video in, we want to share it with you and also give you a bit of a perspective on where it is and what people were affected by it.
Also, by now, you've seen at least a few of the 15 or more different correspondents in South Asia covering the story for CNN. They now share their personal impressions and experiences. We'll bring that to you, just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired January 7, 2005 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CO-HOST: And here is a look at what is happening right now.
Utter destruction, mile after mile. That is a direct quote. It's how U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan described the scene after touring tsunami stricken areas of Indonesia. We're going to get a live update from the region on relief and recovery efforts and the very latest pictures, as well. That's coming just ahead.
The head of the U.S. military responds to the tsunami disaster says that operations have reached a key stage. He says the focus now is on mapping out long-term strategies and relief efforts. The U.S. has about 13,000 military personnel that have been responding thus far to this crisis.
Thousands of people are waiting to return to their homes near the site of the deadly train collision and that chemical spill. Eight people died as a result of the accident. This is in Aiken County, South Carolina, by the way. The collision caused one of the train cars to rupture, releasing toxic chlorine gas.
A Mississippi main is facing arraignment in that 1964 murder of three civil rights workers. White supremacist Edgar Ray Killen was arrested at his home yesterday. He's charged in the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. The case was dramatized in the movie you may recall in 1988. It was called "Mississippi Burning."
Good to you have back; 11 a.m. on the East Coast, 8 a.m. out west. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Rick Sanchez.
DARYN KAGAN, CO-HOST: And good morning once again. I'm Daryn Kagan.
We are going to begin this hour in South Asia. Nearly two weeks after the tsunami disaster, the devastation still evokes a sense of disbelief for those who are seeing it firsthand.
Secretary of State Colin Powell says it's more than buildings that have been crushed but lives that were snuffed out. Powell made the comments after visiting hard-hit areas of Sri Lanka today.
A telethon in Saudi Arabia has raised more than $77 million to help tsunami victims. And the Islamic Development Bank based in Saudi pledged $500 million in aid.
Thousands of tourists and others are still missing or unaccounted for. Britain today raising its number of dead to 49. In all, at least 375 non-nationals were killed in the disaster.
SANCHEZ: Secretary of state Colin Powell today promised at least $25 million in aid just to Sri Lanka. That's part of the $350 million pledge to the region from the United States we had reported on in the past.
Sri Lanka was Mr. Powell's last stop on his visit to tsunami- ravaged areas in south Asia. You see him there in the middle of the screen walking with some associates. Earlier he surveyed damage in Indonesia and Thailand, as well.
Now, our John King has been traveling with the secretary of state throughout the region, and he spoke with Powell about the destruction caused by the tsunami. Here now is part of this CNN exclusive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: No briefing book, no television picture, really, can convey what really happened here.
Drive through the town. You'll see all these fishing boats that have been tossed up on the shore, to see an 800-ton freighter that literally was taken out of the ocean and simply plopped on the wharf. And it sits there until something big enough can come along and get it off.
And to hear stories about young children, children who saw the tide go out suddenly. And not knowing what that meant, ran down to the beach to see why the tide went out so suddenly and picking up fish, only a few minutes later to see this monstrous wave coming and taking their lives.
Women and children were the bulk of the losses here, because men had the strength to hold on to something. Mothers trying to defend their children were washed out to sea.
To realize the power of nature and the power of this tsunami, and how it affected not just the side of the island that was facing the earthquake but it was able to go around. It was able to go past here, hit the Indian coast and come back and rebound and hit the west coast of Sri Lanka. It's just amazing, the force that was unleashed here.
To think of what it must have been like when that wave hit. And the horror that must have been in the hearts and minds of these people, knowing they were facing sudden death.
And you now see cleanup activity under way. You see buildings knocked down. What you don't see any longer are the people who were here, the thousands upon thousands of people who simply lost their lives in a matter of moments.
So every building that I saw that was knocked down or the debris that I saw, that represented human beings that lost their lives here in one terrible, horrible, devastating moment on December 26.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Some powerful words matched by our images by the secretary of state. If you're wondering now what Secretary of State Powell will do with this information and what he's learned there, he's telling us he plans to have a meeting with the president to tell him what he found Monday.
KAGAN: More now from Sri Lanka. It did suffer some of the worst destruction from the tsunami, second only to Indonesia. The town of Ampara on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka was especially hard hit.
Harris Whitbeck is there and joins us by videophone with an update -- Harris.
HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
In the Ampara province, 23,000 homes were destroyed; 183,000 people are now displaced and living in refugee centers. As time goes by, they begin to wonder about when and, more importantly, where they will find a new home. And they're also beginning to try to assimilate the violent changes in their lives.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WHITBECK (voice-over): Abdul Rashid (ph) digs through rubble and salvages a cooking pot from what is left of his family's kitchen.
Next door, his neighbors' children dig through the remains of their house, making a game out of salvaging what is left of their lives. But this isn't child's play. This is the new reality for Abdul, his neighbors and thousands more like him in the village of Akbar in the Ampara province of southeastern Sri Lanka.
"Before we had everything we ever needed," he says. "Now we're like orphans."
This field of litter and debris was once a model village in the province. Built by the government in the 1980s, Akbar was a prosperous, thriving town, the very picture of idyllic life on the beach.
(on camera) The beachfront had been developed for people's enjoyment. This was the main road that had recently been refurbished. There was a parking lot, and there were hotels and small restaurants where local residents would come to spend the last hours of the day by the sea.
(voice-over) For most of the survivors from Akbar village, the idyll has been lost forever. Abdul lost 15 members of his family. Only his younger brother and sister remain.
"I'm not even able to think about what I'm going to do now," he says, "but I do know I will not stay here." His neighbors feel the same way. They're thankful their entire family is alive. The children survived because they were all in school at the time, and the husband found the wife clinging for life to a tree.
But they'll take all they have left, themselves, and move away from the sea they came to fear.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITBECK: Now, for those who have decided to stay in that particular area or who don't have anywhere else to go, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees has begun distributing plastic sheeting and cooking sets so that they can at least go back to the land that they still own, set up camp, try to start clearing the rubble.
And then the U.N. HCR office says that within three to four months they should have semi-permanent housing set up for these people -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And then ultimately, how do they plan to make their living?
WHITBECK: Well, that's the big question, because many of the people along the coastline, as you know, lived -- lived off of the sea. Many of them were fishermen. Many lost their boats.
So one of the big problems that we will see, further down the road and not too further down the road, is the question of -- of employment. Many people are hoping that they will get access to small loans so that they can buy new boats or try to repair the boats that were damaged so that they can get back out into the water to make their livelihood.
KAGAN: Harris Whitbeck from Sri Lanka. Thank you.
SANCHEZ: Let's show you other pictures now. These are coming from the area of Sumatra in Indonesia. Keep in mind: this is the area that's closest to where the earthquake actually hit. So it would put them closest to the first tsunami waves.
It's mile after mile of the coastline there. Waves swallowed just about everything in sight, but occasionally, you'll find someone or something that just simply refused to give up to that rushing water.
Here's ITV's John Irvine. He reports from Banda Aceh. A warning here: some of the video in this report you may find disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN IRVINE, ITV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It may look like a cinematic image, but it's not. It's a view of the city center from a window in this, the last house still standing on the way down to the sea.
Between this dwelling on the coast, where before Boxing Day, there was a thriving community, there's now just wilderness and decay.
It's a huge acreage where the tsunami was at its most thorough. We feel compelled to keep coming back to this area to try to bring home what's befallen these homes and their inhabitants.
In the last house lived a family of five. The eldest child was a teenage pop fan. The other two had bedrooms side-by-side, pink for a girl, blue for a boy. He was a soccer fan.
We find the family photograph album lying open, a chronicle of three generations. There were wedding pictures. Births had been recorded, as were religious ceremonies.
And perhaps the most poignant was this: a seaside snap.
(on camera) They probably had only a few seconds to decide what to do. From what we can tell, they rushed upstairs to seek refuge in this corner of the house. They were extremely unlucky, for it's the only piece of the building that collapsed under the weight of water.
(voice-over) We have no miracle to report. For we find the parents' bodies in the rubble, their hands reaching out to each other in death. What happened to the children, we don't know.
When you look at the destruction, its enormity, it is incredible that anyone got out alive.
We talked to a boy who was carried more than a mile and survived by clamoring on to this balcony. That said, in terms of immediate family, the 14-year-old Arees (ph) is now alone in the world. He lost his parents and four siblings.
The house he had scrambled onto belongs to a doctor, a retired G.P. with three children of his own. He has now adopted Arees (ph) as his fourth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No different. No difference.
IRVINE (on camera): So he's like your son now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes.
IRVINE (voice-over): Understandably, they're trying to keep the boy busy. But often, even during our brief time here, he lapsed into a thousand yard stare as his young mind tried to contemplate what is bereavement beyond belief.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: That story from John Irvine.
We do have a story that might, among all this, sound like a miracle story from the tsunami coming up. Christiane Amanpour will take us to an orphanage in Sri Lanka. The orphanage was wiped off the map. But you're going to hear the amazing story of how the children survived. That's coming up. SANCHEZ: Thousands of children in South Asia become orphans after the tsunami. And many people are wondering who should take care of them. We're going to speak to one international adoption expert.
KAGAN: And then back here in the states, an arrest more than 40 years after the killings of three civil rights workers in Mississippi. You're going to hear from one of the victims' friends, who's been campaigning for justice all these years. And that's coming up right after this.
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KAGAN: Mississippi now is bringing the first murder charges in a 40-year-old civil rights case. It is perhaps the most notorious killings of the era.
Reputed white supremacist Edgar Ray Killen is now being arraigned today in Philadelphia, Mississippi. He's almost 80 years old. Killen and others faced federal charges in 1967, but Killen's trial ended in a hung jury.
Three young civil rights workers, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Michael Goodman were ambushed on an isolated dirty road. The bodies were found several weeks later, buried in an earthen dam.
The story of Freedom Summer was dramatized in the 1988 movie, "Mississippi Burning."
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PROF. SUSAN GLISSON, INSTITUTE FOR RACIAL RECONCILIATION: It would have been great if justice could have come a long time ago, but I'm glad it's coming now. I'm glad that we're finally standing up and saying that murder is wrong whenever it occurs. These three young men were cut down doing righteous work, and they should have justice.
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SANCHEZ: Let's talk to somebody who's really tied to this story: Lawrence Guyot. He works with the organization Veterans of the Southern Civil Rights Movement.
Guyot knew Cheney, Schwerner and Goodman. In fact, he almost got into the car with them that night they were ambushed and killed. He's good enough to join us now from Washington to share his perspective.
Thanks so much for joining us.
LAWRENCE GUYOT, VETERANS OF THE SOUTHERN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT: It's a pleasure to be here. And I'm very -- I'm so glad that you just interviewed Susan Glisson, who's with the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, who was key to making this happen. SANCHEZ: Well, you know, in your case, there but by the grace of God go you. Had it not been for fate, you would have been in that car. I imagine that's why you've been so tied to this thing and have wanted to see it through to the end.
GUYOT: I don't know of anything I have been so tied to. I almost got in the car.
I -- I visited -- Michael Schwerner wasn't part of the volunteers. Michael Schwerner had been in Mississippi eight months before. I visited him in Meridian. I knew Chaney and Goodman. And I -- they asked me, "Should we go back to Mississippi?"
And I said -- back to Neshoba County -- I said, "Of course, with all of the national publicity about the Freedom Summer, nothing can possibly happen." I regretted those words every day of my life. I explained to the parents why I did it.
So this -- today is personal with me. It vindicates the two people in Mississippi who made it happen, Leroy Clemons and Jim Prince, who organized the Neshoba County Coalition. They met -- they called for this -- the re-opening of this case a year ago. They met in...
SANCHEZ: Well, you know, as you mentioned going through this again, there are people who will say, you know, Killen is a very old person, and this case is a long time ago. Why go through, with all this tax money and all these prosecutions now?
And to those you would say what?
GUYOT: I would say very clearly, there is no limitation on the prosecution for murder. This was the most politicized, open and most horrific political assassination in the '60s. There's never -- justice delayed should not be justice denied.
SANCHEZ: You know what's interesting about this case? As you read about it, and I'm sure you're as familiar as anybody, there are reports of former Klansmen who are on the record saying that the authorities there, deputies actually helped or conspired, according to these reports, and according to these quotes in this case.
What does that tell you about that era? Was there that big a tie between the white supremacists and the law enforcement officials in that time? And how have we changed? As you notice, there are two questions there.
GUYOT: Yes, very, very good. The officials of Mississippi, the sheriff, the vice-sheriff, were involved. The -- quite -- Reverend Killen was -- the reason this case is being re-opened is because Samuel Bowers, who was convicted of killing Mr. Dahmer in Hattiesburg, boasted that he was glad that he set a man free who was guilty of murder. That was Mr. Killen. So what we have is yes, the officialdom was involved. The churches were involved on the wrong side. But that is changing, and it is changing because of people like Leroy Clemons and William -- and Jim Prince, who formed the Coalition for Neshoba County. And on last night, they voted unanimously to get this book as the curriculum for Neshoba County as a living monument to Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman. SANCHEZ: And you're a -- you're a Mississippian, right? GUYOT: I'm a Mississippian. I was born in Mississippi. I tell people, I reside in the city of Washington, but I'm a citizen of the state of Mississippi. SANCHEZ: Proud Mississippian on this day, I imagine. We thank you, sir. GUYOT: Immensely.
SANCHEZ: We thank so you much for being with us. Interesting story, interesting perspective. We'll be back in contact with you again.
GUYOT: OK.
KAGAN: Let's go ahead and check in on weather. Orelon Sidney is watching that for us this morning.
Hi, Orelon.
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KAGAN: Thank you.
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You're welcome.
SANCHEZ: We're going to take you a little further west out -- later on in the hour. A live report from Truckee, California, where, as Orelon just mentioned, the snow continues to fall. And that seems to be great news for these folks you're looking at in these pictures.
KAGAN: You go through Truckee if you're going skiing in Tahoe. Your geography lesson for the day.
Many Americans are asking why they can't adopt the orphans left by the Asian tsunami. An expert in international adoptions is going to explain the rules, regulations and the rationale when we come back.
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KAGAN: The plight of thousands of orphans across South Asia is bound to be a catalyst for international adoptions. But don't expect much activity on that front under the chaotic circumstances that currently exist.
With us to explain what adoption agencies are doing at present is Gary Gamer, head of Holt International Children Services, joining me now from Eugene, Oregon.
Gary, good morning.
GARY GAMER, HOLT INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN SERVICES: Good morning. Thank you for having me on this morning. KAGAN: A lot of the countries that have orphans that have been hit by the tsunami have put a freeze on any children leaving the country. Is that a good idea under current circumstances?
GAMER: Yes. It's not only a good idea, but it's -- it follows international protocols for how to handle children in this situation. The very first thing that needs to happen is to put out tracers to see if they can find the parents of these children, and if they can't, then to contact relatives to see if the relatives can help these kids.
KAGAN: Is it possible, do you know of other adoptions that were in process before the tsunami hit and those families now have hit a wall because the children can't leave the country?
GAMER: Well, I don't know if they've hit a wall because we're pressing forward with those cases. But certainly, you can imagine with the disaster of this proportion that all of the government agencies would be focused on trying to help the kids and provide social services to the disaffected people.
So maybe their attention is diverted, but we'll sure get back to trying to place these kids. And the governments, you know, are very cooperative in that regard.
KAGAN: You see these faces. You see these big brown eyes. They break your heart. Americans look at how much they have here and they say, you know, I want to bring a child here.
Is it possible, though, that these children are better off in their home countries?
GAMER: Well, that's what you want to do. Is we want to see if we can find families for these children in their home countries, either by reunifying them with parents or relatives or -- or finding adoptive families in those countries. And only in the absence of being able to find families for these children in their home countries would we then go on and find American families for these kids.
KAGAN: All right. Now you know some American families are watching here this morning. What should somebody know if they want to pursue those adoptions?
GAMER: Well, you can contact organizations like Holt International Children Services and you can inquire about -- about the prospects for adopting children, not just children in Thailand or India, but the immediate crisis renders a lot of children to be orphans.
But there's slow burning socioeconomic conditions that lead towards children being without families, burning all the time in many different countries. Tens of thousands of children are in need of families. And so please call organizations like Holt International, inquire if you're interested in adopting one of these children.
KAGAN: And then hopefully through your Web site or talking to you, people will be able to figure out what makes for a legitimate organization that knows if they're working with somebody who really is working in the best interest of the children.
Gary Gamer from Holt International, thank you so much.
GAMER: Thank you.
KAGAN: For more in-depth look at the tsunami's youngest victims, you can stay tuned to our special, called "SAVING THE CHILDREN." You'll see it only on CNN, beginning today at 1 Eastern, 10 Pacific.
SANCHEZ: There is some amazing new video of the tsunami. And whenever we get this video in, we want to share it with you and also give you a bit of a perspective on where it is and what people were affected by it.
Also, by now, you've seen at least a few of the 15 or more different correspondents in South Asia covering the story for CNN. They now share their personal impressions and experiences. We'll bring that to you, just ahead.
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