Clinton meets sea gypsies on tsunami-hit Thai island

PHUKET, Thailand, Dec 2 (Reuters) Former US President Bill Clinton met Thai ''sea gypsies'' on a tour of tsunami-hit Asian countries today and called for stepped up efforts to provide permanent homes to survivors of the 2004 disaster.

Clinton spent an hour in a fishing village home to 200 Moken ''sea gypsies'' who survived the deadly waves that hit the Andaman Sea coastline of Thailand, killing nearly 6,000 people.

Thirty of the 54 one-room, bamboo homes in the village were badly damaged and some are still being repaired two years after the tsunami.

''The slowest thing in this region is the housing,'' Clinton, who will finish his tenure as UN Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery at the end of this month, told reporters.

''We have to keep working because on average about 30 per cent of people have been put back in permanent houses -- 30 or 35 per cent -- we've got to do better than that,'' he said.

The Moken, nomadic fishermen who live on the shores of Thailand and neighbouring Myanmar, welcomed Clinton with flowers and traditional dancers.

Their ancient beliefs warn them to flee to higher ground if ever the ocean recedes and as a result many survived the December. 26, 2004 disaster.

Clinton will fly to Aceh in Indonesia later today where he will inspect a temporary barracks housing tsunami survivors who previously had lived in tents.

He will also meet with local government officials and members of a former rebel group to review the Aceh peace process.

As part of a regional warning system against giant waves caused by earthquakes under the sea, Thailand launched yesterday the first of 22 US-made tsunami-detection buoys to be positioned around the Indian Ocean.

The satellite-linked deep-sea buoy, unveiled at a ceremony on the tsunami-hit island of Phuket, will float 1,000 km offshore, roughly midway between Thailand and Sri Lanka.

REUTERS PDM PM1655