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Relief efforts stingy, says UN official
Indo-American community launches
1,600 Swedish tourists missing
Landmines pose danger to Lankan tsunami survivors
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Grandson of Thai king among tsunami dead
Bush sends
condolences to tsunami-hit nations
Attacks on Iraqi forces kill 28
Yushchenko leads Ukraine poll
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Relief efforts stingy, says UN official
Even as the international community scrambled to help victims of the tsunamis that struck southern Asia, a senior United Nations official criticised the effort as "stingy."
Urging a major international response to the disaster, United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said in New York on Monday; "If, actually, the foreign assistance of many countries now is 0.1 or 0.2 per cent of the gross national income, I think that is stingy, really." "I don't think that is very generous," he added. The Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress in Washington, in an April report to members of the US Congress, said total foreign assistance, excluding the costs of reconstruction in Iraq after the US-led invasion, was larger in the 2003 and 2004 budgets than in any two-year period since the mid-1980s. "The 0.2 per cent of US gross national product represented by foreign aid obligations the past two years, however, is among the smallest amounts in the past half-century. The USA is the largest international economic aid donor in dollar terms, but is the smallest contributor among the major donor governments when calculated as a per cent of gross national income," said the report, which is posted on the State Department's website. In Washington, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said the Bush Administration was "going to do everything we can to assist the nations, that have been affected, in dealing with this tragedy." US ambassadors in Sri Lanka, the Maldives, India and Indonesia have provided a total of $ 4,00,000 in immediate assistance, Mr Powell said, "and we are in discussions with the International Committee of the Red Cross about providing $4 million in the course of the day of the $6.6 million appeal that they have made." Responding to criticism from Mr Egeland, Mr Powell said the US aid offered was "not just as a one-time thing." "Some 20-plus thousand lives have been lost in a few moments, but the lingering effects will be there for years. The damage that was caused, the rebuilding of schools and other facilities, will take time. So you need a quick infusion to stabilise the situation, take care of those who have been injured, get immediate relief supplies in, and then you begin planning for the longer haul," he added. Ed Fox, assistant administrator of the US Agency for International Development, said, "Not only have we responded, both in terms of the short run, with $4,00,000 to the various embassies and also a large commitment to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent, but it's anticipated that we'll add another - at least immediately - another probably $10 million, for a total of about $15 million, in our initial response to this tragedy." The USA is also sending a team of 21 persons to the region to assess the situation and determine the short-term and long-term needs. Besides the USA, the International Monetary Fund (TMF) has promised "whatever possible assistance" while the Red Cross has launched an appeal for $6.8 million. The European Union (EU) has pledged $4.1 million, Australia pledged $7.7 million and has sent two planes carrying drinking water and purification equipment to Indonesia, Russia has sent 25 tons of humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka, and Britain and France were also due to send relief materials and rescue workers. The UN's emergency relief chief said the devastation caused by the
tsunamis was "unprecedented." The tsunamis were "not the biggest in recorded history, but the effects may be the biggest ever because many more people live in exposed areas than ever before," said Mr Egeland. Mr Egeland said the cost of the devastation would "probably be several billions of dollars. However, we cannot fathom the cost of these poor societies and the nameless fishermen and fishing villages that have just been wiped out." He said in the USA, Europe, and elsewhere, politicians "believe that they are burdening the taxpayers too much and that the taxpayers want to give less. That's not true. They want to give more." White House spokesman Trent Duffy said, "The American people are very giving, so we'll continue to be that and we'll be a leading partner in this effort that lies ahead. |
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Indo-American community launches
Jolted by the humanitarian tragedy playing out half way round the world, the Indian-American community has launched several fundraising efforts to help the victims of the
tsunamis.
The Association for India's Development (AD), a US-based voluntary non-profit development organisation, has approved $7,500 from its relief and rehabilitation fund toward immediate relief efforts. The group has also asked the Indian-American community to contribute additional amounts so that prompt relief and an enduring rehabilitation effort are possible. A statement from AID said the AID-India volunteers and close partner organisations were active in some of the worst affected areas, including Chennai, Nagapattinam and Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu. These volunteers anticipate immediate need for shelter, food, clothing and medicines for people who were rendered homeless or expected to be evacuated from the affected areas. Chennai-based Balaji Sampath, full-time coordinator of the AID-India, said, “One thing that is clearly needed when we talked to people affected is shelter, but this is not something that we can do
immediately.” Rajen Anand, president of the National Federation of Indian-American Associations, said he had received a suggestion from a community leader that “we should reach out to 1,000 people and ask them to donate at least $100 each before the end of this month.” “The collected money can then be sent to the International Red Cross or some other credible organisations to reach the victims right away when they need it most,” he said in a statement. Meanwhile, condolences and offers of help poured in from members of the US Congress. Congressman Frank Pallone, New Jersey Democrat and founder and former co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, said, “As human beings we have all been horrified by the loss of so many lives and we must do everything that is in our power to ensure that the victims of this tragedy receive the help that they so desperately need.” Incoming co-chair of the caucus, Congresswoman Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen, Florida Republican, said the many nations affected “should know that the USA will help all it can." “This will go down as one of the worst natural disasters in the annals of human history, but it will also bring out the good of humanity in coming together and dealing with the aftermath of such unspeakable tragedy,” she said. |
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1,600 Swedish tourists missing
Stockholm, December 28 This figure does not include people who organised their own holiday in Thailand without the help of a travel agency, media reported. Sweden's foreign ministry however declined to give any estimates of those missing. "We don't speculate. There are so many figures floating around. It could be much worse or much better than expected," ministry spokeswoman Aasa Svensdotter said. Of Sweden's big three tour operators, Fritidsresor told the TT news agency it still has no news from 600 Swedish travelers in the Phuket and Khao Lak areas. "We know that many got out of Khao Lak by themselves and have gathered in the mountains," Fritidsresor spokeswoman Eva Olivecrona said, saying agency representatives were on their way to find the survivors. Another operator, Mytravel, said it had lost contact with around 500 Swedes in Thailand. The Apollo agency said it was also trying to reach 500 of the Swedish holidaymakers it had flown into Thailand for Christmas, but spokesman Mats Dahlqvist said there were "enormous communications problems" with neither fax nor data lines working properly.
— AFP |
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Landmines pose danger to Lankan tsunami survivors
United Nations, December 28 “Mines were floated by the floods and washed out of known mine fields, so now we don’t know where they are, and the warning signs on mined areas have been swept away or destroyed,” UNICEF’s Ted Chaiban said from the agency’s office in Colombo. “The greatest danger to civilians will come when they begin to return to their homes, not knowing where the mines are,” Chaiban added. Mines are a legacy of a conflict between the government and the LTTE.
— AFP |
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Grandson of Thai king among tsunami dead
Bangkok, December 28 Bhumi Jensen was last seen jet-skiing off Krabi when the deadly wave battered the popular resort area. His body was later found by rescue workers near Khao Lak beach.
— Reuters Nepal aid for Lanka
victims
Kathmandu: The Nepalese Government will send $1,00,000 to
Sri Lanka to help the victims of a huge quake and a tsunami-hit
South-East Asia on Sunday, killing thousands. The Nepalese Cabinet
held an emergency meeting here on Monday and promised all help to the
affected countries. — UNI Jail
inmates flee after tsunami
Jakarta: More than 200 prisoners escaped from a jail in
Indonesia's restive Aceh province after a tsunami knocked down the
prison walls, a police official said. Ali Taruna Jaya, police chief in
the town of Pidie, said a few of the 204 inmates, who fled from the
coastal jail, had given themselves up. — Reuters
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Bush sends
condolences to tsunami-hit nations
Washington, December 28 “After his (Mr Bush) normal intelligence
briefing, he received a special briefing, an update on the situation in
Asia following yesterday’s tsunamis,” White House Deputy Press
Secretary Trent Duffy told reporters yesterday at Crawford (Texas). “And
our thoughts and prayers are with all those who are suffering. The USA
at the President’s direction, will be a leading partner in one of the
most significant relief, rescue and recovery challenges that the world
has ever known. And the USAID briefed earlier today about all those
efforts underway, Mr Duffy said. Meanwhile, the US Government, members
of Congress and several Indian Associations have expressed concern over
the plight of the victims of tsunami and urged all possible help. “A
tragic disaster of such a large magnitude deserves our immediate
attention and assistance,” Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone,
Founder and former co-chair of House Caucus on India and Indian
Americans, said. Incoming Co-Chair of the House Caucus on India and
Indian-Americans Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen remarked, “my
sincere and heartfelt condolences go to the thousands of victims and
their families who suffered during this devastating and massive
earthquake and killer tsunamis.” — PTI |
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Quake has altered Asian map: experts
Los Angeles, December 28 The 9.0-magnitude temblor that struck 250 km south-east of Sumatra island on Sunday may have moved small islands as much as 20 metres, according to one expert. "That earthquake has changed the map," US Geological Survey expert Ken Hudnut said yesterday. "Based on seismic modelling, some of the smaller islands off the south-west coast of Sumatra may have moved to the south-west by about 20 metres. That is a lot of slip." The north-western tip of the Indonesian territory of Sumatra may also have shifted to the south-west by around 36 metres, Mr Hudnut said. In addition, the energy released as the two sides of the undersea fault slipped against each other made the earth wobble on its axis, he said. "We can detect very slight motions of the earth and I would expect that the earth wobbled in its orbit when the earthquake occurred due the massive amount of energy exerted and the sudden shift in mass," Mr Hudnut said. However, Mr Stuart Sipkin of the USGS National Earthquake Information Centre in Golden Colorado, said it was more likely that the islands off Sumatra had risen higher out of the sea than they had moved laterally. "In this case, the Indian plate dived below the Burma plate, causing uplift, so most of the motion to the islands would have been vertical, not horizontal."
— AFP |
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Setting up tsunami warning systems not easy
New York, December 28 Such systems require integrated earthquake and tide and wave gauges and computer models which can quickly project where
tsunamis may travel, a tsunami expert affiliated with University of Hawaii, Dr George D. Curtis said. Even more challenging is the need to create an efficient method to alert hundreds of coastal communities and educational efforts to be sure that residents heed the alarm, he was quoted as saying by the New York Times. That is easier to do in advanced wealthy countries like the USA and Japan than in developing countries, where the vulnerability is enormous and resources limited. |
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Attacks on Iraqi forces kill 28
Samarra, December 28 In an audiotape purportedly recorded by the Al-Qaida leader, bin Laden also said all those who took part in next month’s landmark elections would be “infidels,” raising the stakes in the run-up to the January 30 vote. In one of a series of apparently coordinated strikes in Sunni Muslim strongholds north of Baghdad, insurgents stormed a police station in Dijla between Tikrit and Samarra and gunned down 12 policemen, police said. “Armed men took control of the police station and executed 12 policemen, three of them officers,” one police source said, adding that the attackers then dynamited the building. Just outside Tikrit, three policemen were killed in an attack on a checkpoint.
— AFP |
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Bin Laden tape urges Iraqis not to vote
Dubai, December 28 The speaker on the tape, aired by the Arabic television channel Al Jazeera yesterday, also praised bloody attacks by Al-Qaida ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on US troops and government officials in Iraq, hailing the Jordanian militant as a true ''soldier of God'' and Al- Qaida's leader in Iraq. "This (Iraqi) constitution is blasphemous ... and anyone who takes part in this election consciously and willingly is an infidel,'' said the speaker, whose voice sounded similar to previous Bin Laden recordings. "You have to be careful of those charlatans who, under the guise of Islamic parties, urge the people to take part in the election,'' he added. Iraq is due to hold parliamentary elections on January. 30 which Shia Muslim groups are poised to win. In a move threatened for weeks, the Iraqi Islamic Party said it was withdrawing from the parliamentary poll because violence in Sunni areas meant it would not be for fair to the minority which dominated the country under Saddam. Though many Sunnis want to vote, many are afraid to and the party's decision revives debate on how Washington and its Iraqi allies can rescue the sectarian balance, and legitimacy, of the resulting assembly if Sunni Arabs stay at home on polling day. US and Iraqi officials have warned of an increase in violence in the run-up to the election, which will see the creation of a 275-seat national assembly and a new government. WASHINGTON:
US intelligence officials have concluded an audiotape on which Osama bin Laden urges Iraqis to boycott January's elections is likely to be genuine, an official said. The intelligence officials assessed, after a technical analysis, that the voice on the tape was likely to be that of the Al-Qaida leader, the official said yesterday. Sound quality on the tape is not very high, the official added.
— Reuters |
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Yushchenko leads Ukraine poll
Kiev, December 28 "I will never recognise such a defeat, because the Constitution and human rights were violated in our country," Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych told reporters yesterday evening.
— AP |
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