Registered: Not Yet
Location:
Posts: N/A

Will the world walk away?

Charities fear new disaster if crisis follows usual path

John Vidal, Julian Borger in Washington, and Sarah Boseley Thursday
December 30, 2004 The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tsunami/s...1380822,00.html

The world's leading charities yesterday pleaded for rich nations
and world bodies to act with more urgency and generosity to cope
with the unprecedented humanitarian disaster unfolding along the
coasts of Asian and African countries. The appeal came as David
Nabarro, head of crisis operations for the World Health Organisation,
told the Guardian he was fearful that not enough was being done to
help the survivors of the tsunamis that struck on Boxing Day.

"I am very scared people aren't paying real attention to this," he
said.

"Counting deaths is one thing and looking at damaged hotels is
another, but the real issue is making sure that the human beings
affected by this tragedy survive.

"In humanitarian crisis after humanitarian crisis, what we see is
people dying of communicable diseases because of the lack of
sanitation and clean water supplies."

The WHO warned yesterday that five million people in the region now
lack the basics necessary for survival.

By last night, $250m (#130m) had been pledged for the relief effort
from the world's 30 richest countries, though major banks and the
UN are now suggesting that it will cost between $10-15bn to help
the region recover from the disaster.

Britain has pledged #15m. Of other major donors, Spain has pledged
$60m, Australia $10m and the US $35m.

Phil Bloomer, head of advocacy at Oxfam, said yesterday: "It's clear
the short and medium term responses are [so far] underfunded. The
next five to 10 days are crucial. The danger is that donors will
walk away in two weeks' time, as they have in other disasters."

Brendan Gormley, chief executive of the Disasters Emergency Committee,
a grouping of Britain's leading 11 humanitarian charities, also
urged more resources.

However, the DEC said its public appeal had raised #5m in less than
24 hours.

That was before television appeals were made last night by Sir
Trevor McDonald and David Dimbleby.

The scale of the effort required, and the potential lack of funds,
was underlined yesterday when the Indonesian government appealed
for at least $145m to cope with the country's immediate needs in
Aceh and north Sumatra, where an estimated 80,000 people may have
died.

"That does not include [money for] rehabilitation of the areas hit
by the disaster, but only the shelter, food and medical treatment
to those affected by the disaster and restoration of telecommunications
and power," said the country's vice president, Yusuf Kalla, in
Jakarta.

Yesterday, President Bush gave his first press conference since the
disaster, and reflected the simmering tension between his administration
and the United Nations.

At home, he has been under fire for not making a personal appearance
on the crisis, and for failing to cut short a holiday trip to his
Crawford Ranch.

Without reference to the UN, which is supposed to be coordinating
the crisis response, Mr Bush announced the US had set up a regional
donor group to coordinate emergency aid, involving India, Australia
and Japan. Administration officials have bridled at suggestions
that the initial US aid contribution was modest in view of the scale
of the disaster.

The US Agency for International Development originally offered $15m
but has since added another $20m.

The president took particular offence at an observation by the UN's
emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, that western nations in
general had been "stingy" towards developing nations by giving less
in foreign aid at a time of economic growth. "I felt like the person
who made that statement was very ill-informed," Mr Bush said
yesterday.

He added that in 2004, the US government had provided "$2.4bn in
food, in cash, in humanitarian relief to cover the disasters for
last year ... 40% of all relief aid given in the world last year
was provided by the United States government".

But while the US is the world's biggest aid donor in absolute terms
it gives less as a percentage of its national in come than any other
modern industrialised nation - 0.14%.

In contrast to the response of governments, there has been exceptional
scale of giving by the public.

In Scandinavia, where more than 2,700 residents are still missing,
charities reported "overwhelming" donations, with several million
pounds raised in 24 hours from businesses and individuals.

Yesterday both the the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank
put the likely cost of coping with the disaster at around $10-15bn.
Both organisations said that they were in talks with governments
to redirect existing loans to reconstruction efforts.

"These countries are still wrestling with the scope of the disaster,
so it will take a couple of days for the full extent of the disaster
to be known and we will certainly look to redirect loans," said
World Bank spokesman Damian Milverton.

"If new assistance is needed, it would likely go to Sri Lanka and
Indonesia,"

he added.

This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from
http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged