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| Monday, 3 January 2005 |
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by Ranil Wijayapala The UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for the tsunami affected countries, Margareta Wahlstrom yesterday stressed the necessity of a 'very strong mechanism' to coordinate international aid for the tsunami affected people since it is a challenging task for the Government. The UN Special Envoy who visited tsunami affected areas in the Hambantota, Galle, Matara areas told a media conference last evening that the UN was ready to provide all its assistance towards the Government to accommodate all the donors assisting tsunami victim countries. She said the 'system is beginning to function better' in Sri Lanka in assisting the tsunami affected people. The Special Envoy also met President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga yesterday and was due to leave for other tsunami affected countries in the region. Wahlstrom said the UN will make an appeal for aid for the tsunami affected countries in the South East Asian countries at the special session of donor community meeting convened to Jakarta in Indonesia on January 6. "The UN Secretary General will make this appeal from the specially convened donor community in Jakarta for relief and early recovery assistance for the tsunami affected countries", she added. The early recovery assistance include provision of shelters and preventive health care measures. She said there will be special session to make an appeal for donation for the tsunami affected countries at the regular meeting of International Donor Community to be convened in Geneva on January 11. In addition to that UN will make another appeal from the donor community to assist the reconstruction process in tsunami affected countries at yet another meeting to be called within next few months. Wahlstrom also said that the UN will provide its expert assistance in setting up a tsunami alarm system in the region after it is discussed at a special conference on Disaster Reduction Measures to be held in Japan soon. "The establishment of a tsunami alarm system in the region will be discussed at length at this conference", she added.She said Governments in the region have already taken initiatives towards this. The Special Envoy said that six to eight UN staff have now been deployed to work along with the Government Agents in the tsunami affected areas in Sri Lanka so that the UN would be able to assess the extent of damage to Sri Lanka and to provide relevant information to the international community effectively. |
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