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| Thursday, 06 January 2005 |
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US Secretary of State Colin Powell will visit the tsunami-ravaged areas of Sri Lankan on January 7, the US Embassy in Colombo said yesterday. Powell will also meet Sri Lankan leaders for talks on the rehabilitation and reconstruction effort. He is among top international figures visiting the country to asses the tsunami damage and reconstruction needs. World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn will visit Sri Lanka on the weekend of January 8-9 to have a first-hand view of the destruction to lives, livelihoods and property caused by the tsunami. His visit will coincide with that of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan. Powell earlier visited the Sri Lankan Embassy in Washington and expressed his condolences. US President George W. Bush, who has announced US$ 350 million aid package for the tsunami-ravaged nations, also signed the condolence book at the Embassy along with former Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush. An array of US warships, planes and helicopters, along with 13,000 military personnel, have already been sent to the Indian Ocean after the Asia tsunami disaster, which killed more than 146,000 people in 11 countries. US Marines are already engaged in an humanitarian mission in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, the Office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D. announced that he will visit the tsunami-ravaged countries of Sri Lanka and India this week. He is expected to meet President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and will visit Galle. Senator Frist is travelling to get a first-hand account of the areas devastated by the tsunami and the plight of the people, especially children impacted by it. He also wants to observe US aid agencies in action to ensure American assistance is flowing as efficiently and effectively as possible. The Secretary of State is on a tour of the tsunami-hit countries. He was in Indonesia, the hardest hit nation, yesterday. Speaking to reporters there, Powell said the tsunami may bring reconciliation among warring parties in both Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka's government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) made conciliatory statements soon after the disaster, which has killed some 150,000 people, as did Indonesian authorities and the GAM (Free Aceh Movement) rebels in Aceh province. "We hope that this crisis, with respect to the situation in Aceh as well as the situation in Sri Lanka with the LTTE, might perhaps create some openings and opportunities that can be used by both sides," Powell told reporters after meeting Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda. His comments echoed those made by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan during a press conference with Powell last week. Powell toured Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province and said the devastation wrought by the disaster was the worst he had ever seen. "In the course of my career I've been in war and I've been through a number of hurricanes, tornadoes and other relief operations but I have never seen anything like this," Powell said after a helicopter trip over the worst-hit areas. "I cannot begin to imagine the horror that went through the families and all of the people who heard this noise coming and then had their lives snuffed out by these waves," he told reporters. Powell earlier flew from Jakarta into the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, to see the hub of an unprecedented humanitarian mission to help survivors of the December 26 catastrophe that killed more than 94,000 Indonesians. His trip makes him the most prominent international figure to visit Aceh, a remote region on the northern tip of Sumatra island that until the disaster was most well known for a decades-long separatist insurgency. Accompanied by US President George W. Bush's brother Jeb, Powell flew in a US military helicopter over areas where walls of water destroyed entire villages. "The power of the waves to destroy bridges, to destroy factories, to destroy homes, to destroy crops, to destroy everything in its path is amazing," Powell said. "I have a better understanding of what the needs of Banda Aceh and the challenges the Indonesian government will be facing in the weeks and months ahead." Powell said the United States would increase its military relief efforts in the province, placing more helicopters at the disposal of Indonesian authorities. Powell returned to Jakarta later in the day for a meeting with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ahead of an emergency disaster summit of world leaders and donors in the Indonesian capital on Thursday. The following is an outline of the main issues facing the meeting: With governments currently announcing massive new pledges of donations to the aid effort almost daily, there are expectations this will continue at the conference. But there will be little time during the one-day meeting for the dozens of prime ministers, presidents, foreign ministers and international and aid agency officials attending to discuss the most pressing concrete issues of getting food, clean water, and sanitation to the most needy. Aid experts say, however, it is vital that the aid effort is better co-ordinated, between the United Nations, the aid agencies, donor organisations, and private donors, to ensure that the aid is given in an effective way and gets speedily to those in most pressing need. The meeting "is an opportunity to take stock of what is really known in terms of numbers. It is an opportunity not so much for new pledges, but at least to take stock of what kind of scale of resources are available," UN Children's Fund chief Carol Bellamy told AFP. Indonesia said Monday it had already begun work with its neighbours to create an early warning system for the Indian Ocean region to ensure that the huge death toll from the savage tsunami will never be repeated. Such a system already exists for the Pacific Ocean region, but, while the technical side of the system would be easy to put in place in the Indian Ocean region, it will still be a major challenge to make it work. The victims, besides requiring immediate aid and assistance, will need long-term support in rebuilding shattered communities and broken lives, disaster recovery experts say. |
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