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| Thursday, 06 January 2005 |
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World leaders in Jakarta for tsunami crisis talks JAKARTA, Wednesday (Reuters) U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and world leaders arrived in Jakarta on Wednesday to try to deal with Asia's tsunami crisis and a $2.3 billion humanitarian relief operation, the biggest since World War Two. As aid workers struggle to feed and shelter millions of survivors who are still burying their dead 10 days after a tsunami killed 150,000 people, world leaders will meet on Thursday to seek an answer for the question - how can the world prevent such a catastrophe ever occuring again? Indonesia, the worst-hit nation with almost two-thirds of the dead, hopes the one-day summit will agree to set up a regional tsunami warning system, which experts say could have saved many lives. Leaders from 26 nations and humanitarian organisations will also look at the massive reconstruction needed to rebuild the shattered lives of millions of people in six Indian Ocean nations. "Tomorrow's conference is not only for Indonesia but for all countries that have suffered from the earthquake," said Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. "And of course we do hope that tomorrow there will be a concrete result in the mechanism of how to assist countries that are to be assisted." Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said coordinating the aid effort was a key agenda item. "This will make a major contribution to ensuring there is a better coordinated effort and there are stronger contributions than might be the case without a summit." The world has pledged $2.278 billion in aid as hundreds of tonnes of emergency supplies of medicines, food, clean water and shelter floods into tsunami-hit areas by air, sea and road. Annan is expected to announce a major U.N. tsunami appeal at the Jakarta conference, which will also discuss the possibility of an immediate freeze of debt payments by affected countries. But some analysts say concrete long-term rehabilitation and reconstruction plans depend on detailed assessments difficult to make at a time when thousands of the dead are not yet buried and some isolated areas have only just been reached. The International Monetary Fund has said calculating the economic impact of the disaster would have to wait until immediate humanitarian needs are met. "I think what we really want to do is make sure the money that has been pledged and the resources that are on the way are properly and appropriately distributed to deal with the need," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Tuesday after he arrived in Jakarta. |
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