Further info on relief:
U.S. Sets Coalition for Tsunami Aid
Japan, India and Australia
Join to Coordinate Relief;
China’s Effort Is Criticized
By GREG HITT in Washington, LESLIE CHANG in Beijing and CHARLES FLEMING in Paris
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
December 30, 2004; Page A3
Western nations expanded their assistance to devastated regions in South Asia, even as China lagged in making a major commitment to help neighboring countries.
The U.S. yesterday said it was enlisting Japan, India and Australia in a coalition to coordinate relief for victims of the tsunami that swept through the Indian Ocean. As the death toll climbed to an estimated 77,000, the initiative underscored the intensifying focus on a disaster of epic proportions.
Amid a massive European airlift of food and medical supplies, Denmark stepped forward yesterday to lead a multinational effort to establish a U.N. disaster center on the swamped island of Sumatra. And German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called on members of the Paris Club, a group of 19 creditor nations, to suspend debt payments by Indonesia and Somalia.
But conspicuously absent from the rush of countries providing significant assistance was China. Beijing dispatched a shipment of materials to Sri Lanka, and was preparing a companion delivery to Indonesia. However, China has postponed sending a team of 15 doctors to Sri Lanka, citing safety concerns. And Beijing has pledged only $2.6 million in total aid to the afflicted countries, half the commitment made by Taiwan and less even than the pledge of a single Hong Kong businessman. (See related article.)
“This amount is too small,” said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. Over the past several years, China has attempted to promote itself in Asia as a good neighbor and partner, rather than a rival and a threat. But the mixed response to the disaster illustrates Beijing’s uneasy transition from developing nation to economic juggernaut, and the attendant difficulty of taking on wider responsibilities in the world. A Chinese official, for example, said Beijing is willing to send medical teams elsewhere but cannot because “only Sri Lanka” had extended an invitation.
“China has always felt itself poor, so its sense of international responsibility has always been less,” Mr. Shi said. “Now it is not so poor, but it still feels itself poor.”
Beijing has more than $500 billion in foreign-exchange reserves and is no stranger to using assistance to score political points. Since the 1960s, it has funded aid and infrastructure programs in the developing world, particularly Africa. After a massive earthquake in 1999 in Taiwan, Beijing attempted to send emergency materials and a team of hundreds of disaster-relief and medical experts, but was rebuffed by Taiwan’s authorities.
Whether China will give more than it pledged “will depend on how the situation in those countries develops,” said an official in the Asian section of the Ministry of Commerce’s department of foreign aid. He declined to comment on suggestions that China is doing too little.
Meanwhile, President Bush, speaking from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he is on vacation, said the ultimate U.S. response will far exceed the $35 million in taxpayer dollars committed thus far to the Asian relief effort. “We are committed to helping the affected countries in the difficult weeks and months that lie ahead,” Mr. Bush said. “These past few days have brought loss and grief to the world that is beyond our comprehension.”
Mr. Bush said the U.S. will work with India, Australia and Japan to provide immediate humanitarian relief and long-term recovery and reconstruction efforts. U.S. officials portrayed the four-nation group as the core of a potentially larger coalition that could streamline the delivery of assistance.
Andrew Natsios, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said he expects the four-nation coalition announced yesterday will work with the U.N. and other organizations in the field. He stressed that the $35 million committed by the U.S. so far represents just the “initial response” of the Bush administration. More aid will inevitably follow, he said, once U.S. disaster officials assess immediate needs for food, medical care, water and sanitation, and housing in the devastated region. That process, he predicted, will take “days, rather than weeks.” He declined to estimate potential long-term costs, and whether Congress will need to appropriate additional money to meet future U.S. commitments.
Mr. Bush suggested he is open to Chancellor Schroeder’s call for debt relief. “We’ll look at all requests,” he said. Mr. Schroeder said he hopes to propose the measure in January at a meeting of the Paris Club. Of the many nations hit hard over the weekend by the deadly waves, Indonesia and Somalia are the only two with Paris Club debt agreements.
In Brussels, the European Union’s Humanitarian Aid Commissioner, Louis Michel, is calling for a conference of major donor countries, as well as the U.N., World Bank and International Monetary Fund, to address the more costly, longer-term needs of South Asia once the immediate humanitarian crisis has been met. “The financial means needed for rehabilitation are even bigger than the ones for humanitarian aid,” said Amadeu Altafaj, a spokesman for Mr. Michel. “We know there is a serious risk that there is a gap between the two phases.”
The pressure for more coordination reflects the rapidly evolving focus of relief efforts around the world. While there is a rush to aid victims, there is also a hope to avoid wasting resources. The U.N. yesterday launched a global appeal for $130 million to fund U.N. programs in the hardest-hit countries. Some of the money requested by the U.N. could be drawn from the more than $200 million already pledged by nations around the world. Beyond the $35 million committed by the U.S., Germany has pledged $27 million, Great Britain $29 million and Japan $30 million. But much of the money pledged by donor nations already has claims on it, either in the form of contributions to groups such as the Red Cross or through independent expenditures made by foreign governments, underscoring the need for greater cooperation in the world-wide effort.
Setting aside the fund-raising appeal, the U.N.'s biggest impact at the moment may be in coordinating the actions on the ground by private relief groups and foreign governments. U.N. humanitarian officials, for example, are taking a lead role in organizing relief efforts in Indonesia. Yesterday they appealed for assistance, such as supplies of food, ambulances, mobile medical clinics, blankets and plastic sheets, and noted that all public hospitals in the troubled Banda Aceh province had been demolished.
Meanwhile, in addition to their efforts to send aid to the afflicted zone, European governments are seeking ways to cope with the deaths of their own citizens. Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and Norway are each still missing about 1,000 or more nationals, according to wire reports. Unspecified large numbers of French and British holidaymakers are also still unaccounted for. In Germany, Mr. Schroeder ordered all flags on government buildings to be lowered to half-mast. “It is now a sad certainty that German vacationers are among the dead. So far, 26 German citizens have been identified and about 1,000 German citizens are still missing,” he said.
HOW TO HELP
Charities and relief agencies around the world have set up hotlines and websites for donations to assist recovery efforts in areas hardest hit by the South Asian tsunamis. Here are some of the organizations participating in the effort:
? AmeriCares: Call 800-486-4357 or visit http://www.americares.org
? CARE: Call 800-521-2273 or visit http://www.careusa.org
? Doctors Without Borders: Call 888-392-0392 or visit http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org
? The International Red Cross and Red Crescent societies: Call 800-HELP-NOW or visit http://www.redcross.org
? Oxfam of the U.K.: Call 011-44-870-333-2700 or visit http://www.oxfam.co.uk
? Save the Children Federation: Call 800 728-3843 or visit http://www.savethechildren.org
