From: The Financial Times, posted on Drudge today ....
Bush quake aid group to be dissolved
By Victor Mallet in Jakarta, Hugh Williamson in Berlin, Dan Dombey in Brussels
Published: January 5 2005 11:13 | Last updated: January 6 2005 02:44
The ?core group? of nations announced by US President George W. Bush to channel aid to victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami will be dissolved on Thursday after only eight days as the United Nations takes control of the international relief effort, delegates to a donors summit said on Wednesday.
Mr Bush?s initiative on December 29 - which at first included only the US, India, Japan and Australia - appeared to have been prompted by an accusation by Jan Egeland, the UN?s emergency relief coordinator, that the US was ?stingy?. The UN was included the next day after Mr Bush was criticised for sidelining the UN in a rescue operation involving dozens of countries.
Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, will take centre stage on Thursday at the hastily convened meeting in Jakarta when he appeals for aid to cover the next six months. Among those attending are Colin Powell, US secretary of state; Junichiro Koizumi, Japanese prime minister; Wen Jiabao, Chinese premier; and other leaders from Asia and Europe.
Top 20 tsunami aid donors
Country/entity
Pledged amount ($m)
Australia
765
Germany
665
Japan
500
US
350
World Bank
250
Norway
182
UK
96
Italy
93
Canada
80
Sweden
75
Spain
66
China
60
France
56
South Korea
50
Taiwan
50
EU
41
Netherlands
36
Saudi Arabia
30
Switzerland
23
U.A.E
20
Source:Bloomberg/Reuters
Governments and individuals from around the world have already pledged over $2bn in assistance to help survivors of the December 26 tsunamis, which were triggered by an undersea earthquake off the island of Sumatra and killed 150,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and as far away as the east coast of Africa.
Koji Tsuruoka, a senior official at the Japanese foreign ministry, said the core group would ?cease to exist? following the Jakarta summit. ?Having accomplished the task they imposed on themselves, it will just evaporate and become part of the overall international effort,? he said.
UN officials and Washington?s allies have tried to avoid public criticism of the core group during its short life, and Mr Tsuruoka insisted the group had been ?innovative? and ?very effective? in mobilising aid.
Thursday?s one-day summit is expected to focus on the short-term needs of the region for emergency aid and on plans to set up a tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean similar to the one already working in the Pacific.
On Wednesday, donors continued to announce aid pledges. Germany linked its pledge of EUROS 500m ($664.5m, ?352m) for victims of the Asian tsunamis to the ending of rebel insurgencies in Sri Lanka and in the Aceh region in of Indonesia.
Joschka Fischer, foreign minister, said he would use a trip to the region starting tomorrow to press the governments of the two countries to prioritise ?national reconciliation? as relief efforts are stepped up in the disaster-hit districts.
He noted that government leaders in the two countries could not ignore the ?political context? in which the disaster took place.
But Andrew Tan, a Singapore official, warned against complicating the relief and reconstruction drives by ?tying them to insurgency problems such as the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka?.
Debt relief for affected nations, or at least a moratorium on repayments, is also likely to be discussed in Jakarta.
Unusually for such a disaster, no one has suggested there is an immediate shortage of funds, and diplomats say the challenge over the next few months will be to coordinate the delivery of aid rather than to raise more money.
Louis Michel, the EU?s development Commissioner, who is touring the affected area, said there was too much emphasis on money and not enough on longer term projects.
___________________________________________________________
:rant:
The Stupid Party and the One-Worlders strike again!
New Mercedes for all U.N execs.
American taxpayers raped one more time!
Swiss Banker are delighted!
:rant:
Bush quake aid group to be dissolved
By Victor Mallet in Jakarta, Hugh Williamson in Berlin, Dan Dombey in Brussels
Published: January 5 2005 11:13 | Last updated: January 6 2005 02:44
The ?core group? of nations announced by US President George W. Bush to channel aid to victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami will be dissolved on Thursday after only eight days as the United Nations takes control of the international relief effort, delegates to a donors summit said on Wednesday.
Mr Bush?s initiative on December 29 - which at first included only the US, India, Japan and Australia - appeared to have been prompted by an accusation by Jan Egeland, the UN?s emergency relief coordinator, that the US was ?stingy?. The UN was included the next day after Mr Bush was criticised for sidelining the UN in a rescue operation involving dozens of countries.
Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, will take centre stage on Thursday at the hastily convened meeting in Jakarta when he appeals for aid to cover the next six months. Among those attending are Colin Powell, US secretary of state; Junichiro Koizumi, Japanese prime minister; Wen Jiabao, Chinese premier; and other leaders from Asia and Europe.
Top 20 tsunami aid donors
Country/entity
Pledged amount ($m)
Australia
765
Germany
665
Japan
500
US
350
World Bank
250
Norway
182
UK
96
Italy
93
Canada
80
Sweden
75
Spain
66
China
60
France
56
South Korea
50
Taiwan
50
EU
41
Netherlands
36
Saudi Arabia
30
Switzerland
23
U.A.E
20
Source:Bloomberg/Reuters
Governments and individuals from around the world have already pledged over $2bn in assistance to help survivors of the December 26 tsunamis, which were triggered by an undersea earthquake off the island of Sumatra and killed 150,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and as far away as the east coast of Africa.
Koji Tsuruoka, a senior official at the Japanese foreign ministry, said the core group would ?cease to exist? following the Jakarta summit. ?Having accomplished the task they imposed on themselves, it will just evaporate and become part of the overall international effort,? he said.
UN officials and Washington?s allies have tried to avoid public criticism of the core group during its short life, and Mr Tsuruoka insisted the group had been ?innovative? and ?very effective? in mobilising aid.
Thursday?s one-day summit is expected to focus on the short-term needs of the region for emergency aid and on plans to set up a tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean similar to the one already working in the Pacific.
On Wednesday, donors continued to announce aid pledges. Germany linked its pledge of EUROS 500m ($664.5m, ?352m) for victims of the Asian tsunamis to the ending of rebel insurgencies in Sri Lanka and in the Aceh region in of Indonesia.
Joschka Fischer, foreign minister, said he would use a trip to the region starting tomorrow to press the governments of the two countries to prioritise ?national reconciliation? as relief efforts are stepped up in the disaster-hit districts.
He noted that government leaders in the two countries could not ignore the ?political context? in which the disaster took place.
But Andrew Tan, a Singapore official, warned against complicating the relief and reconstruction drives by ?tying them to insurgency problems such as the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka?.
Debt relief for affected nations, or at least a moratorium on repayments, is also likely to be discussed in Jakarta.
Unusually for such a disaster, no one has suggested there is an immediate shortage of funds, and diplomats say the challenge over the next few months will be to coordinate the delivery of aid rather than to raise more money.
Louis Michel, the EU?s development Commissioner, who is touring the affected area, said there was too much emphasis on money and not enough on longer term projects.
___________________________________________________________
:rant:
The Stupid Party and the One-Worlders strike again!
New Mercedes for all U.N execs.
American taxpayers raped one more time!
Swiss Banker are delighted!
:rant: