World unites for tsunami aid

The South African ambassador to Thailand, Buyi Pheto, on Thursday confirmed that the official number of missing South Africans in Thailand stands at 14. In India, two South Africans are still reported missing.

Pheto has requested the assistance of the Department of Home Affairs in securing photographs of the missing persons to relay to the Thailand authorities with the intention of publicising them widely in Thailand.

The ambassador and her team have over the past days visited Phuket, Phi Phi and Krabi islands’ hospitals, mortuaries and centres for displaced persons as part of efforts to trace the missing South Africans.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has realised that some South Africans visited Thailand before the disaster and subsequently left for other destinations without being in touch with their relatives in South Africa.

Also, some South Africans had been in Thailand during the disaster but have subsequently left without advised their relatives in South Africa.

Consequently, family members report such relatives as missing, thus inflating of the number of missing South Africans. The government has requested those families that may have had contact with such relatives to inform the Department of Foreign Affairs accordingly.

Relief appeal

The South African government has received three official requests from Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia for relief assistance.

The government has again appealed to relief organisations in South Africa to join it in a partnership to help bring relief to these tsunami-struck countries.

A coordinating centre has been established at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Pretoria for this purpose. The contact officials are Johan van Wyk and Johan Paschalis, at Tel: 084 514 7094 or 073 332 0842 — alternatively 012 351 1520/1466.

International donation surge

A rapid surge in donations worldwide brought to more than $450-million on Thursday the funds raised or pledged for emergency relief in Asian countries swept by tidal waves that killed at least 119 000 people.

The British government led the field with a pledge of $96-million, followed by those of Sweden, The Netherlands and France, which offered tens of millions of dollars more than they had previously amid charges that wealthy countries were “stingy”.

The government funds will reach disaster victims in Asia through various channels, including humanitarian groups such as the International Committee of the Red Cross as well as the United Nations and other international institutions.

Private donations, meanwhile, were particularly high, even “phenomenal” in Britain and Italy, amounting to $53-million.

British charities under the umbrella of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) said their appeals had netted £20-million in aid in 48 hours.

Queen Elizabeth II has also contributed a “substantial” but undisclosed sum, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said.

The published British figures are equivalent to about $134-million.

The campaign involving charities such as Oxfam, Save the Children, the British Red Cross, World Vision and Christian Aid brought 400 000 contributions by telephone and another 38 000 via the DEC website, officials said earlier.

In Milan, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported that a media campaign in Italy had netted more than â,¬11-million from cellphone users while the Italian Foreign Ministry set aside â,¬3-million for immediate relief.

In South Africa, Premier Foods donated enough rice and maize to the tsunami-struck countries to feed 1 000 people for a month. Premier Foods channel director John O’Brien said on Thursday the company sent 12 tonnes of Iwisa Maize Meal and Premier Rice.

The governments of Australia, Britain, Canada, France, The Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and the United States have all dramatically increased their pledges of aid in the past few days.

United States President George Bush on Wednesday hit back at criticism from a UN official that offers by wealthy nations had been “stingy”, but The New York Times and the French newspaper Le Figaro agreed with the UN official.

Core crisis group

Meanwhile, Bush said Australia, India, Japan and the US will form a “core group” to deal with the crisis, raising the question as to whether Washington is taking over a traditional UN role.

US officials insisted the initiative does not conflict with the job of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which is charged with overseeing global, multipronged relief operations.

Major Western and other wealthy governments have pledged already more than $400-million, most — if not all of it — for immediate emergency relief, according to an AFP list based on figures provided by the governments.

Other leading government contributors were Japan at $40-million (including about $10-million to support NGO work), The Netherlands at $36-million, Canada at $32,8-million, Germany at $27-million, Australia at $27-million, Portugal at $11-million, Saudi Arabia at $10-million and the Arab Gulf neighbour of Qatar at $10-million.

The French government pledged â,¬22-million, including its portion of the European Union aid programme, which amounted to â,¬20-million. The British government pledge excluded its contribution to the EU.

On Thursday, the French government then said it is ready to provide â,¬20-million more to prevent epidemics.

Smaller contributions from 15 other countries, most of them European nations but also China, Iran and Kuwait, amounted to more than $25-million, according to figures compiled by AFP.

The worldwide drive involves also smaller NGOs, ethnic Indian and Sri Lankan communities overseas, corporations, professional associations and religious institutions.

They are all in the process of transferring money or organising cargo flights carrying food, fresh water, medical supplies, clothing and tents to stricken countries.

The UN has said the aid needed over the coming months is likely to exceed the previous record UN appeal of $1,6-billion for Iraq last year.

The World Health Organisation estimated that five million people have been displaced, and said a massive health crisis is building.

The World Bank announced on Thursday that it will release $250-million — by diverting funds from existing programmes and using money it had not yet committed to projects — for the “immediate aftermath”, covering the next six months. — Sapa-AFP, Sapa

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