World scrambles to offer aid for Asian quake victims<\/p>\n
Agence France-Presse
\nParis<\/p>\n
Governments and aid organizations around the world scrambled to
\noffer aid and technical help on Sunday after the devastating
\nquake and tidal waves that killed thousands of people in Asia.<\/p>\n
With the death toll over 10,000 and rising inexorably,
\nauthorities offered immediate help in terms of food, shelter and
\nmedicines, as well as longer-term aid once the situation
\nstabilizes.<\/p>\n
The quake, the most powerful for 40 years measuring 8.9 on the
\nRichter scale, struck on earlier Sunday in the Indian Ocean off
\nthe Indonesian island of Sumatra.<\/p>\n
It unleashed a series of deadly tsunamis that swept onto Sri
\nLanka, India, Thailand, Indonesia, the Maldives, Bangladesh,
\nMyanmar and Malaysia, sweeping people off beaches and flattening
\nhotels and homes.<\/p>\n
Echoing pleas by Asian leaders, Pope John Paul II urged the
\ninternational community to rush aid to the affected populations.<\/p>\n
Closest to the affected areas, Pakistan President Pervez
\nMusharraf called for \"swift and concerted\" international efforts,
\nand the foreign ministry said it would send a consignment of
\nrelief goods comprising tents, medicines and water to Sri Lanka,
\none of the worst-hit countries.<\/p>\n
The European Commission said it was providing immediate
\nemergency aid of three million euros (US$4 million) for victims
\nto meet \"initial vital needs,\" and that more substantial aid
\nwould be provided later.<\/p>\n
\"The needs are enormous,\" EU development and humanitarian aid
\ncommissioner Louis Michel said, adding that the aid would include
\n\"water supplies, shelter, food and blankets\" and, in the longer
\nterm, health care.<\/p>\n
Turkey said it had asked its missions in the affected
\ncountries to offer whatever help and humanitarian assistance was
\nnecessary.<\/p>\n
Kuwait said it was sending $1 million in aid, and a similar
\namount was offered by Ireland in terms of temporary shelters,
\nfood, water and medical equipment.<\/p>\n
Britain also offered its help via its embassies, as did
\nGermany.<\/p>\n
\"For all the huge advances in the control of our lives through
\nscience and technology an earthquake on this scale is truly
\nhumbling as well as profoundly tragic for everyone involved,\"
\nBritish Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said.<\/p>\n
French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin dispatched a
\ncivil security team to Colombo to examine how best France could
\nprovide technical help on the ground.<\/p>\n
The ministry said a full assistance team would fly on Monday
\ntoward Colombo.<\/p>\n
In Russia, the emergency situations ministry said that two IL-
\n76 transport aircraft would leave shortly carrying tents and
\nother equipment, as well as staff, to help victims in Sri Lanka
\nand Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Caritas Switzerland and the Swiss Red Cross offered a total
\n400,000 Swiss francs ($350,000), while Caritas France offered
\nsome 100,000 euros and launched an appeal for donations.<\/p>\n
Japan said on Sunday it would dispatch a group of medical
\npersonnel to Sri Lanka where thousands of people were killed with
\nmany more missing after massive tsunami waves smashed into the
\nisland.<\/p>\n
\"We will send some 10 to 20 emergency medical experts as early
\nas on Monday at the request of the Sri Lankan government,\" said a
\nJapanese foreign ministry official.<\/p>\n
In the region itself, New Delhi dispatched warships and
\naircraft carrying medicine and food to its southern coasts and to
\nneighboring Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n
India, where at least 1,100 people were killed, also offered
\nassistance to other nations hit by tsunamis triggered by a giant
\nearthquake off Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Five Indian warships steamed across the Palk Straits towards
\nSri Lanka, defense officials told AFP.<\/p>\n
Three airforce cargo planes loaded with emergency supplies
\nflew to India's stricken Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Bay
\nof Bengal, they said.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself directed the military to
\nlaunch relief measures on a war-footing in four coastal Indian
\nstates flooded by tsunamis.<\/p>\n
Home Minister Shivraj Patil told reporters that relief
\nmeasures had begun on a \"war-footing,\" while the defense ministry
\nsaid it was deploying naval ships, heavy-lift helicopters and
\naircraft to speed up rescue operations.<\/p>",
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