Australia gives RI $19m in aid

Australia gives RI $19m in aid

CANBERRA (Reuters): Australia will contribute A$30 million (US$19.4 million) to the United Nations World Food Program's (WFP) emergency operations for poorer areas of eastern Indonesia, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday.

"UN assessments indicate that as many as 40 million Indonesians are currently living under chronic marginal circumstances as a result of the combined impact of the worst drought in decades and the fallout from the country's economic crisis," Downer said in a statement.

"Up to eight million people cannot be assured of adequate food supplies through the coming dry season."

Downer said up to 40,000 tons of Australian grain would be used to help feed critically malnourished and vulnerable groups, as part of the WFP operation which would begin delivering food supplies "very soon".

Australia would also contribute to emergency medical supplies, to programs for feeding vulnerable groups and agricultural rehabilitation, and contribute to a World Bank-coordinated program to help the Indonesian government mobilize drought relief and employment generation schemes.

"This relief package will directly ease the suffering of Indonesia's most needy," Downer said.

"It will be particularly targeted at the rural poor in the eastern islands of the country."

Downer said the package brought total Australian humanitarian aid to Indonesia to almost A$50 million. This was separate from the A$1 billion Australia has made available to Indonesia through an International Monetary Fund loan.