Disaster, cooperation sought by Asia, Africa

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Asian and African governments convening here have agreed to foster cooperation in addressing the natural disasters that have been plaguing some parts of the region, an official says.

The draft joint leaders statement on tsunamis, earthquakes and other natural disasters finalized by the Asian and African foreign ministers on Wednesday spells out, among other things, the need for cooperation mechanisms among the countries as well as with the United Nations and other disaster relief organizations.

"Delegates conveyed messages of sympathy and condolences for the devastating impact of tsunami and earthquake of December last year, and stressed the need for the summit to address the issue of natural disasters in order to minimize future casualties," said Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda, who co-chaired the meeting.

The draft was proposed by cohost Indonesia, which bore the brunt of the devastating tsunami that killed over 126,000 people in Aceh and Nias alone. The killer tidal waves last December claimed around 50,000 more lives in countries around the Indian Ocean rim, including India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Hassan said Asian and African leaders would issue the joint statement "to reflect the sense of urgency" expressed by various delegations on the issue of natural disasters during the meeting.

Asian and African countries affected by the disaster, and international donors and agencies met in Jakarta in February for the "tsunami summit" that resulted in expressions of global solidarity and initiatives to cope with the impact of the calamity.

Billions of dollars in global aid has poured into Indonesia alone to help the country conduct relief operations and reconstruct the areas hit by the tsunami.

Responding to the proposal, Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Mochimura said Tokyo was offering interim Tsunami Watch Information as it had promised during the recent World Conference in Kobe until a full-fledged system started operating.

"We strongly believe that disasters can be prevented and mitigated if we prepare ourselves well and establish a disaster- resilient society," Nobutaka said in his address to the Asian- African ministerial meeting.

Malaysia, meanwhile, said that the Asian-African cooperation on disaster reduction was another form of cooperation that would strengthen the bonds between the two continents.

The cooperation could take form of an Asian-African capacity building program for post-disaster management, an Asian-African mechanism for the sharing of seismic data or an Asian-African rescue operation mechanism, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told the meeting.

To prevent any duplication that would unnecessarily drain precious resources, Hamid said that such Asian-African cooperation should complement all other existing initiatives on disaster mitigation at the international level.