Disaster, cooperation sought by Asia, Africa

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.