Powell awed by Aceh ruin
Powell awed by Aceh ruin
Agencies, Banda Aceh
As his helicopter swooped low over a razed coast of tsunami- ravaged Aceh, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell found himself face-to-face with unimaginable destruction.
As a former soldier, Powell has been to war and witnessed the destruction man can inflict on man, but right here, where over 94,000 died in the disaster, he saw the power of nature to wipe man from the face of the earth.
"I have been in war and I have been through a number of hurricanes, tornadoes and other relief operations, but I have never seen anything like this," Powell said after a 30-minute flight over parts of devastated Aceh.
During the tour, sitting at the open-door of a U.S. Seahawk helicopter with President George W. Bush's brother Jeb Bush by his side, Powell saw a flattened and broken landscape where once there were city blocks of houses and thousands of families leading busy lives.
"I cannot begin to imagine the horror that went through families and all of the people who heard this noise coming and then had their lives snuffed out by this wave," Powell told a brief news conference in Banda Aceh before flying to Jakarta to attend an emergency one-day tsunami aid conference on Thursday.
An obviously emotional Florida Governor Jeb Bush pledged the U.S. government and its people would help tsunami victims in Indonesia until their lives were rebuilt.
"Our hearts go out to the people, the families, who have lost loved ones," said Bush.
As governor of Florida, Jeb Bush has had to deal with several natural disasters, including last year when his state was hit with four destructive hurricanes in a six-week period.
Before touring Banda Aceh's coastal region, Powell and his delegation met with foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda and inspected American and international relief efforts in Phuket, where thousands died in shattered beach resorts popular with Western tourists.
Powell told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday night he was confident his country's relief efforts would boost its battered image around the globe after a torrid few years that have been focused on the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
"I think it does give to the Muslim world and the rest of the world an opportunity to see American generosity, American values in action," he told a joint news conference with foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda.
The United States has promised US$350 million in aid as part of a global $2.3 billion relief effort, the biggest humanitarian operation since World War II.
He also promised Washington would send more helicopters -- the workhorses most needed by aid groups to deliver medicine, food and clean water to isolated survivors.