Tsunami aid tolats $6.28 billion, Germany largest donor: UN
Tsunami aid tolats $6.28 billion, Germany largest donor: UN
Jerry Norton, Reuters/Banda Aceh
Humanitarian assistance to tsunami-affected countries in the
Indian Ocean totals US$6.28 billion, with Germany the largest
contributor at $683 million, the United Nations said on Friday.
But if the United States follows through on a pledge to
increase its contribution, it will become the biggest donor, said
Hiro Ueki, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Assistance.
"As it stands now, Germany is the largest contributor of
humanitarian assistance to the tsunami-affected countries in the
Indian Ocean, with a total of $683 million, followed by the Asian
Development Bank," Ueki said.
"The grand total is $6.28 billion," he told a news conference
in Banda Aceh.
The city is capital of Aceh province, on the northern tip of
Sumatra island, where the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami it
triggered killed at least 123,938 people, and left an estimated
112,319 missing, and nearly 401,000 homeless.
For the Indian Ocean region as a whole, where Sri Lanka, India
and Thailand were the other countries hardest hit, the toll of
dead and missing is more than 305,200, according to the latest
data.
Ueki said behind Germany and the ADB are private donations,
Japan, the European Commission, France, Australia, the United
States and Canada.
But he said the United States would become top contributor
when it confirmed its promised increase.
The United States said this month it would add $600 million to
an original pledge, bringing the total for U.S. relief efforts to
more than $950 million.
Australia has pledged A$1.0 billion (US$765 million) over five
years to Indonesian for tsunami reconstruction in the single
largest aid contribution it has ever made.
Ueki said $721 million, or 84 percent, of the money promised
by governments to meet a special UN "Flash Appeal" for six months
had been paid or committed for payment, with private
contributions accounting for another $63 million. The appeal's
target is $979 million.
Asked about the impact on the UN's aid effort in Aceh of
recent reports of security threats, Ueki said there had been no
direct effect.
"We continue to maintain our security measures and we are
aware of the environment," he said.
Australia warned late last week of fresh information about
possible danger to foreigners in Aceh, a threat the commander of
its military units helping in the aid effort said he took very
seriously.
Indonesia's government reported an attack by separatist rebels
last Sunday on soldiers working to repair tsunami-damaged roads,
with one soldier killed.
Indonesia has been fighting the separatist Free Aceh Movement
for nearly three decades. Fresh negotiations between the rebels
and the government took place in Finland this week but the talks
have failed to produce a settlement.