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.