Turkish leader makes first tsunami zone stop
Turkish leader makes first tsunami zone stop
Irwan Firdaus
Associated Press/Banda Aceh, Indonesia
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (photo, right) speaks
with an Acehnese child at a clinic run by the Turkish Red
Crescent near the tsunami-hit city of Banda Aceh.
On Sunday, the first stop of his five-nation tour of the
disaster zone, Erdogan -- the fifth foreign leader to tour Aceh
-- was greeted at the airport in the provincial capital, Banda
Aceh, by Indonesian Social Affairs Minister Bachtiar Chamsyah and
30 of about 200 Turkish aid workers sent there by the Turkish Red
Crescent Society.
During a visit to devastated Lhoknga village, Erdogan said
Turkey had "a humanitarian and Islamic duty to serve here,"
having experienced its own tragedy when two earthquakes killed
about 18,000 people in 1999.
"The needs we see here -- the schools, housing, orphanages,
hospitals -- we will do our best to assist," said Erdogan, who
hours later headed to Malaysia, Thailand, the Maldives and Sri
Lanka.
Turkey has pledged US$1.25 million to the relief effort.
The Red Crescent Society mission arrived 10 days after the
Dec. 26 earthquake, setting up a clinic west of Banda Aceh. They
delivered 15,000 tons of food and aid, and plan to sponsor the
reconstruction of 1,000 homes for tsunami survivors.
Turkey's help has won admirers among the Acehnese, who live in
one of Indonesia's most devoutly Muslim regions.
"Lots of countries' people came, but Turkey stayed. Turkey is
an Islamic country so we are happier to receive from them," said
Haji Maimun, an Indonesian disaster management official.
Also Sunday, Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot arrived in
Aceh to assess relief needs.
The Netherlands -- Indonesia's colonial ruler for more than
three centuries -- donated $514 million and has offered
prefabricated bridges to temporarily fill gaps in highways.
Last week, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Brunei's
Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah visited the area.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Singaporean
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong toured the area in January, as did
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.