UN to set up regional relief center in S'pore

UN to set up regional relief center in S'pore

Agencies, Singapore

The United Nations will establish a coordination center in
Singapore to help victims of last week's tsunami and earthquake,
the city-state's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday.

"The coordinating center in Singapore will help to alleviate
the situation and bring emergency relief," the ministry said in a
statement.

In the coming weeks, the center would begin distributing aid.

Nearly 150,000 people have died in the earthquake and tsunami
that struck on Dec. 26. Most of the deaths have been in
Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India.

The statement said transport aircraft, helicopters and staging
areas for mounting relief operations were among the equipment
most needed for the relief effort.

Singapore Armed Forces C-130 airplanes have been flying
regularly between the city-state and Banda Aceh on Indonesia's
Sumatra island, transporting medical supplies, food and water.

The Southeast Asian nation has also committed a ship and
several helicopters to be used in Aceh province, where nearly
100,000 people have died.

Singapore has currently deployed its 600 personnel for
disaster relief in Sumatra.

The Helicopter Landing Ship RSS Endurance established a
landing site at Meulaboh, which is on the west coast of Sumatra,
on Monday, the Singaporean Embassy in Jakarta said in a press
release on Tuesday.

Meulaboh had been cut off since the tsunami disaster and could
only be accessed by helicopters.

"It is a major breakthrough," the release said while referring
to the landing site in Meulaboh.

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Defense
Minister Teo Chee Hean on Tuesday visited disaster areas in North
Sumatra, Meulaboh and Banda Aceh in Aceh province.

The city-state is working with Indonesia on how it can assist
in managing the massive aid supplies, said Bernard Toh, the
Ministry of Defense's director of public affairs.

"We can assist in two ways, either through coordination of
traffic control to sequence the flights going in, or, if that is
not helpful, to offer us as a staging area," he said.

Singapore, which was not hit by the killer tsunami on Dec. 26,
has confirmed nine Singaporeans dead and 57 missing or
unaccounted for, primarily in Thailand.

Police called for families with missing loved ones to supply
DNA samples. More than one week after the earthquake-triggered
waves, the bodies being recovered are often too badly decomposed
for visual identification.