- Title: INDONESIA: WORLD LEADERS OPEN TSUNAMI AID SUMMIT IN JAKARTA.
- Date: 6th January 2005
- Summary: (U1) JAKARTA, INDONESIA (JANUARY 6, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. GV: EXTERIOR OF SUMMIT VENUE WITH FLAGS FLYING 0.04 2. VARIOUS: ARMED SECURITY AT GATE; GUARD AND GUARD DOG; PEOPLE ENTERING SUMMIT VENUE; BAGGAGE BEING INSPECTED, PEOPLE GOING THROUGH SECURITY CHECK (8 SHOTS) 0.42 3. GV: CONVOY ARRIVING 0.48 4. MCU/PAN/GV/PAN: U.S. SECRETARY OF
- Embargoed: 21st January 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: JAKARTA, INDONESIA
- Country: Indonesia
- Reuters ID: LVA21JT12XUFLYJCTJWJXGP0DMEU
- Story Text: World leaders open tsunami aid summit.
++AUDIO AS INCOMING++
Thousands of Indonesian troops and police lined the
streets around the Jakarta Convention Centre on Thursday
(January 6) where world leaders discussed a way forward for
the countries devastated by the Dec. 26 tsunami.
In a city where Western embassies and hotels have been
the targets in a series of bombings by Muslim extremists,
the authorities swamped the area with security for the
hastily convened summit. A helicopter hovered overhead.
Stony-faced police and soldiers holding machineguns
kept the normally congested traffic flowing, while sniffer
dogs checked the entrance to the centre and a long queues
formed as delegates and media passed through security
screening.
Television cameras lined the road leading into the
centre to capture the arrival of leaders from China, Japan,
Australia, the United States and a score of other
countries.
Inside the mood was sombre, with grief for the 145,000
dead and countless desperate survivors of the giant killer
waves mixed with thanks for the unprecedented generusity
the world has shown.
The summit in Indonesia, focusing on longer-term aid
now that a global relief effort is in full swing, is also
set to endorse debt relief to help nations rebuild, and
back a warning system to save lives in the future.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told
delegates from 26 nations and aid groups that a tsunami
warning system similar to one long established for the
Pacific should be set up in the Indian Ocean.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned before the
summit met that access to safe drinking water remained
inadequate, encouraging diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera
and dysentery.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched a fresh
appeal for aid at the summit in the capital Jakarta, saying
the United Nations needed $979 million to cover the
humanitarian needs of an estimated 5 million people.
Indonesia and Sri Lanka were hit worst.
"What happened on 26 December, 2004 was an
unprecedented, global catastrophe. It requires an
unprecedented, global response," he said, calling it the
largest natural disaster the world body had had to face.
It was all too real for millions in 13 affected
countries and for tens of thousands of relatives of foreign
tourists from 40 countries who are dead or missing
following the disaster.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Japanese Prime
Minister Yunichiro Koizumi and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao
were also at the summit, held amid tight security in a city
where Islamic militants have launched deadly bomb attacks
in recent years.
Australia and Germany together pledged some $1.4
billion in aid, raising the U.N.'s global tally to nearly
$3.7 billion, and a debt-relief initiative by rich nations
gathered momentum.
Koizumi will tell the crisis summit that Tokyo is
willing to freeze debt payments for countries hit by the
tsunami, and try to persuade other lenders to do the same,
Japanese officials said.
A draft summit document called on the United Nations to
mobilise the international community and called for
stronger coordination and cooperation on relief efforts.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None