ASEAN Chief Calls for Sustained Effort to Deal with Tsunami Disaster

ASIA-QUAKE-SUMMIT-ASEAN-SINGAPORE - 01/06/2005 15:02 - AFP

SINGAPORE, Jan 6 (AFP) - ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong on Thursday called for a sustained global effort to help Asia rebuild from the devastation caused by last week's tsunami disaster as a one-day summit of world leaders got underway in Jakarta. "We hope this particular summit will be different and everybody involved will commit themselves to sustain the effort," Ong said at a regional forum organised by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. "So today the key idea at the summit in Jakarta is to get the political leadership of the people who are participating, the countries participating to focus, to sustain and we hope that this will not become another event which will quickly fade away from our memories," he said. World leaders led by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan are meeting at a specially convened summit in Jakarta to plan and coordinate Asia's recovery from the December 26 tsunami tragedy. According to Annan, billions of dollars in relief and long-term reconstruction aid for the Indian Ocean region would be required and 977 million US dollars were needed immediately to help five million survivors. "For the United Nations, it is the largest natural disaster the organisation has had to respond to on behalf of the world community, in the 60 years of our existence," Annan said in Jakarta. The giant waves destroyed virtually everything along vast coastal stretches of Indonesia's Sumatra island, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indian islands, wiping out whole communities in some areas and leaving others to cope with huge numbers of orphans and the loss of doctors, teachers and local leaders. More than 30 governments as well as corporations and private individuals have already pledged several billion dollars in assistance for the nations worst hit by the December 26 earthquake and tsunamis that killed at least 146,000 people. Apart from helping Asia deal immediately with the aftermath of the tragedy, Yong also pressed on the need for the establishment of a "special relief funding mechanism" preferably to be manage by the United Nations. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. bh/sdm