QUAKE/WAVEFive million people in 11 countries lack the basic requirements for life

[Guest guest]

I encourage all to contribute to OXFAM in the UK..........this is a charity

that isn't known for vaccinating.........

(AVOID the REDCROSS - they have NOT been good stewards of our money in the

past)

I'll send more info....

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=596807

Five million people in 11 countries lack the basic requirements for life

By Cahal Milmo and Khan in Colombo

30 December 2004

The death toll from the south Asian tsunami is likely to surpass 100,000,

aid agencies warned yesterday as the first consignments from the biggest

relief operation in history began to arrive to help survivors in the

devastated region.

The United Nations said at least £1bn in emergency aid was needed after it

calculated that the Boxing Day disaster left up to five million people

across 11 countries without access to the basic requirements for life -

water, food and sanitation.

Other aid agencies said that four days after the earthquake deep under the

Indian Ocean, it was clear that the international community must now cope

with death on a vast scale.

Simon Missiri, head of the International Federation of the Red Cross (ICRC)

in the Asia Pacific region, said: " We're facing a disaster of unprecedented

proportion in nature. We're talking about a staggering death toll. " Scenes

in the remote areas such as the west coast of Indonesia's Aceh province,

closest to the quake's epicentre, were apocalyptic. Authorities there said

it was now apparent that the entire population of some towns had been lost.

A UN official warned that up to 80,000 people in the province could have

been killed amid reports of convoys of trucks dumping 1,000 bloated bodies

at a time into open graves. Major General Endang Suwarya said: " The damage

is truly devastating; 75 per cent of the west coast is destroyed and in

some places it's 100 per cent. "

Officials at the United Nations in New York said an appeal would be

launched this weekend after relief assessments had been completed across

the disaster zone.

In London, the British Government pledged £15m in immediate aid while the

US President, Bush, announced an international coalition with India,

Japan and Australia to co-ordinate relief.

Tony Blair said in a New Year statement from Egypt, where he is on holiday,

that Britain would do anything it could to help the affected countries.

" This New Year the world is united in sorrow for those affected by one of

the biggest natural disasters in our lifetime, " he said. " Our thoughts are

with those who have died, those who have lost loved ones and friends and

those whose lives have been destroyed by this terrible catastrophe. "

Stung by criticism from one UN official that the financial contribution of

major nations was " stingy " , Washington said it was more than doubling its

initial donation to $35m (£19.4m).

Mr Bush said the eventual US response would far outstrip that sum: " We will

prevail over this destruction, " he said.

The World Health Organisation said the number of unburied bodies in the

affected countries, from the five-star resorts of Thailand to impoverished

villages of Somalia, along with the destruction of basic infrastructure,

had left millions vulnerable to disease, which was likely to break out

within three days.

Nabarro, the head of the WHO's health crisis team, said: " Perhaps as

many as five million people are not able to access what they need for

living. Either they cannot get water, or their sanitation is inadequate or

they cannot get food. "

UN officials warned the eventual total required in relief funding was

likely to outstrip the $1.64bn (£911m) raised for Iraq last year.

But as pledges flooded in, there were signs of a large gap between the

requirement and reality. The total pledged by governments around the world

last night stood at £126m.

Across the world, the public were also being implored to dip into their

pockets.

Today The Independent launches an appeal urging readers to contribute to

the vast amount of aid urgently required. The appeal is backed by the

Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, who said: " Whatever the Government can do,

there is always an important role for personal donations and commitment. "

The Independent appeal is being launched in association with the Disasters

Emergency Committee, a coalition of 12 British-based charities, which said

last night that £5m had been raised over 24 hours even before the official

launch. The charities under its umbrella are ActionAid, the British Red

Cross, Cafod, Care International, Christian Aid, Concern, Help the Aged,

Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision.

Yet the relief effort seems to have been slow in coming. Across Asia, local

volunteers were doing their best to provide help for the estimated five

million left homeless while they waited for the much-needed international

assistance.

As the aid operation began to swing into top gear with four plane loads of

aid arriving in Sri Lanka from Britain, Germany and Japan, the need for the

relief in this truly global disaster became ever more clear.

The official death count across Asia and Africa stood at 76,682 but aid

officials made it clear that number would rise significantly as remote

areas were reached, including India's Andaman and Nicobar islands, where

one official said 10,000 were dead on one island alone.

Rees, the ICRC's operations support officer, said: " The figure's

going to be absolutely enormous. I would not be surprised that we are over

100,000 dead. "

As the grim tally mounted, the Foreign Office said 26 Britons had been

confirmed dead. That number was likely to increase beyond 50 after the Thai

authorities said they were aware of at least 43 British nationals among 473

foreign tourists killed in its resorts.

Sweden, whose citizens have long viewed Thailand as a winter refuge, said

2,000 of its nationals remained missing. Germany said 1,000 tourists were

unaccounted for.

But it was those living around the Indian Ocean who were dealing with the

worst of the disaster.

According to ICRC estimates, there are 500,000 injured people across the

region, 200,000 with serious injuries. In Sri Lanka alone there are a

million people without shelter.

One aid worker for Cafod described the scene in Banda Aceh, the capital of

Aceh province, as: " Corpses, corpses and more corpses. Walking on foot in

the streets, it is all corpses. There is a rotten smell everywhere. Because

people drowned, their stomachs are full and today they started to tear open.

" Right now there are many traumatised people. People scream 'water, water'

while running. But there is no water. We can see people eating quietly next

to dead bodies that are rotten and smelly. Many people cry hysterically. "

The Indonesian government said one of its main shortages was providing

sufficient body bags to contain the dead as the first aid supplies - 175

tons of rice and 100 doctors - reached Aceh province.

In Thailand, the government admitted it had been ill-prepared for the

disaster and that it had been too slow to provide search equipment and

refrigerated containers to store decomposing bodies to combat the spread of

disease.

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