Us Leads Drive To Thwart Extremists
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday January 4, 2005
The US and Australia have made the humanitarian challenge in the tsunami disaster zone a security priority and are planning to pour billions of dollars into the region to stop it turning into a breeding ground for Islamic radicalism and terrorism.
As the Federal Government put the finishing touches to a long-term aid worth about $500 million and announced funding for a new disaster victim identification centre in Thailand, the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said failure to rebuild South-East Asia could result in disaster victims turning to extremism.Australian Government sources agreed that South-East Asia's long-term economic health was a crucial goal in the "war on terrorism".Mr Powell, who is to attend an emergency summit in Jakarta on Thursday with the Prime Minister, John Howard, and the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, described the relief effort as "an investment in our security"."If nations are poor, if they don't see hope, if they're riddled by disease, if no one is helping them, then radicalism takes over, they lose faith in democracy and they start turning in other directions," Mr Powell told CNN.It is expected that Mr Howard will use the summit to announce the extra millions Australia is committing to the region.Before leaving for a tour of Thailand and Indonesia yesterday, the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, did not rule out that Australia's initial $60-million aid pledge could reach $500 million."I need to talk with the Indonesians on Wednesday in Jakarta, and the Prime Minister will be talking to people when he is there at the summit on Thursday. So we will make announcements when it is appropriate."We will be prepared to do considerably more over time."He warned that the reconstruction could take years.Government sources confirmed that Australia would greatly increase its assistance to Indonesia by "several hundreds of millions of dollars". The global donations for tsumani relief is approaching $3 billion, with the death toll now at 144,590, including 12 Australians.The Australian ambassador to Thailand, Bill Paterson, yesterday announced that Australia would fund a multi-million dollar international post mortem laboratory in Phuket to identify the thousands of unclaimed bodies.Experts in disaster victim identification from 19 countries will use DNA and dental records - virtually the only way of identifying the bodies now - at the new centre, however the work could take years to finish. They will be working under Kenyon International, the disaster managers who worked on September 11 and identified many of the 202 killed in the Bali bombing."It's a big commitment. It'san expensive exercise," Mr Paterson said yesterday. "You can't separate Australian bodies from other international bodies. We took a decision on the spot to fund this."The death toll in Thailand stands at 4993, including 2407 foreigners, nine of which are Australian. Another 6541 are missing, with fears this could rise to 8000. Mr Paterson said Australia had contracted Kenyon International to carry out the work at the Ante Mortem Reconciliation Centre. "They did a very good job for us in Bali so when this crisis came we called on them to act."Kenyon International spent over a year working on Bali, at the cost of about $1 million. Kenyon's spokesman, Phil Burfurd, warned that the identification process for the tsunami disaster would be slow. "This will be really the centre now for official identification," he said.Mr Paterson said families searching for loved ones would liaise with the Missing Persons bureau to provide DNA and dental records. "That information will come back to the centre here and holds some prospect of trying to speed up the process of identification," he said.Yesterday a super-sized aircraft laden with four helicopters and a military field hospital left for Sumatra Island, in Indonesia. to join Australian medical teams, water and sanitation experts and military units. Meanwhile, a US warship carrying more than 2200 Marines arrived in the Malacca Straits off Singapore to begin ferrying supplies to Sumatra before heading to Sri Lanka.
© 2005 Sydney Morning Herald