The Hindu : International : U.S. decision to form aid 'coalition' sparks row

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 31, 2004

International

International

U.S. decision to form aid 'coalition' sparks row

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS, DEC. 30. The town hall of Paris' 10th district, home to large numbers of Sri Lankans and Pondicherry Tamils, is jammed with people. They have come to "little India" to make their contributions to those affected by the giant tsunami that hit several Asian nations, particularly Sri Lanka and India.

Marie Noelle, a 45-year-old mother of four has come with her youngest daughter Christine. "We came with several boxes of sugar, spaghetti and tinned food as well as clothes and blankets. But we are taking them back with us. I shall write a cheque instead," she explains. Humanitarian officials have been telling people to give in cash rather than in kind until they are hoarse.

"What people don't understand is that logistics is a very difficult problem. We do not have the planes, the personnel required to sort and sift these well-meaning gifts into some semblance of order before flying them or shipping them out to the affected areas. Disaster relief is a very specialised profession and gifts of money made by cheque to a specially created account are preferable. They are accounted for and are used in a targeted fashion," Francois, an aid worker, told The Hindu.

Governments shamed

To the utter shame of several European Governments, monetary contributions made by ordinary citizens have far outstripped the meagre sums their governments have pledged for disaster relief. The telephone exchanges of several charities were blocked by an avalanche of calls by donors wishing to contribute. This has led several countries to upwardly revise their pledges.

French Ministers met today to decide on further measures after Paris said it would provide 22.16 million euros ($30.14 million), 15 million euros channelled through United Nations agencies and the International Red Cross. A further 1.56 million euros would be in the form of bilateral assistance to India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand, and 5.6 million euros are the French quota for a European Union aid package, the Foreign Ministry said. Twenty-one French citizens have been confirmed dead, over 250 have been injured and scores of others are still missing.

The United States' decision to form an aid "coalition" has also led to some controversy here with the daily Liberation commenting that "a polemic has grown between those who are supposed to help the affected countries."

The U.S.-French animosity, fuelled by French criticism of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, appeared set to increase after the head of the U.S. Government aid agency said that France was not a big aid contributor.

"The British are, the European Union is, the Japanese are, we are, the Canadians are, and in this case Australia, even though it's a relatively small country, has been very generous," Andrew Natsios, head of USAID, told Fox television. "The aid programme in France is not that big, one. And two, they tend to do loans and you don't make loans in an emergency," he charged.

The U.S., which was piqued by suggestions that it was being "stingy", has given $35 million to the relief effort and is sending military aircraft and ships to help in the disaster operation. The French press has denounced Washington's efforts to supplant or sideline the U.N. in its aid efforts by creating a four-nation aid coalition that includes Australia and Japan.

India's decision defended

India's Ambassador to France, Dilip Lahiri, defended India's decision not to seek international aid saying: "Actually we have enough material and resources sufficient to provide for the immediate needs of the affected population ... If we think that we will have need for aid later, we shall not hesitate to ask for it. If we have inadequacies, we will call on the U.N., the WHO and on the whole international community. But at the same time we have decided on a relief operation for our neighbours, Sri Lanka and Maldives."

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