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World pledges aid to US
hurricane victims
PARIS—The world is holding out its hands to a superpower in crisis,
offering hurricane disaster aid to the United States from a French offer
of ships and aircraft to a 25,000-dollar donation by tsunami-pounded Sri
Lanka. Offers streamed in after the United States, the world’s biggest
single aid donor, said it would be open to assistance though it was not
making an appeal for foreign aid.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed the United States’
“heartfelt” gratitude for the offers of aid that have poured in from
around the world following Hurricane Katrina. “We’ve turned down no
offers,” Rice said in a news conference, when asked about rumors that
Washington had refused help from Russia and France.
Scenes of chaos — explosions and fires erupting in New Orleans, looters
on the rampage, bodies in the streets, and refugees crammed into a
stinking squalor in the city’s Superdome — prompted an outpouring of
shock and sympathy. “Whatever they ask for, it will be given, from
reserves of oil... to any other thing that they may need,” European
Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in Newport, Wales, during
a meeting of the 25-nation bloc.
The world’s industrialized countries agreed Friday to tap their
strategic oil reserves and pour 60 million barrels into the market in a
month to cope with disruptions in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
The International Energy Agency said that all its 26 member states had
agreed to take “collective action in response to the interrupted oil
supplies in the Gulf of Mexico caused by Hurricane Katrina,” the
Paris-based agency reported in a statement.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said NATO
also stood ready to contribute. “Whenever and wherever our NATO partner
and important friend — the United States of America — asks (for)
assistance, NATO stands ready to answer those calls,” Scheffer told a
press conference during a visit to Sofia.
Among the major allies:
— The French foreign ministry offered eight aircraft and two ships, with
600 tents and 1,000 camp beds also available at the United States’
request. The central French city of Orleans said it would be sending
receipts from sports matches to its younger American sister, as well as
offering 50 university places.
— Prime Minister Tony Blair said he had spoken to President George W.
Bush, and Britain was ready to help “in any way that we can”. “The whole
of this country feels for the people of the Gulf Coast of America who
have been afflicted by what is a terrible, terrible natural tragedy,” he
said in a speech in Watford, southeast England.
“We want to express our sympathy and our solidarity and give our prayers
and thoughts to the people who were affected by what has happened out
there on the Gulf Coast,” he said.
— German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer met US ambassador to Germany,
William Robert Timken, and said he had made firm offers of “medicine,
water treatment and technology to help find survivors” on behalf of the
German government.
— Japan offered 200,000 dollars for the American Red Cross and up to
300,000 dollars worth of tents, blankets, power generators and water
tanks. Toyota offered five million dollars, Nissan 500,000 dollars.
— Australia promised 10 million Australian dollars (7.5 million US)
through the American Red Cross. “Given the extraordinary generosity of
the United States when other countries are in need, and given the very
close relationship between Australia and the United States, and given
also the scale of the disaster, we believe it is a very valuable gesture
and a mark of our concern for the scale of the human misery that has
come from this disaster,” said Prime Minister John Howard.
— Canadian Defence Minister Bill Graham said his country was preparing a
package, including an offer of military assets. Canada will also boost
oil exports to the United States.—Agencies |
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