FEBRUARY 2005
In this section:
Fast Response Aids Tsunami Victims
Bush Thanks USAID Staff
Iraqis Vote
Fast Response Aids Tsunami Victims
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U.S. assistance is delivered by a U.S. Navy helicopter
to survivors of the tsunami in Sumatra, Indonesia.
U.S. Navy |
Despite warnings that thousands might die from disease and
lack of clean water after the Dec. 26 tsunami killed over
200,000 in Asia, prompt international relief has prevented
epidemics, and relief efforts are shifting from emergency
to rebuilding.
In the hardest-hit region—Indonesia’s Aceh province—people
are moving out of relief camps and moving in with their extended
families or other community members, according to CNN reports
and U.S. aid officials.
“The emergency is over and people are moving out of
camps. Kids are going back to school,” reported CNN Jan.
24 from Aceh.
“The emergency phase has been stabilized, and we are
moving towards rebuilding,” said Ken Isaacs, head of
the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), Jan
24.
Isaacs had been in Asia directing U.S. relief efforts in
Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, and the Maldives.
From Utapao military base in Thailand and elsewhere in the
region, he managed the flow of charter and commercial aircraft
carrying tons of water containers, plastic shelter sheeting,
food, and other emergency supplies from USAID stockpiles in
Dubai, the Philippines, Italy, and the United States.
“When I came back two weeks ago, I felt Sri Lanka was
stabilized and Indonesia was approaching stability—in
another five to seven days, it would be past the peak of the
crisis,” Isaacs said.
The movement of people from displaced persons camps in Indonesia
and Sri Lanka is a sign they are finding ways to move in with
relatives and neighbors.
In recent years, USAID and the wider foreign aid community
have accepted that the best way to move people toward independent
lives after a disaster is to help them rebuild. So a lot of
U.S. aid is to provide people with livelihoods, said Isaacs,
such as jobs cleaning up debris and fixing roads in exchange
for pay.
About 150 USAID staff from missions in affected countries
are at work on tsunami relief. Another 50 members of the Disaster
Assistance Response Team (DART) continue to assess needs and
supply quick funding to relief projects.
As time goes on, more of the U.S. aid effort will shift
from OFDA to the Bureau for Asia and the Near East, which
has the benefit of established missions in Indonesia and Sri
Lanka, the countries most in need of help. Thailand and India
have largely been able to cope with relief on their own.
Isaacs noted, in particular, the close working relations
between the U.S. military and USAID, which assigned DART members
to coordinate with the military. This allowed military planes
based at a hub in Utapao to deliver supplies to Medan, Indonesia,
and Colombo, Sri Lanka, that were later transferred—often
by military helicopters—to survivors.
About $103 million out of the $350 million pledged by President
Bush for relief has been spent on food, shelter, water and
sanitation, livelihoods recovery, cash-for-work clean-up programs,
child protection, and physical and mental healthcare assistance.
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Girls from an internally displaced persons camp in
Banda Aceh, Indonesia, hold up packets of fortified
biscuits. Delivered by the World Food Program (WFP),
the biscuits were made in India and donated by the German
government. The U.S. government is the main donor for
WFP, paying for about 80 percent of its annual budget.
Rein Skullerud, WFP |
However, U.S. private contributions to relief have totaled
more than $500 million, Isaacs said.
He told of meeting survivors in a hospital in Sri Lanka
who had their children ripped from their arms by the waves.
“Most people lost family members—the wave was so
absolute,” he said.
The Response Management Team based at USAID in Washington
to direct U.S. relief efforts said that the last shipment
of emergency supplies was sent Jan. 18—kitchen supplies
and mosquito nets.
U.S. aid is also providing food and cash for work.
The final death tolls as of Jan. 22 were: Indonesia, 115,000;
Sri Lanka, 31,000; India, 11,000; and Thailand, 5,300. Somalia,
the Maldives, and Malaysia had small losses.
The greatest challenge currently facing relief assistance
is the difficulty in overland access along the northwestern
portion of Aceh.
Thus far, two rebel movements in Sri Lanka and Aceh have
both cooperated in relief work, and there has not been interference
with aid workers. However, Indonesia has asked foreign military
teams to pull out in the coming months, and the U.S. military
has begun to plan its withdrawal.
USAID is planning to shift to road deliveries when U.S.
helicopters are no longer available, including use of 220
International Organization for Migration trucks and charter
flights to deliver relief assistance and supplies.
The Indonesian military has also been able to obtain spare
parts for its C-130 planes.
To respond to fears that children orphaned by the tsunami
could be forced into sexual slavery, USAID provided $2 million
to UNICEF for child protection and psycho-social services:
$1.5 million for Indonesia and $500,000 for Sri Lanka.
In Sri Lanka, USAID hosted a meeting of relief organizations
and Sri Lanka officials to address issues of protection and
psychological and social support.
Bush Thanks USAID Staff
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President Bush addresses USAID employees at the Ronald
Reagan Building Jan. 10, as Secretary of State Colin
Powell and Administrator Andrew Natsios look on.
USAID |
President Bush visited USAID’s headquarters in the
Ronald Reagan Building on Jan. 10 to offer thanks for the
foreign assistance work carried out by thousands of U.S. and
foreign staff around the world, especially during the gigantic
relief effort needed to cope with the tsunami in Asia.
“From Sudan to Sumatra, the world has seen America
at its best through the work you do,” Bush told several
hundred USAID staff and representatives of NGOs that the Agency
funds to carry out aid programs.
“Sometimes you don’t get thanked enough. I don’t
know how many times a president has been by to say thanks.
But I’ll tell you this: It’s my distinct honor to
come by and say thanks.
“I appreciate your compassion. I appreciate your love
for your fellow human beings, and thank you for the work you
do.
“The international community has responded with generosity
and compassion, and the men and women of USAID have been at
the center of that response,” he added.
Bush shared the stage with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
and Administrator Andrew S. Natsios—both of them back
from a visit to the appalling destruction in Sumatra, Sri
Lanka, India, and Thailand.
“I really do want to thank Andrew for not only helping
to organize the effort, but for his travels and his concern
and his willingness to put in the long hours necessary to
make sure that which we spend works,” Bush said.
“And I want to thank you all for working along with
Andrew. I know the response disaster team of USAID is sitting
behind me. Andrew tells me that the response disaster team
went into work the minute we heard about the disaster. And
since then, you’ve been working long hours. I appreciate
it very much.”
He then called on Americans to “contribute to NGOs”
for tsunami relief, but cautioned that “we don’t
short-change the needs for compassion elsewhere in our country
and the world.”
He said that earlier that morning his brother Jeb, Powell,
and Natsios had reported on the devastation they witnessed.
They also reported that “the efforts—the compassion,
the money, the hope—is well coordinated, and that your
work is making a difference in saving lives and helping people
who need help. That’s what you’re here to do, and
it’s working.
“USAID personnel in the region responded the very day
the disaster struck. So not only did the response team get
set up, but the people around the world began to move. Your
fellow colleagues and yourselves have been working day and
night, 24 hours a day, and we’re grateful. It’s
not easy, I know, it’s hard, particularly in the time
of year in which this hit. But you’re doing your job.
And for that, I’m extremely grateful.”
Bush said “USAID has delivered food, temporary shelter,
hygiene kits, and supplies to help people survive. In other
words, we’ve been focused on the relief effort; now we’re
beginning to focus on rehabilitation and rebuilding. And as
a result, USAID is arranging small loans for those whose livelihoods
have been destroyed.”
He also noted “superb” cooperation between USAID
and the NGOs carrying out emergency relief.
“The effort of USAID is essential for the foreign policy
of the United States of America,” the president said.
“Your efforts and the efforts of others, especially
to create jobs, promote markets, improve health, fight HIV/AIDS,
and help democracy take root are instrumental to making the
world a better place and to protecting the American people.”
Iraqis Vote
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An Iraqi voter casts his ballot, as a worker from the
Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq looks on.
Staff Sgt. Chad McMeen, U.S. Marines |
About 60 percent of Iraq’s 14 million eligible voters
turned out Jan. 30 for the first free election in that country
in half a century, defying threats by insurgents to kill all
who vote.
Iraqis trained as election monitors—through some of
the $86 million in USAID election support—reported that
the election went off smoothly, and votes were counted in
polling stations as soon as polls closed.
Results were to be sent to provincial centers and then to
the capital, Baghdad, by Feb. 10. Final results will be announced
about Feb. 15, according to Adam Schmidt of the USAID’s
Democracy and Governance Office.
“We spoke to representatives of the National Democratic
Institute (NDI) office in Baghdad, who said they went to a
polling center to observe and were ecstatic. They said it
was a moving event—a celebration—a civic gathering
in an area of mixed sectarian and ethnic communities,”
Schmidt said.
NDI, along with the National Republican Institute (NRI),
the International Foundation for Election Systems, and other
groups, received funding from USAID to provide election training
to thousands of Iraqi monitors, dozens of Iraqi political
parties, and many election officials.
President Bush greeted the successful election turnout,
saying: “The world is hearing the voice of freedom from
the center of the Middle East.”
Turnout was highest in Shiite and Kurdish regions historically
suppressed by Saddam Hussein. In the strongholds of Saddam’s
20 percent Sunni minority, people also voted, but in smaller
numbers.
“In Anbar province—in Falluja and Ramadi—voters
turned out in light numbers,” said Schmidt. “But
in some predominantly Sunni Arab communities, reporting from
the domestic observers and election administration officials
reflect a turnout higher than expected.”
U.S. and Iraqi security forces took a series of measures
that appeared to deflect a feared onslaught of attacks by
insurgents. Private cars were prohibited on the streets, and
many U.S. and Iraqi troops were taken from other tasks to
provide security.
Because of a lack of women security agents, polling officials
asked every tenth woman on line—after she was searched—to
search the 10 women following her.
“Positive voter turnout and a voting public knowledgeable
about the actual voting mechanics may be considered a direct
result of $20 million expended by USAID and NRI in voter education
and media initiatives to get out the vote,” said Schmidt.
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