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German Aid for Quake Region Increased to $27 Million
German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, together with Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, announced on December 29 that Germany has increased its emergency aid for Southeast Asia to $27 million (20 million euros). He also announced that at the Paris Club meeting in January, Germany will propose a debt moratorium for Indonesia and Somalia to help these countries in the short term. So far, 26 German citizens have been identified among the dead and some 1,000 German citizens are among the missing in the region devastated by the earthquake at sea and subsequent tsunami, the Chancellor reported on December 29. Specialists with the German Federal Police Office and the German Technical Reconstruction Agency (Technisches Hilfswerk), as well as agents of the German Foreign Office, are working to determine the fate of missing Germans and to aid in the identification of bodies.
Schröder has called for German flags to fly at half mast in Germany and at German embassies abroad. “Our sorrow and our sympathy go out to the victims, the injured and their families,” Schröder said.
The Chancellor joined the Crisis Task Force in the German Foreign Office in Berlin earlier in the day to get the latest information about the situation and Germany’s aid efforts. “We will use all of our resources to be of assistance there,” the Chancellor said. A specially equipped German military plane, a “flying clinic,” has already landed in Thailand to treat severely injured people, and an additional plane is being equipped. Moreover, military aircraft are available to transport tourists in the region. The Chancellor intends to have the military’s flying clinics, as well as drinking water facilities, be made available for the long-term. This will reinforce assistance that German agencies are already providing, especially in the critical task of providing safe drinking water and food.
The Chancellor also thanked those private citizens who have already donated and asked those who will still do so to mobilize what resources they can, saying even small sums are important and valuable. Speaking of the necessary reconstruction efforts that loom in the mid- to long-term, the Chancellor said that Germany is ready to help and called for close international coordination. In addition to the proposal of a debt moratorium for Indonesia and Somalia, Schröder said that Germany will also work within the United Nations and the G-8 to have nations together strengthen their efforts. “One thing is clear,” Schröder said. “This is a catastrophe of truly worldwide proportions. It can only truly be solved through close cooperation by the international community, coordinated through the United Nations.” December 29, 2004
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