News - Indonesia Plans Tsunami Summit

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao are among six world leaders who have confirmed they will attend an international summit in Jakarta this week to discuss the distribution of more than $2 billion in pledged aid to tsunami victims.



The U.S. hasn't announced whether it will participate. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Florida Governor Jeb Bush, brother of President George W. Bush, left today to visit devastated areas in southern Asia, where 150,000 people perished after a magnitude-9 earthquake triggered tsunamis seven days ago.



Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono prepares for the international conference as the first rescuers to reach survivors in remote areas of his country reported destruction defying description.



``The scale of the damage is beyond words,'' said Andi Hanindito, an Indonesian government official who's helping coordinate delivery of aid in Aceh province, where about 80,00 people died in coastal regions.



Japan became the biggest of 44 donor nations after pledging $500 million this weekend. The U.S. has promised $350 million, the U.K. $96 million and Sweden $75 million. China increased its contribution 23-fold to $60 million two days ago, and Taiwan upped its pledge 10-fold to $50 million today.



Reconstruction, Debt



The summit will focus on reconstruction after the world's worst natural disaster in 30 years, installation of the first tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean and possible debt rescheduling with international lenders, Indonesia Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told MetroTV in Jakarta.



``This tidal wave simply underlines the lessons we've been learning in the last 10 years,'' Bruce Gale, a Singapore-based political risk analysts with Hill & Associates. ``We had SARS, the haze, terrorism and now all this. All of them point to the same thing: Governments need to get together to ensure effective cooperation.''



Aid has been pouring in, sometimes beyond the means of relief agencies to deliver it quickly to areas beset by monsoon rains, washed-out roads, flattened infrastructure and destroyed communications facilities, charitable organizations said.



``Aceh's situation is beyond what we could ever have imagined,'' Megan Chisholm, senior emergencies officer with CARE Australia, said in a phone interview from Canberra. ``Staff there today said Aceh is annihilated. Access was delayed for days because roads and other infrastructure were wiped out.''



The Hong Kong chapter of Medecins Sans Frontieres, which says it was one of the first aid groups to reach Aceh, called off fundraising because it said it had more donations that it has the resources to use in stricken areas.



Source: Bloomberg.com (to read more, go to http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aWIu2GN_tLKA&refer=top_world_news)