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| U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is escorted by Indonesian
soldiers as he arrives at an airport in the tsunami-hit city of Banda Aceh
on the Indonesian island of Sumatra January 7, 2005.
[Reuters] |
Twelve days after the tsunami hit,
Annan and World Bank President James Wolfensohn flew over the island's west
coast in a Singaporean helicopter and then drove to the shattered port of the
main town of Banda Aceh, where families picked through piles of rubble two
metres high. The stench of rotting bodies hung in the air.
"I have never seen such utter destruction mile after mile," a shaken Annan
told reporters afterward. "You wonder where are the people? What has happened to
them?"
Relief workers were still trying to come to terms with the scale of the
December 26 earthquake and killer waves that hit 11 nations. With tens of
thousands and still missing and threatened by disease, the United Nations said
the number of dead would keep climbing.
UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said in New York: "The 150,000 dead figure
is a very low figure. It will be much bigger."
A report says the death toll from the disaster, meanwhile, jumped to 160,000
in 11 nations on Friday after Indonesia's Ministry of Social Affairs increased
its toll from 94,200 to 113,306.
Hardest hit was Sumatra, which was closest to the 9.0 magnitude quake, where
all of Indonesia's some 100,000 death's occurred.
The country uncovered thousands of bodies in and around the shattered coastal
town of Meulaboh, which was cut off from the rest of Sumatra for days because
roads were swept away and sea jetties destroyed.
Annan's visit came after he attended a summit of world leaders in Jakarta on
Thursday on how to turn one of history's largest-ever aid packages -- nearly
US$4 billion in pledges -- into food for the hungry and shelter for the
homeless.
The UN chief urged nations to come up immediately with their promised aid,
and to break with past practices of pledging much and delivering little.
Australia leads the world with a total aid pledge of US$810 million, followed
by Germany, Japan and the United States.
Private donations were also pouring in. A telethon in Saudi Arabia raised
US$67.4 million in 11 hours: with donations ranging from diamonds to tents and
blankets. In Norway, four young girls sold their Christmas presents, raising
nearly 6,000 kroner (US$1,000).
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Sri Lanka, where
more than 30,000 people died, to inspect tsunami-devastated areas in the south
and hold talks on relief efforts with the government.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who toured the Thai holiday destination
of Phuket on Friday, indicated that the number of Britons who died could double
from his government's earlier estimate.
While some areas remained scenes of total devastation, other Thai resorts
were looking to the future. Cleanup on several beaches is almost complete and
tour operators were eager to get back to business.
"It's amazing how fast things have gone back to normal. The Thais have done a
brilliant job of organizing disaster efforts and getting things cleaned up,"
said Peter Elsey, an English tourist who lives in Singapore and owns a house in
Phuket.
