Biggest aid operation gets underway

THE world’s biggest aid operation geared up yesterday to help Asian countries stricken by tsunamis that smashed coastal towns and left misery and the risk of disease in their wake.

The unprecedented effort involved neighbouring Asian states, European countries, the United States and international organisations, as well as countless people offering whatever individual help they could.

But foreign doctors and relief workers faced vast devastation, with the latest death tolls across the region totalling more than 60,000.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies appealed for €32 million in immediate aid for victims.

“We face a huge challenge due to the vast area affected,” said Markku Niskala, secretary general of the Red Cross. “We haven’t even seen the tip of the iceberg yet.”

The UNHCR said the situation was “so enormous and shocking” that it opened stockpiles of shelters, matting, clothing and cooking materials in Sri Lanka, where nearly 18,000 were killed and 200,000 left homeless.

Aid planes from China, Denmark, France, India and Russia delivered tonnes of humanitarian relief and medical staff to Sri Lanka.

In nearby India, where more than 8,500 were known to have died, the local Red Cross issued an appeal for food, clothes, tarpaulins and kitchen utensils, while the Indian government authorised immediate aid of €84m. Aid workers warned of a health crisis as Indian camps became overcrowded with people in need of food, water and shelter, and diarrhoeal disease started to spread.

A UNICEF official in southern India Lizette Burgers said: “Getting clean water to people in the camps is critical at this point to head off the spread of disease.”

UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs Jan Egeland said the relief operation would be the biggest in history.

“There are thousands of dead people, and there are tens of thousands of dead animals. The people should be buried and the animals should be destroyed and disposed of before they infect the drinking water. It’s a massive operation,” he said.