Indonesia to build refugee camps for 500,000

Camps for up to 500,000 tsunami refugees will be built on devastated Sumatra island, the UN said today.

The Indonesian government has started breaking ground on four camps around Banda Aceh, the main city in northern Sumatra, where an estimated one million people were left homeless by the tsunami.

The United Nations plans to provide tents and equipment for up to 500,000, said Michael Elmquist, who heads the world body’s relief effort in Aceh.

The existing camps are overcrowded and lack facilities. Indonesian authorities have agreed the new camps will have clean drinking water and latrines, Elmquist said.

“The camps that are here have been improvised by the people themselves,” he said. “But these are definitely not according to our standards. The sanitation is totally insufficient.”

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder today pledges £360 million in long-term tsunami aid, the largest commitment from a single country.

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and US Secretary of State Colin Powell were among the officials expected in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, for a summit on tsunami relief that begins tomorrow.

More than £1 billion has been pledged from around the world to help the millions of victims rebuild from the Boxing Day tsunami.

There have been 140,000 confirmed deaths from the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that rattled the ocean floor and sent massive waves crashing across beachfront communities from southern Asia to Africa.

“I’ve been in war and I’ve been through a number of hurricanes, tornados and other relief operations, but I’ve never seen anything like this,” Powell said today after flying over shattered apocalyptic landscapes on Indonesia’s Sumatra island.

Across Europe, politicians, shoppers and businesses held a three-minute silent tribute for tsunami victims. TV and radio stations interrupted programming. Church bells rang across Switzerland. In Finland, a lone Helsinki taxi driver stood next to his car with his head bowed.

“Because everyone has to bear this heavy burden of sorrow ... I, too, in my small way, wanted to observe the silence,” said Eila Tammilehto.

The UN has performed rapid assessments in countries hit by the tsunami, and Thursday’s meeting aims to get donors to commit to specific aid and reconstruction projects, said Bo Asplund, UN representative in Indonesia.

Topping the list of demands is Indonesia, Asplund said, with some £240 million required under a UN. appeal for the country that suffered at least 94,200 deaths.

Bringing together representatives of all the affected countries will allow aid officials to get commitments for relief for at least the next six months, said Elmquist. The countries also hope to prevent future disasters by creating a warning system for tsunamis in the Indian Ocean.

Another issue on the agenda will be possible debt relief to affected countries, many of which are developing nations that rely on international assistance. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown has said the world’s richest nations are likely to freeze debt repayments and may even forgive debts to countries hit by the tsunami.

US Marine helicopters today buzzed into Medan, Indonesia, not to bring food in, but to take supplies away.

Aid has flooded into Medan and the supplies had been stacked in disorganised piles near a warehouse at the city’s airport, an overwhelming amount beyond what was immediately needed in the area.

Pilots were ferrying survivors from hard-hit towns and villages in the region to medical help. But that created a new challenge for relief workers: bottlenecks at overcrowded hospitals.

Police and UN officials have expressed fears that trafficking gangs will exploit the chaos of the disaster to abduct children and sell them into forced labour or even sexual slavery.