UN chief tours Sri Lanka devastation

Stunned by the devastation wrought by the Asian tsunami, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan toured a Sri Lankan town today where hundreds of shoppers at an outdoor weekly market were swept to their deaths.

Accompanied by the head of the World Bank, James A. Wolfensohn, and top UN officials, Annan was touring the battered southern and eastern coastlines which took the brunt of the tsunami’s impact.

More than 30,000 people were killed in the island nation in the December 26 tsunami and some 800,000 people were left homeless.

“We came to listen and learn, and I think Mr Wolfensohn and I have some ideas,” Mr Annan said.

It was the second stop on Mr Annan’s tour of nations afflicted by the worst natural calamity in modern times.

“I have never seen such utter destruction mile after mile,” he said after a helicopter flight on Friday over the western coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island. “You wonder where are the people? What has happened to them?”

Today Mr Annan flew over Galle, Sri Lanka’s southern capital, and eastward over palm-fringed south coast bays to Hambantota, a mixed town of about 13,000 Sinhalese and Muslims.

The catastrophic waves crashed over the town as shoppers crowded the open-air Sunday market, sweeping many of them into a lagoon and others out to sea.

The confirmed death toll stood at 401, but bodies were still being pulled from the lagoon and it was likely most of the missing 1,311 people ultimately will be added to that grim tally.

Hambantota lost more than 1,000 homes, shops and offices, as well as a fleet of 275 fishing boats that were the backbone of the local economy.

Mr Annan, the first UN chief to visit Sri Lanka since Kurt Waldheim in 1975, was met by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse.

“I have flown over your beaches. Your country is very beautiful,” he said after landing. “We have to work with your government to rebuild it.”

Later, he flew to the port city of Trincomalee, in the troubled eastern province where the Sri Lankan army and Tamil rebels share control.

But he declined an invitation by the Tamil Tiger rebels to visit the northern territory under their control, despite an appeal by Bishop J. Kingsley Swampillai, of the Tamil city of Jaffna, to visit the hard-hit area.

Although concerned about everyone affected by the disaster, Annan said, “I am also a guest of the government, and we’ll go where we agreed we will go.”

The Tigers have complained the Sinhalese-dominated government was not treating the northern territory equally, but Colombo has countered that it was being scrupulously fair and giving the Tamil north even more than its share.