Spain sends troops to help tsunami victims

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced today that Spain would send 650 troops, a hospital ship, five planes, two helicopters and a water treatment plant to help international relief efforts in parts of Indonesia hit by last week’s tsunami.

“Our armed forces will be where Spaniards want them to be,” said Zapatero speaking at a news conference.

“A country measures its leadership in the world especially by its capacity to help those most in need,” Zapatero said.

The prime minister said that the aid would leave on Monday and would include a Galicia-class hospital ship and a water purifying plant capable of generating 8,000 litres of potable water per hour.

Two of the planes would be Hercules transport aircraft and the cost of the operation would be 6.5 million euros (£4.5 million) over a period of two months.

Spain has already sent search-and-rescue teams, medical personnel and forensic experts to help with relief efforts.

Spain has also pledged€50m aid in the form of soft loans.

On Thursday, 10 doctors and aid workers left Madrid for the fishing city of Kalutara in Sri Lanka with medicine.

The number of Spanish tourists missing in the tsunami was reduced to two on Thursday after friends of a 35-year-old man from Barcelona contacted the Foreign Ministry in Madrid to inform them that he was safe in Thailand. The government is not aware of any Spaniards among the dead.

The massive waves, triggered by an undersea quake, ravaged the coastlines of 11 countries on December 26 and killed an estimated 150,000 people.