World leaders offer condolences to Katrina victims

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expressed condolences, Sweden’s Prime Minister said it was a “painful example” of challenges facing the world and the premier of tiny Mauritius pointed out that vulnerable islands could face the same fate as New Orleans.

Several speakers at the United Nations summit in New York that opened yesterday took a few minutes during their turn at the podium to remember the disaster of Hurricane Katrina that hit New Orleans and several other areas on the US Gulf Coast in late August.

Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson cited the storm and its aftermath as one of the “painful examples” of the challenges facing the world.

Speaking on behalf of small island nations, Mauritius Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam said: “The devastation seen two weeks ago in the United States has clearly demonstrated the vulnerability of low-lying areas which are so similar to those that exist in islands.”

Ahmadinejad, Iran’s new hard-line president, expressed his “condolences and sympathies to the victims and their loved ones”.

Earlier this month, Tehran offered to send 20 million barrels of crude oil for Katrina aid if Washington waived trade sanctions, but the US rejected the offer because it was conditional.

The sanctions were imposed after militants stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and took its occupants hostage in 1979.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan also wished President Bush and the American people “continued strength and courage in the work for recovery and reconstruction following the Katrina disaster” in his toast at a luncheon in honor of the leaders gathered for the summit.

But at a meeting aimed at reforming the United Nations to let the world better tackle poverty, terrorism and conflict, many also sought to take a lesson from the storm.

“Whether our challenge is peacemaking, nation-building, democratisation or responding to natural or man-made disasters, we have seen that even the strongest amongst us cannot succeed alone,” Annan said earlier in his opening address at the summit.

This was an apparent reference to the US problems in dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Bush, meanwhile, said Americans were grateful for the international support that has poured into the country following the storm and the levee break in New Orleans.

“I just wanted you to know that Americans take comfort in knowing that we’re not alone,” he said during his luncheon toast.

He said the international good will “reminds us there is no challenge we cannot overcome when the nations of the world unite in common”.

Mexican President Vicente Fox offered his “sincere condolences to the people and the government of the United States for the unfortunate loss of life and damage caused by Hurricane Katrina”.

He added that the generosity of the United States among other countries in similar situations showed the importance of international solidarity and co-operation.

Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur reminded delegates that Grenada suffered heavily when Hurricane Ivan hit last year.

“It is therefore highly significant that in a world where we talk about developed and developing, the undiscriminating forces of nature render us all equal and point to our common fragility and humanity,” he said.

The disasters brought to the fore “the need to carry out a program for global development to stop poor people from being poor, no matter where they live”, he added.

The Swedish prime minister also stressed the need for international cooperation as he linked Hurricane Katrina with the July 23 attacks in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh that killed more than 60 people and a boy in Niger desperately in need of aid.

“Most of these challenges respect no borders. Most of them are linked and most of them can only be met if we work together,” Persson said.