UN presses urgent disaster response

WASHINGTON -- World leaders meeting yesterday in the Indonesian capital promised more money, more cooperation, and a high-tech disaster early warning system in what UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called "a race against time" to save survivors of the deadly Asian tsunami and protect the region from future danger.

Annan, speaking at an aid summit in Jakarta, appealed for an immediate cash infusion of $977 million of the nearly $4 billion in aid promised so far to deliver clean water, food, medicine, and shelter to victims. The World Health Organization said disease could double the current death tally of more than 150,000.

"What happened on 26 December, 2004, was an unprecedented global catastrophe," Annan said at the one-day aid conference. "It requires an unprecedented global response. It is a race against time."

After an opening response to the crisis that some in the international community criticized as late and lacking, the United States has raised its financial commitment and public presence on the disaster. The Bush administration, which initially proposed a "core group" of four nations -- later expanded to six -- to coordinate international aid, yesterday relinquished that role to the UN, a decision analysts said gave the White House a more conciliatory and cooperative image.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who attended the Jakarta conference after touring ravaged areas with Florida Governor Jeb Bush on Wednesday, said the core group was no longer needed now that the UN effort was "up and running."

The disaster increasingly occupied US lawmakers yesterday. A delegation flew to Asia to survey the damage and assess the need for US financial help.

On Capitol Hill, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, unveiled a bill that would set aside $30 million for a global tsunami-warning system. The measure would pay to buy and install 40 to 50 high-tech sensors in the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans to detect potential tsunamis.

Officials at the Jakarta conference supported the creation of an early warning system, although they did not provide specifics on how it might work, what it might cost, or how it would be funded. A current warning system exists, but is limited to the Pacific region.

Lawmakers also speedily approved a measure allowing Americans to deduct cash donations to tsunami victims from their 2004 tax returns, as long as the donations are made before the end of this month. The measure is meant to encourage the private fund-raising being spearheaded by former presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

House leaders, meanwhile, are completing work on an aid package that congressional sources said would provide substantially more than the $350 million President Bush has pledged in government assistance.

Of that $350 million, the US military will have spent some $60 million by today delivering assistance by helicopter to stricken areas, said a Republican House staffer who spoke on condition of anonymity. By next week, the United States will have spent about $245 million in military costs and humanitarian aid, and is likely to "blow through" the $350 million commitment by the end of this month, the aide said.

Representative Henry Hyde, Republican of Illinois and chairman of the House International Relations Committee, is preparing legislation to provide US aid to Asia, but has not yet announced how much money it would commit.

Aid workers and analysts applauded the Bush administration's willingness to allow the UN to coordinate the aid effort. They said the UN is the best organization for such a monumental task.

"It helps to use preexisting institutions" instead of creating a new organizational structure in the middle of a crisis, said Ahuma Adodoadji, director of emergency and humanitarian assistance for CARE USA. Further, he said, the move helps the image of the United States.

"When that [core group] was announced, the message it was sending was that the US was going to be unilateral again," as it was in Iraq. But working through the UN makes Bush and the country appear more cooperative in the eyes of the world community, Adodoadji said.

Lawrence Korb, assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration, said the decision also spares Bush from direct blame if the aid effort progresses poorly.

"This is not time to be playing petty politics," said Korb, an analyst with the Center for American Progress.

Powell told an Indonesian television station that "the United States will help in every way we can," and suggested that the current $350 million commitment might grow. The European Union promised an additional $462 million yesterday, and private donations around the world continued to pour in to charities.

Japan, which has committed $500 million to help the tsunami victims, said yesterday it was willing to freeze debt payments for countries affected by the tragedy. The British treasury chief, Gordon Brown, called for a massive aid and debt relief program to aid all poor nations.

But amid the burgeoning generosity of nations and individuals, aid workers worry that the promises of cash and assistance might not materialize. Attention to the ravaged region might diminish after the initial infusion of food, water, and temporary shelter, when the Asian countries will still need help repairing their economies, infrastructure, and way of life, they said.

In past international crises, some countries have made pledges that were ultimately not fulfilled. For example, out of more than $1 billion pledged in aid after an earthquake in Bam, Iran, killed 31,000 people a year ago, only $17 million has been delivered.

Sometimes, lawmakers refuse to back a promise made by a president or prime minister, current and former aid workers said. The Bush administration pledged to spend $3 billion a year fighting AIDS in Africa, but Congress approved just $2.4 billion for this year, Korb and others noted.

J. Brian Atwood, director of the US Agency for International Development during the Clinton administration, said that on following through on pledges for international disaster assistance, the United States "is pretty good." European Union countries, he said, "are rather notorious" for giving less than promised.

Powell, speaking to reporters in Jakarta, said the United States would follow through on its commitment.

"I've heard and I've read this argument that people pledge money and they don't do it, and I've even heard it said about the United States that we didn't do what we said we'd do [for Iran's earthquake] last year. It's a false press report," Powell said.

"I can only speak for the United States and tell you that the United States, when it says $350 million, it means $350 million, and when we say we'll go for more if we need more, that's what we'll do. I can't speak for other nations," he said.

US funds can be disseminated quickly through contingency funds in USAID and other government agencies, Atwood said, but those funds need to be replenished for the current crisis as well as future disasters. A big part of the bill is reimbursing the military for troop deployments and the use of helicopters and other expensive equipment.

"The Pentagon insists on being reimbursed for every penny it spends on a crisis like this," Atwood said, although he acknowledged that the military is the only entity that has the material and expertise to reach remote areas affected by the tsunami.

Other donations are disseminated through private aid organizations such as the World Food Program, which must write proposals and compete for federal grants to serve troubled areas.

Material from wire services was included in this report.