By: Pak Thunder
- 6th January 2005 at 16:23Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Actually, among the first and largest shipments of aid came in China Southern 747s to both Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
Xanadu wants to see the PLAN and PLAAF involved and that is something China doesn't want to do very often outside its borders. Not the least of it has to do with China's non-interference doctrine and partiallly because of American threat perceptions.
The US complained long and loud about 350 Chinese peacekeepers on Haiti so forget about Chinese warships streaming into the Indian Ocean which is basically an American lake that China had always avoided. They've enough trouble with Americans on the Chinese coastline.
I just wish people would just even try and get the facts before making sweeping statements like "How has China helped"!
By: Dandpatta
- 7th January 2005 at 07:15Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Does it have to end in statistics?
I went through all the posts and found myself a bit irked by some of the posts where nations are listed in numerological order of highest to lowest donations.
What counts, my dear friends, is that nations have GIVEN and will continue to GIVE. Why concentrate on who has contributed how much in comparison?
The donations by all nations are for the cause of a calamity of a scope that was never envisioned. This is NOT a race or a competition on who tops and who downs in the list so let's try to stop falling into the comparison statistics. Let the western media or whatever audio visual media make hay of their own home country's contribution. But right now, whatever aid whichever contries make towards those who have been affected, COUNTS more than comparitive studies.
Let's also remember one of the Asian virtues "...duty and donation do not call for commendation.. both are independent and both are solemn in tragedy.."
Amen, God Bless the departed souls and peace & solace to those left behind in suffering...
New
Posts: 218
By: Lava
- 7th January 2005 at 10:28Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Yep this is what I was trying to say previously..!
New
Posts: 298
By: mavaustin
- 7th January 2005 at 16:17Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
this is not meant for flaming but, shouldnt this be stopped?
India's untouchables forced out of relief camps
2 hours, 23 minutes ago South Asia - AFP
KESHVANPALAYAM, India (AFP) - India's untouchables, reeling from the tsunami disaster, are being forced out of relief camps by higher caste survivors and being denied aid supplies, activists charged.
RSS:
Kuppuswamy Ramachandran, 32, a Dalit or untouchable in India's rigid caste hierarchy, said he and his family were told to leave a relief camp in worst-hit Nagapattinam district where 50 more families were housed.
"The higher caste fishing community did not allow us to sleep in a marriage hall where they are put up because we belong to the lowest caste," Ramachandran said.
"After three days we were moved out to a school but now the school is going to reopen within three days and the teachers drove us out," he said.
"Where will I take my family and children? The school had no lights, toilets or drinking water," available for the displaced.
More than 6,000 people died when tsunamis struck this southern Indian coastal district on December 26 and activists said that included 81 Dalits, who were daily wage earners working in agricultural lands.
The ferocious wall of sea water destroyed swathes of farm land and the Dalits no longer have any employment.
At Keshvanpalayam, the Dalits had only flattened homes to show while survivors elsewhere enjoyed relief supplies such as food, medicines, sleeping mats and kerosene.
No government official or aid has flowed into the village which houses 83 Dalit families more than 30 kilometres (20 miles) from Nagapattinam town.
Cranes and bulldozers cleared the debris of a neighbouring fishing community, but they are yet to reach the Dalit village.
Chandra Jayaram, 35, who lost her husband to the tsunamis, said her family has not received promised government compensation of 100,000 rupees (2,174 dollars).
"At the relief camps we are treated differently due to our social status. We are not given relief supplies. The fishing community told us not to stay with them. The government says we will not be given anything as we are not affected much," Jayaram said.
S. Karuppiah, field coordinator with the Human Rights Forum for Dalit Liberation, said in some of the villages the dead bodies of untouchables were removed with reluctance.
"The Dalit villages are in most places proving to be the preferred choice of the fishing community to bury the dead. If the Dalits ask for relief materials the government says they can only give the leftovers," Karuppiah said.
"The government is turning a blind eye," he said. "When Dalits bury the dead they are not given gloves or medicines but only alcohol to forget the rotten stench."
Another activist, Mahakrishnan Marimuthu, who heads the non-governmental Education and Handicraft Training Trust, said tsunamis dealt a double blow to the caste.
"They lost their jobs, houses and relatives. On the other hand the social discrimination is proving to be worse," he said.
The government denied the allegations and said it was providing relief to every tsunami-affected family.
"There is no intention of closing down any camps and we are providing relief to each and every family. We will provide temporary shelters as these relief camps are getting overcrowded," said Veerashanmugha Moni, Nagapattinam's senior government administrator.
The United Nations (news - web sites) Children's Fund UNICEF (news - web sites) said government, relief agencies and aid workers did not discriminate against the Dalits but the caste issue always exists.
"All the aid going in is distributed the same way to all survivors. The social discrimination has been there during normal times," said Amudha, who heads a team of UNICEF volunteers in Nagapattinam.
"After the disaster happened it is still continuing. That is nothing new," she said.
Vijaya Lakshmi, spokeswoman for South India Federation of Fishermen Societies, agreed and said one could not wish away a centuries-old caste system when a disaster struck.
"If they (Dalits) are comfortable by staying separate they will," she said
New
Posts: 2,713
By: google
- 7th January 2005 at 22:25Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Indian Ocean militaries survey tsunami damage
JDW correspondents and Asia-Pacific Editor Robert Karniol in Thailand provide a preliminary picture of military losses caused by the tsunamis in the Indian Ocean on 26 December
The tsunamis that devastated areas around the Indian Ocean following a powerful undersea earthquake on 26 December hurt defence forces around the region as well as the communities where they are based.
The tidal waves caused extensive casualties and property damage and prompted the largest international relief operation the world has seen stretching from Thailand to West Africa. The four countries worst affected - India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand - together account for more than 95 per cent of the 150,000 people killed based on early January estimates.
Details of the damage to military forces and facilities in the four countries most seriously hit remain unclear, in part because of the priority being given to relief work and also the element of secrecy prevalent as several countries remain reticent about providing detailed information due to security concerns.
In India, Rahul Bedi reports that the tsunami swept away the Indian Air Force (IAF) Carnic base on Nicobar Island in the Andaman Sea and also punched a temporary hole in the nation's security set-up.
Twenty-seven IAF personnel of some 1,700 posted on the base died and 75 others remain missing nearly two weeks after the disaster struck. Carnic's 2,744 m runway has been cut to 1,524 m by the water but six maritime-version Mi-8 helicopters there escaped damage.
The IAF Carnic base is India's strategic outpost on the country's eastern boundary and had been expanded following the formation three years ago of the Andaman and Nicobar tri-service command.
The newly appointed chief of air staff, Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi, ruled out relocating Carnic but said that some of the officers' quarters would be shifted. "We have asked for land in higher areas from the civil administration," he said.
Naval jetties on the Andaman Islands were partially damaged but no naval assets were destroyed, including radars. The jetty at the Campbell Bay Coast Guard Base on the Nicobar Islands was also partially damaged, as was the airstrip, but both were made functional in a short period. There was no damage at INS Karadip, the naval base on Kamorta Island.
On India's mainland, Madras (Chennai) port was partially damaged but is now functional. No naval assets there or other military assets elsewhere along the country's east coast were affected.
In Indonesia, Aceh province in northern Sumatra was worst hit of any area in the region. Jessica Sallabank reports that the armed forces (TNI) appear to be downplaying the military impact.
About 400 TNI personnel may have been killed according to early January estimates, said a military spokesman, although this figure may include family members. He also said that no major air or naval platforms were damaged, acknowledging damage only to around a dozen military cars and "a number of small boats and dinghies".
The spokesman added that "a number of military bases and barracks have been slightly damaged" but most bases continue to "function normally".
This assessment raises a number of suspicions in view of the large military presence in Aceh, where operations against the separatist Free Aceh Movement have been under way since 1976. Jakarta has an estimated 40,000 security personnel in the province, including TNI and police, and the latter report extensive losses.
Local media reports say police sources indicate that at least three armoured vehicles are "missing" together with two helicopters and six patrol craft. Eight police dormitories were also destroyed.
The TNI have three major bases in Aceh together with an undetermined number of smaller facilities: Sabang Naval Base, which includes a naval air station; Kalijati Air Base, also in Sabang; and the Banda Aceh army base, where the KODAM (Military Regional Command) Iskandar Muda is headquartered. These are in areas hard-hit by the tsunamis, with some reports stating that some 80 per cent of the town of Banda Aceh was destroyed.
From Sri Lanka, Iqbal Athas is unable to confirm military casualties but says sources indicate that the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) lost an estimated 2,100 fighters. Both government and LTTE forces suffered extensive damage to infrastructure.
Initial assessments on the government side indicate that the army camps at Kallady and Kalkudah in eastern Sri Lanka have been destroyed, together with an undetermined number of Forward Defended Localities that divided security force positions from rebel bases. The main naval base in the south, SLNS Dakshina in Galle, was badly affected, together with naval facilities in Point Pedro, Manalkadu, Kirinda and some sub-units north of Trincomalee.
The Sri Lankan armed forces did not lose any air assets but one vessel, the Haiqing-class fast attack craft Parakramabahu, was driven ashore in Galle and several inshore patrol craft were sunk. Also, the armoury at Nilaveli naval sub-unit was destroyed together with an undetermined number of coastal radars.
The LTTE suffered extensive damage at Chalai, the main base of its naval arm, together with smaller Sea Tiger units along the northeast coast. This includes a number of boats sunk.
In Thailand, the Royal Thai Navy (RTN) bore the brunt of damage from tidal waves that devastated the country's Andaman coast. Army and air force facilities were unaffected as they are inland.
The RTN has one major naval base on the Andaman Sea - the Third Naval Area Command headquarters at Phang Nga - where 32 people were killed, including four navy personnel; two sailors are missing.
The missing sailors were among eight aboard a T-213-class coastal patrol craft, hull number 215, which sank in the heavy seas. The remaining six personnel were rescued. In addition, the Chao Phraya-class guided missile frigate Kraburi was grounded and will take about two months to salvage while three patrol craft were damaged.
While the small dock was unaffected, a number of structures and vehicles were destroyed at the naval base. The navy's deputy chief of staff, Vice Admiral Nopporn Achawakhom, told local media that damage to Phang Nga naval base could be valued at up to Bt2 billion ($50 million).
Perhaps some information about German help, not only because Bundeswehr is heavily involved in the flood help and I not yet read something about it.
The government decided to donate € 500 million (not only a few people are heavily in doubt if we can really afford that... :rolleyes: ) in addition to € 330 million of private donations by the German people. Not involved is any kind of help by official organizations like Technisches Hilfswerk (Technical Help Organization).
Bundeswehr is involved with its two MedEvac A-310MRTT (German language information about the flights here), flying out injured German and other European tourists of Phuket and Bangkok.
The German Navy supply ship "Berlin" will soon arrive at Bandar Aceh. It has over 100 beds for injured people on board, as well as two rooms for intensive medical cases.
Also with a A-310, the first 50 medics arrived a few days ago. They will build up a field hospital at Aceh and run it over the next months.
Generally I'm heavily impressed by the international help for the flood victims. Even small countries like Mozambique donated $ 6 million and parts of their really small crop harvest.
By: BME330
- 8th January 2005 at 12:03Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Now Spain is going to send 2 C-130H, 3 C-295, an LPD with helos, hospitals and medic units, engineers units, about 650 men, and we still are offering more money than countries like Saudi Arabia (they only have money for Yihad?) or China.....even more than France....
By: Minotaurus2004
- 8th January 2005 at 12:16Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
and we still are offering more money than countries like Saudi Arabia (they only have money for Yihad?) or China.....even more than France....
Nice story to this: Saudi-Arabia donated $ 2 million in the first week after the flood...not much for a wealthy country like it is!
A day later, CNN showed pictures of a Saudi TV show, collecting $ 220 million for the families of Palestine suicide bombers. Suddenly Saudi-Arabia decided to raise it's donations to $ 20 million. :rolleyes:
For tsunami orphans, a Christian home
Missionary group relocates 300 youngsters By Alan Cooperman
Updated: 12:11 a.m. ET Jan. 13, 2005A Virginia-based missionary group said this week that it has airlifted 300 "tsunami orphans" from the Muslim province of Banda Aceh to Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, where it plans to raise them in a Christian children's home.
The missionary group, WorldHelp, is one of dozens of Christian, Muslim and Jewish charities providing humanitarian relief to victims of the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami that devastated countries around the Indian Ocean, taking more than 150,000 lives.
Most of the religious charities do not attach any conditions to their aid, and many of the larger ones -- such as WorldVision, Catholic Relief Services and Church World Service -- have policies against proselytizing. But a few of the smaller groups have been raising money among evangelical Christians by presenting the tsunami emergency effort as a rare opportunity to make converts in hard-to-reach areas.
"Normally, Banda Aceh is closed to foreigners and closed to the gospel. But, because of this catastrophe, our partners there are earning the right to be heard and providing entrance for the gospel," WorldHelp said in an appeal for funds on its Web site this week.
The appeal said WorldHelp was working with native-born Christians in Indonesia who want to "plant Christian principles as early as possible" in the 300 Muslim children, all younger than 12, who lost their parents in the tsunami.
"These children are homeless, destitute, traumatized, orphaned, with nowhere to go, nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat. If we can place them in a Christian children's home, their faith in Christ could become the foothold to reach the Aceh people," it said.
The Web site was changed, and the appeal was removed yesterday after The Washington Post called to inquire about it. The Rev. Vernon Brewer, president of WorldHelp in Forest, Va., said in a telephone interview that his organization had collected about $70,000 in donations and was seeking to raise an additional $350,000 to build the Christian orphanage.
Brewer said the Indonesian government gave permission for the orphans to be flown to Jakarta last week and was aware that they would be raised as Christians.
'Unclaimed or unwanted'"
These are children who are unclaimed or unwanted. We are not trying to rip them apart from any existing family members and change their culture and change their customs," he said. "These children are going to be raised in a Christian environment. That's no guarantee they will choose to be Christians."
Brewer, a Baptist minister, was the first person to graduate from the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., in 1971. He served as a vice president of the Christian university before founding WorldHelp in 1991. It has since grown to 100 full-time employees in the United States and helps to support indigenous Christian missionaries in about 50 countries, he said.
Brewer said WorldHelp is an independent organization but has a friendly, informal relationship with nearby Liberty University, which held a fundraiser at a basketball game Monday night to benefit WorldHelp's tsunami relief projects.
"I think Vernon [Brewer] has got the right approach," Falwell said yesterday. "If Christian ministries can earn the right to be heard -- you don't preach the gospel to a hungry man, you feed him, then if he wants to hear something you've got to say, that's nice, but it's not required."
WorldHelp's primary partners in Indonesia, Brewer said, are Henry and Roy Lanting, a father-son team who run an orphanage and school near Jakarta. Roy Lanting is also a graduate of Liberty University, Brewer said. Efforts to reach the Lantings by telephone and e-mail yesterday were unsuccessful.
'No ulterior motive here'"
First and foremost, our intention is not to evangelize but to show the love of Jesus Christ through our acts of compassion," Brewer said. "We are not using this open window of disaster to move in and set up a beachhead for evangelism. That's not the spirit of what we're trying to accomplish. . . . We just want to show the genuineness of our faith. We have no ulterior motive here."
The Rev. Arthur B. Keys Jr., president of Arlington-based International Relief and Development, a non-religious aid group that has a U.S. government contract to rebuild the water and sanitation system in Banda Aceh, said he feared overt evangelizing could produce a backlash. "I think there's a danger that all international groups could be tarnished by this," said Keys, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. "I think we have to go out of our way to assure people that we're there to help, period."
One missionary support group, Advancing Native Missions based in Charlottesville, said it has raised more than $100,000 to pay for distribution of food, water and cooking utensils in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and South India. Its workers often hand out Bibles or other religious tracts along with emergency supplies because disaster victims naturally question the existence of God, spokesman Oliver Asher said.
"It's easy to be an atheist when you have no crisis in your life. But have a 50-foot tidal wave sweep your family and village away, it makes you ponder the big questions in life," he said.
Operation Mobilization USA, based in Tyrone, Ga., has raised about $60,000 to address "both the physical and the spiritual needs" of tsunami victims, according to its vice president for resource development, Douglas R. Barclay.
'Demonstrate God's love'
He said Operation Mobilization, founded in 1957, supports about 3,700 missionaries in 110 countries and moved quickly to provide water, food and medical supplies after the tsunami hit. "In these situations, we're not going to go out and blatantly preach to them, we're just going to demonstrate God's love by addressing their physical needs and sharing our beliefs one on one," he said.
One of the largest and best-known evangelical Christian relief groups is Samaritan's Purse of Boone, N.C., which is headed by the Rev. Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham. It sparked international controversy by openly mixing evangelization with its relief work after Hurricane Mitch in Central America in 1998 and the U.S. invasion of Iraq last year. But it has made great efforts to be "sensitive to local concerns" in areas hit by the tsunami, Franklin Graham said.
"It would be inappropriate for us to go in and try to take advantage of these people's tragedy to evangelize," he said.
By: Blackcat
- 21st January 2005 at 20:19Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
RUSSIAN AIR FORCE AIRCRAFT TO PERFORM ANOTHER MORE THAN 10 HUMANITARIAN AID FLIGHTS TO SOUTH-EAST ASIA
/AVIA.RU/
The Russian Air Force airplanes will perform another more than 10 humanitarian aid flights to the countries of South-East Asia, said Vladimir Mikhailov, the Russian Air Force commander - in - chief. Recently the Russian AF aircraft have already performed 13 flights to deliver the humanitarian aid to the South-East Asian countries affected by the tsunami. We have yet to perform another more than 10 flights. added Mokhailov. According to him, the Russian AF aircraft will deliver to these countries various units of equipment for water purification, mobile hospitals, tents, clothing and other cargo for humanitarian purposes. We have 6 airplanes regularly flying to the area. This is just the quantity of aircraft that interim airdromes are able to handle, the Russian AF commander-in-chief added. Currently the Russian AF has about 100 Il-76 aircraft with trained flight crews as well as other airplanes which, if necessary, we can use to deliver the humanitarian aid cargo to the suffered area, said Mikhailov.
Posts: 297
By: Pak Thunder - 6th January 2005 at 16:23 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I just wish people would just even try and get the facts before making sweeping statements like "How has China helped"!
Posts: 93
By: Dandpatta - 7th January 2005 at 07:15 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Does it have to end in statistics?
I went through all the posts and found myself a bit irked by some of the posts where nations are listed in numerological order of highest to lowest donations.
What counts, my dear friends, is that nations have GIVEN and will continue to GIVE. Why concentrate on who has contributed how much in comparison?
The donations by all nations are for the cause of a calamity of a scope that was never envisioned. This is NOT a race or a competition on who tops and who downs in the list so let's try to stop falling into the comparison statistics. Let the western media or whatever audio visual media make hay of their own home country's contribution. But right now, whatever aid whichever contries make towards those who have been affected, COUNTS more than comparitive studies.
Let's also remember one of the Asian virtues "...duty and donation do not call for commendation.. both are independent and both are solemn in tragedy.."
Amen, God Bless the departed souls and peace & solace to those left behind in suffering...
Posts: 218
By: Lava - 7th January 2005 at 10:28 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Yep this is what I was trying to say previously..!
Posts: 298
By: mavaustin - 7th January 2005 at 16:17 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
this is not meant for flaming but, shouldnt this be stopped?
India's untouchables forced out of relief camps
2 hours, 23 minutes ago South Asia - AFP
KESHVANPALAYAM, India (AFP) - India's untouchables, reeling from the tsunami disaster, are being forced out of relief camps by higher caste survivors and being denied aid supplies, activists charged.
RSS:
Kuppuswamy Ramachandran, 32, a Dalit or untouchable in India's rigid caste hierarchy, said he and his family were told to leave a relief camp in worst-hit Nagapattinam district where 50 more families were housed.
"The higher caste fishing community did not allow us to sleep in a marriage hall where they are put up because we belong to the lowest caste," Ramachandran said.
"After three days we were moved out to a school but now the school is going to reopen within three days and the teachers drove us out," he said.
"Where will I take my family and children? The school had no lights, toilets or drinking water," available for the displaced.
More than 6,000 people died when tsunamis struck this southern Indian coastal district on December 26 and activists said that included 81 Dalits, who were daily wage earners working in agricultural lands.
The ferocious wall of sea water destroyed swathes of farm land and the Dalits no longer have any employment.
At Keshvanpalayam, the Dalits had only flattened homes to show while survivors elsewhere enjoyed relief supplies such as food, medicines, sleeping mats and kerosene.
No government official or aid has flowed into the village which houses 83 Dalit families more than 30 kilometres (20 miles) from Nagapattinam town.
Cranes and bulldozers cleared the debris of a neighbouring fishing community, but they are yet to reach the Dalit village.
Chandra Jayaram, 35, who lost her husband to the tsunamis, said her family has not received promised government compensation of 100,000 rupees (2,174 dollars).
"At the relief camps we are treated differently due to our social status. We are not given relief supplies. The fishing community told us not to stay with them. The government says we will not be given anything as we are not affected much," Jayaram said.
S. Karuppiah, field coordinator with the Human Rights Forum for Dalit Liberation, said in some of the villages the dead bodies of untouchables were removed with reluctance.
"The Dalit villages are in most places proving to be the preferred choice of the fishing community to bury the dead. If the Dalits ask for relief materials the government says they can only give the leftovers," Karuppiah said.
"The government is turning a blind eye," he said. "When Dalits bury the dead they are not given gloves or medicines but only alcohol to forget the rotten stench."
Another activist, Mahakrishnan Marimuthu, who heads the non-governmental Education and Handicraft Training Trust, said tsunamis dealt a double blow to the caste.
"They lost their jobs, houses and relatives. On the other hand the social discrimination is proving to be worse," he said.
The government denied the allegations and said it was providing relief to every tsunami-affected family.
"There is no intention of closing down any camps and we are providing relief to each and every family. We will provide temporary shelters as these relief camps are getting overcrowded," said Veerashanmugha Moni, Nagapattinam's senior government administrator.
The United Nations (news - web sites) Children's Fund UNICEF (news - web sites) said government, relief agencies and aid workers did not discriminate against the Dalits but the caste issue always exists.
"All the aid going in is distributed the same way to all survivors. The social discrimination has been there during normal times," said Amudha, who heads a team of UNICEF volunteers in Nagapattinam.
"After the disaster happened it is still continuing. That is nothing new," she said.
Vijaya Lakshmi, spokeswoman for South India Federation of Fishermen Societies, agreed and said one could not wish away a centuries-old caste system when a disaster struck.
"If they (Dalits) are comfortable by staying separate they will," she said
Posts: 2,713
By: google - 7th January 2005 at 22:25 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Fair use:
Date Posted: 07-Jan-2005
JANE'S DEFENCE WEEKLY - JANUARY 12, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Indian Ocean militaries survey tsunami damage
JDW correspondents and Asia-Pacific Editor Robert Karniol in Thailand provide a preliminary picture of military losses caused by the tsunamis in the Indian Ocean on 26 December
The tsunamis that devastated areas around the Indian Ocean following a powerful undersea earthquake on 26 December hurt defence forces around the region as well as the communities where they are based.
The tidal waves caused extensive casualties and property damage and prompted the largest international relief operation the world has seen stretching from Thailand to West Africa. The four countries worst affected - India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand - together account for more than 95 per cent of the 150,000 people killed based on early January estimates.
Details of the damage to military forces and facilities in the four countries most seriously hit remain unclear, in part because of the priority being given to relief work and also the element of secrecy prevalent as several countries remain reticent about providing detailed information due to security concerns.
In India, Rahul Bedi reports that the tsunami swept away the Indian Air Force (IAF) Carnic base on Nicobar Island in the Andaman Sea and also punched a temporary hole in the nation's security set-up.
Twenty-seven IAF personnel of some 1,700 posted on the base died and 75 others remain missing nearly two weeks after the disaster struck. Carnic's 2,744 m runway has been cut to 1,524 m by the water but six maritime-version Mi-8 helicopters there escaped damage.
The IAF Carnic base is India's strategic outpost on the country's eastern boundary and had been expanded following the formation three years ago of the Andaman and Nicobar tri-service command.
The newly appointed chief of air staff, Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi, ruled out relocating Carnic but said that some of the officers' quarters would be shifted. "We have asked for land in higher areas from the civil administration," he said.
Naval jetties on the Andaman Islands were partially damaged but no naval assets were destroyed, including radars. The jetty at the Campbell Bay Coast Guard Base on the Nicobar Islands was also partially damaged, as was the airstrip, but both were made functional in a short period. There was no damage at INS Karadip, the naval base on Kamorta Island.
On India's mainland, Madras (Chennai) port was partially damaged but is now functional. No naval assets there or other military assets elsewhere along the country's east coast were affected.
In Indonesia, Aceh province in northern Sumatra was worst hit of any area in the region. Jessica Sallabank reports that the armed forces (TNI) appear to be downplaying the military impact.
About 400 TNI personnel may have been killed according to early January estimates, said a military spokesman, although this figure may include family members. He also said that no major air or naval platforms were damaged, acknowledging damage only to around a dozen military cars and "a number of small boats and dinghies".
The spokesman added that "a number of military bases and barracks have been slightly damaged" but most bases continue to "function normally".
This assessment raises a number of suspicions in view of the large military presence in Aceh, where operations against the separatist Free Aceh Movement have been under way since 1976. Jakarta has an estimated 40,000 security personnel in the province, including TNI and police, and the latter report extensive losses.
Local media reports say police sources indicate that at least three armoured vehicles are "missing" together with two helicopters and six patrol craft. Eight police dormitories were also destroyed.
The TNI have three major bases in Aceh together with an undetermined number of smaller facilities: Sabang Naval Base, which includes a naval air station; Kalijati Air Base, also in Sabang; and the Banda Aceh army base, where the KODAM (Military Regional Command) Iskandar Muda is headquartered. These are in areas hard-hit by the tsunamis, with some reports stating that some 80 per cent of the town of Banda Aceh was destroyed.
From Sri Lanka, Iqbal Athas is unable to confirm military casualties but says sources indicate that the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) lost an estimated 2,100 fighters. Both government and LTTE forces suffered extensive damage to infrastructure.
Initial assessments on the government side indicate that the army camps at Kallady and Kalkudah in eastern Sri Lanka have been destroyed, together with an undetermined number of Forward Defended Localities that divided security force positions from rebel bases. The main naval base in the south, SLNS Dakshina in Galle, was badly affected, together with naval facilities in Point Pedro, Manalkadu, Kirinda and some sub-units north of Trincomalee.
The Sri Lankan armed forces did not lose any air assets but one vessel, the Haiqing-class fast attack craft Parakramabahu, was driven ashore in Galle and several inshore patrol craft were sunk. Also, the armoury at Nilaveli naval sub-unit was destroyed together with an undetermined number of coastal radars.
The LTTE suffered extensive damage at Chalai, the main base of its naval arm, together with smaller Sea Tiger units along the northeast coast. This includes a number of boats sunk.
In Thailand, the Royal Thai Navy (RTN) bore the brunt of damage from tidal waves that devastated the country's Andaman coast. Army and air force facilities were unaffected as they are inland.
The RTN has one major naval base on the Andaman Sea - the Third Naval Area Command headquarters at Phang Nga - where 32 people were killed, including four navy personnel; two sailors are missing.
The missing sailors were among eight aboard a T-213-class coastal patrol craft, hull number 215, which sank in the heavy seas. The remaining six personnel were rescued. In addition, the Chao Phraya-class guided missile frigate Kraburi was grounded and will take about two months to salvage while three patrol craft were damaged.
While the small dock was unaffected, a number of structures and vehicles were destroyed at the naval base. The navy's deputy chief of staff, Vice Admiral Nopporn Achawakhom, told local media that damage to Phang Nga naval base could be valued at up to Bt2 billion ($50 million).
Posts: 54
By: Minotaurus2004 - 8th January 2005 at 11:46 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Perhaps some information about German help, not only because Bundeswehr is heavily involved in the flood help and I not yet read something about it.
The government decided to donate € 500 million (not only a few people are heavily in doubt if we can really afford that... :rolleyes: ) in addition to € 330 million of private donations by the German people. Not involved is any kind of help by official organizations like Technisches Hilfswerk (Technical Help Organization).
Bundeswehr is involved with its two MedEvac A-310MRTT (German language information about the flights here), flying out injured German and other European tourists of Phuket and Bangkok.
The German Navy supply ship "Berlin" will soon arrive at Bandar Aceh. It has over 100 beds for injured people on board, as well as two rooms for intensive medical cases.
Also with a A-310, the first 50 medics arrived a few days ago. They will build up a field hospital at Aceh and run it over the next months.
Generally I'm heavily impressed by the international help for the flood victims. Even small countries like Mozambique donated $ 6 million and parts of their really small crop harvest.
Posts: 657
By: BME330 - 8th January 2005 at 12:03 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Now Spain is going to send 2 C-130H, 3 C-295, an LPD with helos, hospitals and medic units, engineers units, about 650 men, and we still are offering more money than countries like Saudi Arabia (they only have money for Yihad?) or China.....even more than France....
Posts: 54
By: Minotaurus2004 - 8th January 2005 at 12:16 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Nice story to this: Saudi-Arabia donated $ 2 million in the first week after the flood...not much for a wealthy country like it is!
A day later, CNN showed pictures of a Saudi TV show, collecting $ 220 million for the families of Palestine suicide bombers. Suddenly Saudi-Arabia decided to raise it's donations to $ 20 million. :rolleyes:
Posts: 277
By: lordofjedi - 14th January 2005 at 00:30 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
This is disgusting... This breeds a lot of tension and friction. :mad:
The attitude of these "religious" people is anything but religious. Tragedy should never be a time to exploit and conscript people.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6819471/
For tsunami orphans, a Christian home
Missionary group relocates 300 youngsters
By Alan Cooperman
Updated: 12:11 a.m. ET Jan. 13, 2005A Virginia-based missionary group said this week that it has airlifted 300 "tsunami orphans" from the Muslim province of Banda Aceh to Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, where it plans to raise them in a Christian children's home.
The missionary group, WorldHelp, is one of dozens of Christian, Muslim and Jewish charities providing humanitarian relief to victims of the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami that devastated countries around the Indian Ocean, taking more than 150,000 lives.
Most of the religious charities do not attach any conditions to their aid, and many of the larger ones -- such as WorldVision, Catholic Relief Services and Church World Service -- have policies against proselytizing. But a few of the smaller groups have been raising money among evangelical Christians by presenting the tsunami emergency effort as a rare opportunity to make converts in hard-to-reach areas.
"Normally, Banda Aceh is closed to foreigners and closed to the gospel. But, because of this catastrophe, our partners there are earning the right to be heard and providing entrance for the gospel," WorldHelp said in an appeal for funds on its Web site this week.
The appeal said WorldHelp was working with native-born Christians in Indonesia who want to "plant Christian principles as early as possible" in the 300 Muslim children, all younger than 12, who lost their parents in the tsunami.
"These children are homeless, destitute, traumatized, orphaned, with nowhere to go, nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat. If we can place them in a Christian children's home, their faith in Christ could become the foothold to reach the Aceh people," it said.
The Web site was changed, and the appeal was removed yesterday after The Washington Post called to inquire about it. The Rev. Vernon Brewer, president of WorldHelp in Forest, Va., said in a telephone interview that his organization had collected about $70,000 in donations and was seeking to raise an additional $350,000 to build the Christian orphanage.
Brewer said the Indonesian government gave permission for the orphans to be flown to Jakarta last week and was aware that they would be raised as Christians.
'Unclaimed or unwanted'"
These are children who are unclaimed or unwanted. We are not trying to rip them apart from any existing family members and change their culture and change their customs," he said. "These children are going to be raised in a Christian environment. That's no guarantee they will choose to be Christians."
Brewer, a Baptist minister, was the first person to graduate from the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., in 1971. He served as a vice president of the Christian university before founding WorldHelp in 1991. It has since grown to 100 full-time employees in the United States and helps to support indigenous Christian missionaries in about 50 countries, he said.
Brewer said WorldHelp is an independent organization but has a friendly, informal relationship with nearby Liberty University, which held a fundraiser at a basketball game Monday night to benefit WorldHelp's tsunami relief projects.
"I think Vernon [Brewer] has got the right approach," Falwell said yesterday. "If Christian ministries can earn the right to be heard -- you don't preach the gospel to a hungry man, you feed him, then if he wants to hear something you've got to say, that's nice, but it's not required."
WorldHelp's primary partners in Indonesia, Brewer said, are Henry and Roy Lanting, a father-son team who run an orphanage and school near Jakarta. Roy Lanting is also a graduate of Liberty University, Brewer said. Efforts to reach the Lantings by telephone and e-mail yesterday were unsuccessful.
'No ulterior motive here'"
First and foremost, our intention is not to evangelize but to show the love of Jesus Christ through our acts of compassion," Brewer said. "We are not using this open window of disaster to move in and set up a beachhead for evangelism. That's not the spirit of what we're trying to accomplish. . . . We just want to show the genuineness of our faith. We have no ulterior motive here."
The Rev. Arthur B. Keys Jr., president of Arlington-based International Relief and Development, a non-religious aid group that has a U.S. government contract to rebuild the water and sanitation system in Banda Aceh, said he feared overt evangelizing could produce a backlash. "I think there's a danger that all international groups could be tarnished by this," said Keys, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. "I think we have to go out of our way to assure people that we're there to help, period."
One missionary support group, Advancing Native Missions based in Charlottesville, said it has raised more than $100,000 to pay for distribution of food, water and cooking utensils in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and South India. Its workers often hand out Bibles or other religious tracts along with emergency supplies because disaster victims naturally question the existence of God, spokesman Oliver Asher said.
"It's easy to be an atheist when you have no crisis in your life. But have a 50-foot tidal wave sweep your family and village away, it makes you ponder the big questions in life," he said.
Operation Mobilization USA, based in Tyrone, Ga., has raised about $60,000 to address "both the physical and the spiritual needs" of tsunami victims, according to its vice president for resource development, Douglas R. Barclay.
'Demonstrate God's love'
He said Operation Mobilization, founded in 1957, supports about 3,700 missionaries in 110 countries and moved quickly to provide water, food and medical supplies after the tsunami hit. "In these situations, we're not going to go out and blatantly preach to them, we're just going to demonstrate God's love by addressing their physical needs and sharing our beliefs one on one," he said.
One of the largest and best-known evangelical Christian relief groups is Samaritan's Purse of Boone, N.C., which is headed by the Rev. Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham. It sparked international controversy by openly mixing evangelization with its relief work after Hurricane Mitch in Central America in 1998 and the U.S. invasion of Iraq last year. But it has made great efforts to be "sensitive to local concerns" in areas hit by the tsunami, Franklin Graham said.
"It would be inappropriate for us to go in and try to take advantage of these people's tragedy to evangelize," he said.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
Posts: 1,180
By: Blackcat - 21st January 2005 at 20:19 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
its from 16 Jan