India rejects foreign aid for deadly tsunami relief work
Wed Dec 29, 4:28 AM ET
Add to My Yahoo! South Asia - AFP
NEW DELHI (AFP) - India has turned down foreign aid as it has "adequate resources" to provide relief to victims of a deadly tsunami that killed tens of thousands of Asians, a government official said.
India has been flooded with "generous offers of aid" from countries like Russia, the United States, Israel and Japan, said the official who did not want to be named.
"In fact, all friendly nations have offered help but we feel we do have the resources to handle the situation. If at a later stage we feel we need assistance we will not hesitate to ask," said the source on Wednesday.
"Right now we not only have adequate resources but have gone out and mounted a huge relief effort for Sri Lanka and Maldives. We could not have done this if we were facing a problem in Indian relief operations."
The Indian government says it has sent warships, helicopters and aircraft to distribute food, medicines and blankets to neighbouring Sri Lanka and the Maldives and has promised over 23 million dollars in monetary aid.
The official noted that India had not taken up the offers of help as Sunday's disaster was not of "the magnitude" of a brutal earthquake that struck the western Indian state of Gujarat in January 2001 killing 20,000 people.
"This disaster is just not of the same scale or magnitude of the Gujarat earthquake. In comparison to the Gujarat earthquake we have the resources to handle the situation at this juncture," he said.
The death toll in India from giant tidal waves that crashed into the coasts of Asia crossed 9,000 Wednesday with many thousands of people still missing, particularly on remote islands which remain incommunicado.
The government has taken a cautious stance and Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Tuesday night the death toll as officially confirmed to the federal government in New Delhi was 4,857.
India's government and UN and local aid agencies have begun distributing survival packs to at least 160,000 people left homeless along the mainland coast with demand expected to grow for food, water and shelter.
In addition to the five billion rupees (114 million dollars) provided for relief work Monday by the Indian government, another two billion rupees (46 million dollars) has been earmarked to rebuild rural housing.
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 10:52 pm Posts: 1727 Location: Earth Gender: Male
You can never have enough relief after something like this can you?
_________________ "The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." -Noam Chomsky
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2004 9:36 pm Posts: 833 Location: Detroit, MI
I don't think it's so much of a "get your stinkin' American dollars outta here!" as it is "no guys look, we can handle our own business, but thanks anyhow."
This is hardly the time for international cockfights.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:14 am Posts: 37778 Location: OmaGOD!!! Gender: Male
aerojad wrote:
I don't think it's so much of a "get your stinkin' American dollars outta here!" as it is "no guys look, we can handle our own business, but thanks anyhow."
This is hardly the time for international cockfights.
Oh, I think we need much more cockfighting. Maybe we'd have less wars.
My cock is SO much bigger than yours.
--PunkDavid
_________________ Unfortunately, at the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, the Flower Children jerked off and went back to sleep.
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2004 9:36 pm Posts: 833 Location: Detroit, MI
punkdavid wrote:
aerojad wrote:
I don't think it's so much of a "get your stinkin' American dollars outta here!" as it is "no guys look, we can handle our own business, but thanks anyhow."
This is hardly the time for international cockfights.
Oh, I think we need much more cockfighting. Maybe we'd have less wars.
My cock is SO much bigger than yours.
--PunkDavid
Heh, reminds me of George Carlin's "bigger dick" theory of foreign politics.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 9:22 am Posts: 152 Location: 23 miles from Hart Plaza.
Good for them to have enough resources to take care of this disaster. But also good for the countries that did offer help.
The more I see what happened, I am just shocked. It is like out of some horror movie, but real!!
I can't imagine what these people are going through and I wish them the best in rebuilding and in healing from this!
_________________ "If something can be read without effort...great effort has gone into its writing." ~ Enrique Jardiel Poncela
This is one of my qualms with everyone attacking Bush for only pledging "X" amount of dollars. This is something that the world has never faced. A dozen countries, two continents, remote islands, it'd be completely foolish to just sign a blank check. We need to figure what area's need the most help, and distribute whatever aid we can provide in a well coordinated fashion. These charity organizations, the UN, and national governments need to coordinate now like they've never really had to coordinate in order to provide maximum care. So with this in mind, a tip my hat to India. They're really taking the high road by saying, "send your aid to Sri Lanka and Indonesia, we're good for now."
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2004 9:36 pm Posts: 833 Location: Detroit, MI
We also need to check the liberal/conservative arguments at the door. This is one of those human tradegies that is supposed to be bigger than our petty little qualms.
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