Straw defends tsunami disaster response
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has confirmed that almost 200 British nationals are likely to have died following Boxing Day’s tsunami disaster in South East Asia.
Mr Straw told a news conference on Monday that in addition to the 40 confirmed British deaths, 159 UK citizens were “highly likely to have been involved as victims of the disaster”.
“The presumption has to be that a significant proportion of them have been killed,” the Foreign Secretary told journalists.
Mr Straw said the Metropolitan Police had drawn up the list of estimated British fatalities, with most victims thought to have been in Thailand when the tsunami struck.
The Foreign Office has so far confirmed the deaths of 29 Britons in Thailand, eight in Sri Lanka and three in the Maldives.
Mr Straw confirmed that 43 British police officers are currently working in the areas affected to help consular officials identify the dead and missing and provide assistance to British families.
He added that the Government was contributing to the repatriation of victims’ remains and said that 113 family liaison officers had been made available by police to help counsel grieving families.
Defending the Government’s decision not to release figures on the death toll earlier, the Foreign Secretary stressed that early reports inflating the number of British fatalities after the September 11 terror attacks had caused unnecessary suffering to families.
Mr Straw, who indicated he would be making his own private donation to the disaster fund, suggested that the Government was “almost certain” to match the money donated by the British public and said that the issue had been discussed on Monday morning during a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.
Private donations from the UK have reached £60 million, surpassing the £50 million the Government has so far contributed to the aid effort.
Prime Minister Tony Blair is due to return from his Egyptian holiday today, as the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships Diligence and Bayleaf and the frigate HMS Chatham head for the afflicted region.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy accused the Government of playing “catch-up” with public opinion in its response to the tsunami disaster.
Mr Kennedy questioned the Prime Minister’s refusal to cut short his family holiday to deal with the crisis; a criticism earlier levelled at Tony Blair by Conservative leader Michael Howard.
