Blair predicts “hundreds of millions” in tsunami aid
The Prime Minister has said be believes the British government will donate “hundreds of millions of pounds” in aid to the victims of the Asian tsunamis.
The Government has so far pledged £50 million but Tony Blair told the Today programme: “My estimate is that we will end up needing to spend probably several hundreds of millions of pounds.”
This was only his second public comment on the disaster. He though defended his lack of a public statement about the Asian tsunami disaster in the early days of the catastrophe. Tony Blair – who was on holiday in Egypt at the time of the Boxing Day tragedy – said that action was more important in helping the people affected by the tsunami than the articulation of sympathy.
Last week Britain and other major industrialised powers were criticised for their slow response to the disaster but they have now massively increased their pledges of aid.
The largest contributor is Japan, which has offered $500 million (£266 million).
Mr Blair said this morning: “I took the view that the important thing is to get the job done.
“I don’t think this is a situation where the British people need me to articulate what they feel; I think they feel as we all do; shock, horror, absolute solidarity with the people who have lost their lives and they feel as they all do the people that have lost their lives and the countries which now need to be rebuilt.
“The best thing I can do is to make sure that the procedures are in place and we have got the right structure to handle the various aspects of this. I think the ministers concerned, John Prescott and Hilary Benn, Jack Straw have done a superb job on this.”
In terms of actual money, Mr Blair said: “Over the next few weeks…it will be easier to assess exactly how much money we need to put in.”
The British public has so far donated £76 million pounds to the aid effort, umbrella aid group Disasters Appeal Committee has revealed.
“My estimate is that we will end up needing to spend from government probably several hundred million pounds, so we will far and away more than match the generosity of the British people, though that has been remarkable”.
A summit of world leaders is being held in Indonesia on Wednesday to consider the longer-term reconstruction of the tsunami-hit nations. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw will attend on behalf of the Government.
Mr Blair also said that the UK would not be distracted from its determination to make development in Africa a priority in 2005.
“Over the past five years in the Congo alone almost four million people have died. Every day over 6000 people die of AIDS in Africa preventably. Every day 3000 children die preventably from malaria alone.
“If you add up all the deaths that happen in a week for children in Africa it will come to tens and tens of thousands.
“These things aren’t so visible to us as the tsunami has been, but if we can raise the profile of visibility hopefully what will happen is that we have to spend all this money looking after the effects of the tsunami, people will say yes we have to do that but we should take the same spirit of generosity and use it for Africa too.”
