UN aid target for Pakistan seems met
Source: Agencies |
August 21, 2010, Saturday
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THE United Nations appeared to have met its target of US$460 million in immediate aid for flood-stricken Pakistan on Thursday after the United States and other nations significantly raised their pledges.
The rush of promised help came after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, addressing a hastily called meeting of the General Assembly, urged governments and people to be even more generous than they were in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and this year's Haiti earthquake, because the floods were a bigger "global disaster" with the Pakistan government now saying more than 20 million people need shelter, food and clean water.
"This disaster is like few the world has ever seen," Ban told the meeting. "It requires a response to match. Pakistan needs a flood of support."
Before the meeting, he said, donors had given half the sum the UN appealed for to provide food, shelter and clean water to up to 8 million flood victims over the next three months. But Ban insisted all the money was needed now -- and much more will be needed later.
After listening to speeches by high-level representatives of some 20 countries, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said he was assured that the US$460 million goal "is going to be easily met," including "$100 million plus" from Saudi Arabia.
Aid groups and UN officials had worried about a slow response to the flooding, theorizing that donors who have spent heavily on a string of huge disasters in recent years are reluctant to open their wallets yet again.
Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, told reporters before the meeting that he believed that where the tsunami and Haiti catastrophes happened suddenly, "for about 10 days people didn't realize that this wasn't just another flood."
Earlier Thursday, after visiting flood areas with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, US Senator John Kerry warned of extremists who might "exploit the misery of others for political or ideological purpose, and so it is important for all of us to work overtime."
Zardari spoke of militants who might take orphaned children "and train them as the terrorists of tomorrow."
Holbrooke said it's impossible to assess whether al-Qaida or others are taking advantage of the floods because "we can't even get in there."
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that her government, already the biggest donor, would contribute an additional US$60 million, bringing its total to more than US$150 million, and that about US$92 million would go into the UN's relief coffers.
The European Union raised its pledge to more than US$180 million. Britain said it would double its contribution to nearly US$100 million.
The rush of promised help came after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, addressing a hastily called meeting of the General Assembly, urged governments and people to be even more generous than they were in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and this year's Haiti earthquake, because the floods were a bigger "global disaster" with the Pakistan government now saying more than 20 million people need shelter, food and clean water.
"This disaster is like few the world has ever seen," Ban told the meeting. "It requires a response to match. Pakistan needs a flood of support."
Before the meeting, he said, donors had given half the sum the UN appealed for to provide food, shelter and clean water to up to 8 million flood victims over the next three months. But Ban insisted all the money was needed now -- and much more will be needed later.
After listening to speeches by high-level representatives of some 20 countries, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said he was assured that the US$460 million goal "is going to be easily met," including "$100 million plus" from Saudi Arabia.
Aid groups and UN officials had worried about a slow response to the flooding, theorizing that donors who have spent heavily on a string of huge disasters in recent years are reluctant to open their wallets yet again.
Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, told reporters before the meeting that he believed that where the tsunami and Haiti catastrophes happened suddenly, "for about 10 days people didn't realize that this wasn't just another flood."
Earlier Thursday, after visiting flood areas with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, US Senator John Kerry warned of extremists who might "exploit the misery of others for political or ideological purpose, and so it is important for all of us to work overtime."
Zardari spoke of militants who might take orphaned children "and train them as the terrorists of tomorrow."
Holbrooke said it's impossible to assess whether al-Qaida or others are taking advantage of the floods because "we can't even get in there."
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that her government, already the biggest donor, would contribute an additional US$60 million, bringing its total to more than US$150 million, and that about US$92 million would go into the UN's relief coffers.
The European Union raised its pledge to more than US$180 million. Britain said it would double its contribution to nearly US$100 million.
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