Maldives blames scientists

2005-01-09 21:48

Male - The Maldives on Sunday blamed scientists for not sharing information that could have reduced the tsunami destruction across Asia as the UN secretary general vowed to improve infrastructure in hard-hit nations.

Maldivian foreign minister Fathulla Jameel said the death and damage in the Indian Ocean atoll nation could have been minimised if authorities had been alerted when the tsunamis began after an undersea earthquake near Indonesia.

"The research and information is there. But unfortunately the international scientific community works in strange ways.

"They don't want to share their information with us," Jameel told AFP.

"No one told us about the tsunami. We were hit one and half hours after Sri Lanka. No one alerted us. Sri Lanka itself was hit several hours after the earthquake and I presume no one told them either."

Shortly after Jameel's criticism, the visiting UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he wanted not just replacement of the infrastructure destroyed in the tsunami-ravaged regions, but better structures put up.

"The tsunami struck two continents, 12 countries. Some were hit harder than the others, they were all hit nonetheless," Annan told reporters here.

"One will not just replace what was damaged, but build something better."

He said he wanted it to be "recovery plus."

Annan was visiting this Indian Ocean archipelago on the final leg of his three nation tour that has already taken him to Indonesia and Sri Lanka for a first-hand assessment of the destruction.

Official figures show 82 people were killed and 26 reported missing in the Maldives when the December 26 tsunamis swept across the Indian Ocean, killing nearly 160 000 people.

Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom said the best way foreigners could help his country's recovery effort was by spending their holidays in this country known as one of the most exotic tourist destinations in Asia.

Jameel said the seven-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, which had been due to hold a summit in Dhaka Sunday, would now discuss the tsunami tragedy affecting four member states when they hold the rescheduled meet on February 7.

However, he said a SAARC initiative alone to set up an early warning system would be insufficient. He called for a wider effort to involve all Indian Ocean states.

"Having an early warning itself is not enough. Even if we get an early warning where can we go? Climb a coconut tree?" he asked, adding that sea walls needed to be built as on the main island Male.

However, he said if the Maldives had been alerted to the impending sea surge on December 26, they would have been better prepared to meet the disaster as people on the beaches could have been warned.

- AFP