Committee to decide on aid

2005-01-02 14:56

Pretoria - The inter-ministerial committee on disaster management will meet in Pretoria on Monday to co-ordinate South Africa's relief and assistance effort to countries affected by last week's tsunami disaster.

Foreign Affairs department spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said on Sunday the meeting will be led by Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi and includes the departments of Foreign Affairs, Health, Water Affairs and Forestry, and Social Development.

Mamoepa said the committee would consider the Thailand authorities' request for DNA samples to be sent over to that country to assist in tracing missing South Africans among the bodies of victims.

Countries in South Asia and Africa were hit by killer tidal waves, set off by a massive earthquake west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale. The tsunamis left more than 125 000 people dead along the Indian Ocean shorelines.

Mamoepa said South Africa had received "a number of requests for relief assistance mainly from Indonesia, Maldives and Sri Lanka.

"Subsequently a team of senior government officials from these various departments including the provincial local government met in Pretoria last week to consider South Africa's response to the disaster that has struck the affected countries."

Phenomenal response

Government had set up a relief assistance co-ordinating centre based at the department of foreign affairs office in Pretoria, and a number of relief organisations and individuals had indicated their willingness to contribute generously to the relief assistance efforts.

"The response has been phenomenal and indicative of South Africa's sympathies to the victims of tsunami," Mamoepa said.

Meanwhile, the foreign affairs operations centre was continuing to co-ordinate efforts to trace ten missing South Africans in Thailand and two in Myanmar.

The department of foreign affairs also extended its gratitude to Kallie and Monique Strydom, who paid a courtesy call to the centre on New Years Day to lend support to the efforts aimed at tracing missing South Africans.

The two were kidnapped and held for four months in a jungle in the Philippines by a group of Muslim extremists while on holiday four years ago.

"It was a perfect New Year's gift for staff who have been working round the clock since the tsunami struck in an effort aimed at tracing missing South Africans," the department said.

- SAPA