Annan calls for international help
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan today urged other countries to offer help to the United States as it deals with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
During a private visit to Stockholm, Annan reiterated that the UN was willing to supplement US recovery efforts.
“We don’t have money as the UN, but we’ll come with some expertise and experience,” Annan said at a news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson.
“We also believe that we may be able to share our experience in dealing with major crises around the world,” Annan said. “So I would urge all countries and any group that can help to assist.”
In New York yesterday, a statement from the secretary-general said “the American people who have always been the most generous in responding to disasters in other parts of the world, have now themselves suffered a grievous blow.”
“I know that I speak for the whole world in offering them my heartfelt sympathy, and any assistance that the United Nations can give.”
While the US is the country best prepared to deal with a major disaster, Annan’s statement said, “the damage is far worse than any of us imagined at first.”
“The sheer size of this emergency makes it possible that we can supplement the American response with supplies from other countries, or with experience we have gained in other relief operations,” he said in Thursday’s statement. “I know we will not be alone.”
The United Nations helped organise the massive relief effort for victims of last December’s tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean from Indonesia to the coast of Africa, and killed an estimated 180,000 people in 11 countries. It also has run relief operations after earthquakes, cyclones, mud slides and many other disasters.
