US accepts offer of UN help in Katrina aftermath
04 Sep 2005 18:53:30 GMT
Source: Reuters
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The Bush administration, long critical of the United Nations, has accepted a U.N. offer of help in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and a U.N. team has gone to Washington to see how it can complement American efforts.
The United Nations on Sunday announced the United States had accepted its aid offer and said its staff will be based at the USAID Hurricane Operations Center, where international assistance is being coordinated.
U.N. officials, often criticized by Republicans in Washington, said the world body's teams could be useful in coordinating and setting priorities for foreign aid offers.
They "are ready to provide emergency staff and a wide variety of relief supplies as and when necessary," the U.N. statement said.
On Friday Secretary-General Kofi Annan told President George W. Bush that a U.N. task force was at work in anticipation of U.S. requests for assistance and expertise.
The task force found that U.N. agencies could supply water storage tanks, water purification tablets, high energy biscuits, generators, planes, tents and other emergency supplies as well as experienced staff members, U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.
She said that the United Nations had disaster teams trained to evaluate needs and coordinate aid, including over 100 experts specializing in floods and earthquakes. The United Nations sent five teams to the Indian Ocean area in December after the earthquake-caused tsunami and flooding.
Annan last week issued a statement offering the United States "any assistance that the United Nations can give."
"We will be happy to work with other parts of the international community to support the efforts of President Bush and his administration, the American Red Cross, and other U.S. relief organizations who have been our partners in the past," Annan said.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs known as OCHA, is chairing the task force, which includes the World Food Program, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the U.N. Children's Fund and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
In a reversal, the United States, a major world donor itself, last week let it be known it would accept help from a variety of nations.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has decided "no offer that can help alleviate the suffering of the people in the afflicted area will be refused," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Thursday.
Some 60 nations have offered help, from longtime American friends such as Japan, Germany, Canada, France and Britain as well as Cuban President Fidel Castro, who is willing to donate doctors and medicine and the the Venezuelan government, frequently criticized by the Bush administration. |
