Foreign Correspondence

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Irate Over 'Stingy' Remark, U.S. Adds $20 Million to Disaster Aid
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN

December 29, 2004
RELIEF EFFORT

WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 - Rejecting a United Nations official's suggestion
that it had been a "stingy" aid donor, the Bush administration on
Tuesday announced another $20 million in relief for victims of the Asian
earthquake and tsunamis and dispatched an aircraft carrier and other
ships to the region for possible relief operations.

The announcement brought the United States' total aid package to $35
million so far, and Bush administration officials said much more would
be sent.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, displaying irritation with the
suggestion of American stinginess, said the United States had been the
most generous of aid donors in recent years and that, in any case, the
sums announced so far were "just a start" of a larger sustained effort.

"We will do more," Mr. Powell said on ABC's "Good Morning America," one
of a series of television appearances apparently intended to rebut the
comment on Monday by Jan Egeland, the emergency relief coordinator for
the United Nations, that the West had generally been "stingy" in its aid
to poor countries.

Mr. Powell said the United States "has given more aid in the last four
years than any other nation or combination of nations in the world."

The United States Agency for International Development spent $2.4
billion in the last year for emergency disaster relief.

Mr. Egeland responded to Mr. Powell's criticism by saying that he had
been misunderstood and that he had not been referring to aid for the
quake and tsunami victims but to the overall trend in recent years by
Western countries in aiding the poor. He said pledges for the current
crisis had been "most generous."

"I have been misinterpreted when I yesterday said that my belief that
rich countries in general can be more generous," Mr. Egeland added.
"This has nothing to do with any particular country or the response to
this emergency."

Trent Duffy, a spokesman for President Bush in Crawford, Tex., where Mr.
Bush is on vacation, said the president had accepted Mr. Egeland's
clarification and would make a public statement on the disaster
Wednesday. Mr. Duffy said Mr. Bush had sent his condolences to the
victims through statements by his spokesmen, written statements and
letters to seven world leaders, but not through public pronouncements on
television. "The president is doing what is needed most, which is to
authorize the U.S. government to play a leading role in the relief and
recovery effort," Mr. Duffy said.

Mr. Egeland's comments are the latest in a line of long-running
complaints from international aid officials about general trends in aid
from Western nations. These critics often cite a figure once put forward
at the United Nations that wealthy countries should try to reach a
target of spending seven-tenths of 1 percent of their national economy
for aid to poor countries.

According to the Congressional Research Service, an independent agency,
the United States is the largest aid donor in terms of dollars, but its
record of donating two-tenths of 1 percent of its national economy for
foreign aid makes it among the smallest donors as a proportion of what
it could theoretically afford.

Countering that argument, the State Department acknowledges on an
official Web site that its direct economic aid is "the smallest among
government foreign assistance programs" but that the "true measure" of
American generosity should include private money.

In an interview, Mr. Egeland said that private and government money was
appreciated but that relief for disaster victims in recent years had
fallen far short of what was needed and what was pledged.

Victims of the earthquake in Bam, Iran, a year ago are still living in
tents because permanent aid, as opposed to emergency provisions, has not
materialized in the amounts pledged, aid officials said.

"Over all, there is too little money for foreign assistance, for
development and for humanitarian relief, especially in Africa," Mr.
Egeland said. "We get one-third of what we ask for in our humanitarian
appeals to poor African countries, and the number is going down. I see
too many hungry children in the world, too many uncared for refugees,
and too many unmet needs."

The Pentagon sent the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and several other
ships to the Indian Ocean, though military officials said the vessels
and crews had not yet been assigned specific missions. About 15,000
Americans are on board. Only a small portion of them would be expected
to fly missions or go ashore.

American forces are going from Japan to a Thai air base in U Tapao, on
the southeastern shore of the Gulf of Thailand, near Phuket, which was
especially hard hit. The military has already sent nine P-3 aircraft for
use in surveillance and search and rescue operations.


Reporting for this article was contributed by Warren Hoge at the United
Nations, Matthew L. Wald and Eric Schmitt in Washington, and David E.
Sanger in Crawford, Tex.


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