Dignitaries look at wave damage as donors' conference opens

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Australia promised $810 million -- the largest government pledge -- to the tsunami relief effort, topping a $674 million German aid package as a crucial donors' conference opened today with world governments focusing on how best to spend the money and get the aid to the neediest.

Secretary of State Colin Powell and other summit participants on Wednesday got firsthand looks at the apocalyptic landscapes carved out by south Asia's tsunami.

Powell, a battle-hardened veteran of the Vietnam War, was aghast at the devastation on Indonesia's Sumatra island. "I've never seen anything like this," he said.

Workers broke ground Wednesday for four refugee camps on the devastated island of Sumatra, where an estimated 1 million are homeless from last week's deadly tsunami, and pledges of aid -- led by a new donation from Australia -- topped $3 billion.

The new camps being built around Banda Aceh, the main city in northern Sumatra, are sorely needed, as the existing ones are overcrowded and lack proper facilities.

"The camps that are here have been improvised by the people themselves," said Michael Elmquist, who heads the U.N. relief effort in Aceh. "But these are definitely not according to our standards. The sanitation is totally insufficient."

Elmquist said the United Nations will provide tents and equipment for up to 500,000 people.

India has politely turned down the unprecedented offers of money and military might, but many Indonesians appeared to be putting pride aside: During Powell's visit, survivors expressed gratitude for American aid.

"Thank God he's come. Thank God," said Mohamed Bachid Madjid, peering from a bridge into the Aceh River, where two bloated corpses floated among the flotsam.

One-day session

In Jakarta today, hundreds of heavily armed police and troops ringed the city's plush conference center, where government leaders from across the globe met in the hastily arranged one-day session.

Security already is tight throughout Indonesia's capital, where al-Qaida-linked terrorists have been blamed for blowing up a hotel and the Australian embassy in Jakarta in attacks stretching back to 2003. The same Jemaah Islamiyah group also was behind the 2002 bombings on Indonesia's Bali island that killed 202 people.

The fresh outpouring of generosity appeared at times to be almost like a bidding war and raised questions about whether rich nations were using tragedy to jockey for influence on the world stage and with hardest-hit Indonesia, which has a wealth of natural resources.

Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, urged donors not to engage in one-upsmanship. "We have to be careful and not participate in a beauty contest where we are competing to give higher figures," he said.

But U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland, the man who riled Washington by complaining that wealthy nations were often "stingy," said Tuesday: "I'd rather see competitive compassion than no compassion."

Michel also said too many countries were making pledges that may not be honored.

A little over a year ago, donors promised Iran more than $1 billion in relief after an earthquake killed 26,000 people there. Iranian officials say only $17.5 million has been sent.

The twin pledges Wednesday by Australia and Germany pushed the total relief sum above $3 billion for the 11 countries hit by killer waves whipped up by a massive earthquake on Dec. 26.

Egeland, at the United Nations, called the two countries' pledges "phenomenal" and said the offers were so large that his staff members had to ask donors to repeat what they said to make sure they heard the number of zeroes correctly.

In the early days of the disaster, Australia pledged $46 million. The country increased that pledge by another $764 million Wednesday, bringing its overall commitment to $810 million, officials said. Most of the pledge is for neighboring Indonesia.

"Out of the appalling tragedy of the tsunami has emerged an opportunity to build a new future," Australian Prime Minister John Howard said. Rocky ties between Australia and Indonesia have improved steadily since the nations came together in the aftermath of the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

The United States was the first to raise the stakes dramatically in the aid race by pledging $350 million on Friday; it now lies fourth on the donor list and has sent in two aircraft carrier groups and thousands of troops. Japan last week promised a $500 million package.

The donors' conference was focusing on how best to allocate the billions in aid following a disaster that wiped out villages and infrastructure, left millions homeless and threatened with disease, and killed more than 139,000 people. Leaders also were to discuss a warning system to prevent massive death tolls from future tsunamis.

The World Health Organization said it urgently needs $60 million to provide safe drinking water, sanitation, shelter, food, medical and other supplies to prevent disease outbreaks that would put another 150,000 people at "extreme risk" of dying. The United Nations announced that camps for up to 500,000 tsunami refugees will be built on Sumatra.

Touring overflowing hospitals in Banda Aceh on Wednesday, UNICEF director Carol Bellamy and WHO Director-General Dr. Lee Jong-wook saw the health problems close up: gangrenous wounds forcing surgeons to amputate limbs, scores of children with diarrhea, pneumonia cases caused by inhaling dirty water.

Powell was one of the first leaders to arrive in Indonesia ahead of the conference. From an altitude of a few hundred yards, he and his entourage saw not a tree or building standing along the coast. City block after city block in Banda Aceh had been swept clean. A large ship lay on its side, half submerged in water and mud.

"I cannot begin to imagine the horror that went through the families and all of the people who heard this noise coming and then had their lives snuffed out by this wave," Powell said. "The power of the wave ... to destroy everything in its path is amazing."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Powell, Howard, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi were among the officials expected in Jakarta for the tsunami relief summit.

Even impoverished North Korea has chipped in with a pledge of $150,000. Convicts in Malaysia were donating money earned doing prison work, and war-torn Afghanistan planned to send doctors.

Some refugees on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka began returning home after 10 days in limbo. They went back however they could -- on foot, by bicycle or in motorized rickshaw taxis.

But most of the survivors from Nasuvantivu village found they had nothing to go back to.

Subramaniam Nadarasa's once solid brick home, set among coconut trees on the sandy beach, was stripped to its cement floor. Blocks of the blue-painted walls lay broken. A pot and his crumpled blue bicycle were all that remained of his possessions.