Give us water, food and schools, tsunami victims beg presidents

THE former United States presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush snr flew into the heart of Asia’s tsunami disaster area yesterday to meet survivors and encourage fund-raising efforts for devastated communities.

The pair, appointed by the present US president, George W Bush, to head America’s tsunami-relief mission, arrived in military helicopters at the ruins of the Indonesian village of Lampuuk, a wasteland except for its mosque and a collection of tents shaking in the wind.

"I’m very happy you came here. We need food, clean water, everything," said villager Akhi Sukri, who lost his parents, sister and brother to the two-storey-high wave on 26 December.

"I would like a school," said Aulia Rahman, 12, who lost his father and a younger brother.

The ruins of Lampuuk, which lost almost 90 per cent of its 6,500 people in the tsunami, were a pitiful reminder that reconstruction has not even begun in parts of Indonesia’s northern Aceh province, which bore the brunt of the disaster.

Of the 300,000 people feared to have died around the Indian Ocean in the worst natural disaster in living memory, more than two-thirds lived in Aceh.

As far as the eye can see in one direction at Lampuuk, there is little left standing above waist height. Survivors asked the former US presidents for help to build permanent homes before the windy season begins in three months and blows their tents away.

"Probably somewhere around a quarter of a million people have been killed just in Indonesia. It’s hard to imagine those numbers unless you see the level of destruction," Mr Clinton said.

Mr Clinton and Mr Bush were on the second day of a lightning four-nation tour of the tsunami disaster area. Once fierce political rivals, they were both moved close to tears on Saturday in Thailand where they met orphaned schoolchildren.

After flying over Aceh’s devastated coast, they again urged donors to keep giving.

"I have never seen anything like this in my life, ever," Mr Bush said after talking to some of the villagers.

Mr Clinton, who has also been appointed as a special United Nations envoy to co-ordinate tsunami aid, said $11.5 billion (6 billion) was thought to be needed to rebuild all tsunami-hit areas. Between $6 billion and $8 billion is estimated to be needed in Aceh alone.

Pledges and donations from governments, the private sector and the public have so far reached about $7 billion.

The former presidents acknowledged that donations could dry up if money was wasted or pocketed by corrupt officials. They said the Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, had assured them that aid would find its target.