Muslims for paltry tsunami aid

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Feb 12, 2005 US slams some Muslims for paltry tsunami aid Wolfowitz fingers those who talk big about helping yet deliver very little WASHINGTON - PARTS of the Islamic world are big on talking about jihad but have fallen short in aiding Muslim victims of the South Asian tsunami, says US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. Europe's military response could have been greater too, he told a Senate hearing on the international response to the Dec 26 earthquake and flooding that killed about 300,000 people. 'There's been very little generosity so far from parts of the Muslim world that are big on talking about jihad and other things, but when 200,000 people - all of them Muslim in the case of Indonesia - died in this catastrophe, there's not much help forthcoming,' Mr Wolfowitz said on Thursday. Jihad is a broad term meaning a struggle for the benefit of the Islamic community. It can be anything from an internal struggle to be a better Muslim to a violent conflict in defence of the faith. 'I hope those people might think a little bit about what they've done and what they haven't done,' Mr Wolfowitz said without specifying who he meant. He has been a hawk within the Bush administration on issues including the Iraq war, which triggered widespread anti-US anger in the Muslim world and set Washington at odds with many traditional European allies. The government of Kuwait has pledged US$100 million (S$165 million) in tsunami aid; Saudi Arabia has pledged US$30 million, with an additional US$100 million in private donations; Qatar has pledged US$25 million; the United Arab Emirates US$20 million; and Bahrain US$2 million. The Bush administration has pledged US$950 million. The money must be approved by Congress, but the US military has been in the region since the early days of the relief effort. Another US$600 million has come from US private donations. Mr Wolfowitz was asked whether the transatlantic Nato alliance was considering changes to respond better to crises such as the tsunami. 'I wish I could say...I think we're dealing with a problem with our Nato allies,' he replied. 'Their defence budgets just keep declining and very few of them have the capacity to do even things that they've been trying to do already.' While he said he did not want to diminish European efforts, he noted that France had sent an aircraft carrier to the Indian Ocean, but three or four weeks after US help had arrived. Mr Wolfowitz, a former US ambassador to Indonesia, visited the disaster zone last month.p> The US and Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, are seeking closer military ties. Mr Wolfowitz said last month in Jakarta he would confer with his government and Congress over when to increase contact and ease restrictions on the sale of military equipment. Asked about this at the hearing, Mr Wolfowitz noted human-rights abuses by the Indonesian military, especially in the former East Timor in 1999, but said progress had been made since then. Jakarta was committed to democratic reform and civilian control of the military, he said. 'There's been a lot of change...and I think as important as it is to work for an accounting of things that were done in the past, I do think that this is a new era,' he said. -- REUTERS Copyright © 2004 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved. Privacy Statement & Condition of Access.