Miracle so few NZers killed, says Clark

JAKARTA - Prime Minister Helen Clark says it is a miracle that so few New Zealanders were killed in the tsunami that devastated so many Asian countries on Boxing Day.

Currently two New Zealanders are confirmed dead, as well as one New Zealand-born Canadian citizen.

Officials told NZPA today that while serious concerns are held for the safety of around 20 New Zealanders, they fear that between six and 12 of those will finally be declared dead.

Miss Clark, speaking overnight in Jakarta to an emergency summit on the tsunami, said while New Zealand mourned its losses other countries had lost many more.

"New Zealanders live and work and travel very widely through Asia... it is nothing short of miraculous that the numbers killed and missing are very low compared to those of other nations. So the sorrow we have is magnified countless times over for many other people."

The summit, hastily arranged by the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), heard a roll call of death and disaster from the countries hit by waves caused by a huge earthquake off the coast of Indonesia.

There were repeated calls for immediate aid instead of pledges, and greater co-ordination of the efforts already underway.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said his organisation would need almost $1 billion dollars in the next six months to cope with the greatest disaster in the UN's history.

Miss Clark told the summit in her speech that New Zealand was small, but would play its part.

In addition to $10 million in cash, New Zealand would offer direct assistance through its defence force, as well as expertise in specialist areas such as earthquake engineering and tsunami warning systems.

"Although we are only a small country we want to play our part in the international effort required, that means we are already looking at how we might increase and reorganise our bilateral assistance and co-operation programmes with affected countries."

Miss Clark also said New Zealand would back improvements to the world's tsunami warning systems as it was in everyone's interests.

"My country is located on the Pacific ring of fire and we are continually exposed to the risk of earthquakes, " Miss Clark told the summit.

"There is presently no proper tsunami warning coverage for the Indian or the southern oceans and the southwest Pacific coverage is not adequate."

Despite differences over issues such as co-ordination and debt relief, Asean leaders welcomed the assistance given so far and the pledges offering more aid and reconstruction money. Miss Clark told delegates it was hard to see the silver lining in a cloud as large as the tsunami.

"But if the catastrophe's legacy is also enhanced solidarity and sense of community and a determination to be better prepared in the future that would be the best memorial we can build to all who have died and suffered."

Mr Annan told journalists that it might never be known how many people died in the waves that devastated many countries around the Indian ocean, however it was almost certain that it would climb past the current mark of 155,000.

Further deaths were also likely due to a shortage of food, water and healthcare for many who survived the disaster, he said.

- NZPA