Asian Tsunami

ASIAN TSUNAMI -- (Senate - January 04, 2005)

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the world's thoughts and prayers continue to be focused on the victims of the Asian tsunami. The international community, including governments, private businesses, and ordinary citizens, is providing financial aid and material assistance to affected countries in that region. President Bush and other world leaders deserve praise for quickly providing substantial assistance and resources to disaster response efforts across that region. They have brought hope and relief in the midst of despair.

I want to recognize in particular Japan's substantial pledge to ongoing relief efforts. As chairman of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee, I intend to continue to work closely with the administration in the days and weeks to come to assess damage and provide targeted relief.

Let me close with an observation on Burma. Predictably, information on the extent of damage in Burma is unknown--this is the way the Burmese junta operates--with the official casualty tally placed by the illegitimate State Peace and Development Council at 59 people. Do international donors, regional governments, or humanitarian NGOs trust this figure? The simple answer, as articulated by Secretary Powell earlier today, is we don't. We don't trust the figure. We don't have any idea how many people either died or are suffering in Burma.

The lack of action or interest in the welfare of the people of Burma, by the military junta, should not be lost on all of the ASEAN members and their dialog partners ahead of the SPDC's chairmanship of that organization in 2006.

I thank everybody on the ground--from personnel at the State Department, USAID, and the Department of Defense to the dedicated staff of humanitarian organizations--for working around the clock with respective governments in those hard-hit countries. Their efforts have not gone unnoticed in the Senate. As we move forward with this relief effort in the near future, our prayers are for those efforts that are being made to ease the incalculable suffering of the people affected by the tsunami.

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