Colin L. Powell Holds A Media Availability En Route To Bangkok, Thailand

.c The Associated Press

Thailand

Colin L. Powell Holds A Media Availability En Route To Bangkok,
Thailand

xfdtr STATE-POWELL-BANGKOK 1stadd

XXX check the number.QUESTION: What’s his name?

POWELL: His name is Blackman. I’ll get the spelling for you.

QUESTION: And on the criticism?

POWELL: There is always, you know, commentary about how one of these
things unfolds. And why didn’t everybody know instantly what the
requirement was going to be. And, I accept that. It’s what
happens. But, I’m the one who is sitting there on a Sunday after
church, trying to make sense of what has happened, with reports coming
in from all over the region. When you think you are dealing with
something that has hit Phuket, and then suddenly you get reports about
the Maldives, which as a nation of islands and atolls, sits about an
average of three feet above sea level.

And you start to try to figure out what are the implications of that?
And when you think you’re starting to get a handle on it, and you see
your task forces being set up with AID hard at work, AID setting up
task forces, State Department, Defense Department, all getting alerted
within the first dozen hours or so.

And, immediately our ambassadors in the region declared disasters. And
once they do that, they are free to give money out of their
contingency funds to the countries concerned, up to roughly
$100,000. It’s just something to get started, to show our commitment,
but also to give these countries an immediate infusion of cash.

And then by Monday morning, we had responded to the appeal of the
International Federation of the Red Cross/Red Crescent. Our military
had started to Task Force organize themselves and start to dispatch
troops. And, we started to get a better assessment of what was going
on. And then, in late Sunday I discovered that the wave had gone all
the way across the ocean and hit Kenya and Somalia.

And so, from my perspective, having been through many of these, in a
period of four days, five days, I think a great deal was
accomplished. And the reason I emphasize this is I don’t think the
American people should be given the impression that their president
and their government was not hard at work on this from day one.

BUSH: One purpose of this trip that is important to recognize is that
the people that are on the ground right now are working 24 hours a
day, whether they’re AID workers or other folks from the State
Department, or the hundreds, maybe thousands of international relief
workers that are in these communities. And they need encouragement.

My experience is that if you don’t go say, thank you to the people
that are true heroes, that are acting on their sense of compassion and
doing it under extraordinary circumstances — this won’t be pretty —
that you’re not in the way when you come a long distance and say,
thanks.

So, I know that the Secretary is very sensitive about making sure we
don’t get in the way, but I also think we need to be mindful of the
fact that there’s a lot of work being done and someone needs to put an
arm around somebody and say, thank you for a job well done.

POWELL: And one other element, of course, is that it will draw a lot
of public attention, international attention to the need and hopefully
as a result of that, generate additional support, especially from the
private sector.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, apart from the humanitarian, which obviously
takes priority, what do you see as the political stakes for the U.S.
involvement in this effort in countries like Indonesia, Muslim
countries, Sri Lanka and for the region as a whole?

POWELL: We have good relations with all of these countries, even
though there have been disagreements on specific policy issues such
as, of course, Iraq. So, I think the political implications of us
responding promptly and responding, frankly, to the satisfaction of
the governments concerned, despite all the commentary about our
response the governments that we are responding to and are helping
were pleased from the very first night, Sunday night, when they were
called. And then when the president called their heads of government
and heads of state about 24 hours after I talked to the foreign
ministers. They were very pleased that the United States was
responding in this manner. And I think that can translate into a
political effect.

Hopefully, this might give us a little bit of traction in resolving
the conflict in Aceh, if the two sides would realize that this is a
time to not be arguing and fighting with each other, but to help their
citizens. And the same thing in Sri Lanka. Both sides are suffering
as a result of this tragedy: LTTE, as well as the government. And to
the extent it sort of quiets things in these conflicts, then maybe
there is an opportunity for political momentum. The point I have been
making all week long is that we are not doing this because we are
seeking political advantage or just because we are trying to make
ourselves look better with the Muslims. We are doing this because
these are human beings in need, in desperate need and the United
States has always been a generous, compassionate country and a
generous, compassionate people and this is what we do.

We did it in the Caribbean earlier this year in almost the same way:
small increments of money, and then finally when we got the full scope
of it, went to the Congress and got $120 million. And that’s my
experience as to how these things unfold.

One more.

QUESTION: This one is for Governor Bush. Could you tell us in some
detail as to how it arose that you came on the trip, whose idea it was
and when it was presented and what you thought of it?

BUSH: Well, I got a call from Secretary Powell, and then I got a call
from the President and I said, yes. And I was honored to be asked.

POWELL: Follow up?

BUSH: It really was that simple. This was kind of I had to clear my
.today or tomorrow, I don’t know what day we’re in right now, Monday
is the start of life again not just in the real world, but in state
government world. And so, I had a bunch of things I had to change
around, but it wasn’t a problem at all. I was honored to be asked.

In 1988, right after the Presidential election, my dad asked me to go
to Yerevan with my son, in Armenia. An incredibly devastating
earthquake, nothing in terms of the magnitude of the death here. But I
think 75,000 people may have died, as I recall. And we went and it
made a big difference: the fact that a family member would go — this
was on Christmas Eve — go to a far of place. These hardened Soviet
Communists were crying as they saw my son hand out medicine and toys
to children that looked just like him in this hospital that was needed
a whole lot of help. And so, I think family matters in a lot of places
outside of the United States just as it does in the United States. And
the fact that whoever came up with the idea, whether it was the
President or I don’t know, Secretary, isn’t it always the President
that has the best ideas?

POWELL: Yeah.

QUESTION: 1/8When did you make the decision? 3/8

BUSH: I suggested he go.

(laughter)

POWELL: Thanks Jeb. Let’s see, I’ve got to keep my days straight, but
by Wednesday the scope of it was becoming so clear that we started to
think about a trip. Andrew and I were sitting in my office, I think
either Wednesday or Thursday morning, looking at each other saying
we’ve got to go. And then the President, in order to show his concern
and deep interest, asked if Jeb would go and I immediately called Jeb
when I got the President’s suggestion. And he, in typical fashion, he
was ready, willing and able. I am very pleased that he was able to
clear his calendar.

Let me ask Andrew Natsios if he would like to say a word.

NATSIOS: I would just add a couple of things we are beginning to see
on the ground that are a little disturbing to us because of the scale
of them. We are beginning to see real psychological problems among
many of the survivors. People are going into shock basically. They
are paralyzed, they can’t act, essentially because they have lost,
many of them, their entire families, their whole neighborhoods, their
houses, their businesses, everything is destroyed. You see this in
many emergencies but not on this scale. And so the two things that the
Secretary and the Governor just mentioned actually do contribute to
this. We’ve noticed when we see the people, large numbers of people in
shock, the visits of very visible high-level people will restore a
sense of hope that they are not being forgotten, they are not being
lost. I mean, we will get that when you visit one of these sites. You
see the change in people by the fact that you are there, it makes a
big difference.

The second thing, which the Secretary also mentioned, is getting
people to work again. One therapy that we use is simply getting people
to do something. It is a sort of form of occupational therapy. If
they are in shock and then they start getting a job to start cleaning
up the mess, it does have an effect psychologically that gets their
body functioning again and they have some sense of hope. So, the jobs
program that the Secretary mentioned that we just committed $10
million dollars to in Sri Lanka is not a lot of money, I mean 50 bucks
a month, something like that. Very small amounts of money in people’s
pockets will allow them to buy necessities on their own but also will
get them moving and it will show that progress is being made in
cleaning the mess up. Because just the physical evidence of the mess
is a reminder every hour of every day that everything is gone. And if
we can begin to get them moving, working as a community again, it has
an effect psychologically, economically and just physically on the
infrastructure.

POWELL: The other thing I might add, is when you were asking about
visits and the impact of visits, the Indonesians really wanted to have
this ASEAN summit for the purpose of bringing people to the scene, not
out to the actual scene of the disaster, but to Jakarta. And it
started out with ASEAN, and then it became ASEAN and others, and now
it has become a fairly large international conference. And these sorts
of things do have an impact in terms of generating support, bringing
public attention to the crisis but also giving a sense of optimism and
hope to the people who will see this and realize they are not alone,
folks are coming to help them.

OK?

END

01/03/05 14:55 EST

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress