Embassy Row

Envoys move quickly

The U.S. ambassadors in Indonesia and Sri Lanka scrambled to get money and supplies to relief workers immediately after seeing the first reports of the killer tidal waves that devastated those southern Asian nations.

Ambassador B. Lynn Pascoe in Indonesia released $100,000 of his discretionary funds to help the Indonesian Red Cross set up emergency operations on Dec. 26 when walls of water crushed coastal villages and tourist resorts.

“Now this was at the time we didn’t even know what the range of the problems were. We had no sense of the magnitude of it, but we knew we needed to get things positioned and get moving in the right direction,” Mr. Pascoe told reporters in the capital, Jakarta, over the weekend.

The next day, the U.S. Embassy allocated $2.1 million to the Red Cross and $3.5 million to the International Organization for Migration to help provide shelter, water and medical services.

After the press conference, Mr. Pascoe spent New Year’s Day helping load relief supplies on U.S. military planes.

The Bush administration has pledged nearly $15 million in direct aid to Indonesia, which yesterday reported more than 94,000 deaths from the tsunami.

In Sri Lanka, Ambassador Jeffrey J. Lunstead said the United States has committed $2.6 million in direct aid there in what he called an “initial response.”

“It will be higher. It will definitely be higher,” he told reporters on Sunday.

Mr. Lunstead praised the Sri Lankan government for its coordination of relief efforts.

“It’s an incredibly difficult task, and, sure, the government had a hard time the first couple of days. Any government would,” he said.

Sri Lanka, with more than 30,000 deaths reported yesterday, is the second-hardest-hit country in southern Asia.

Japan in the U.S.

Japan’s ambassador in Washington believes Japanese culture is quietly emerging as a permanent part of the American scene, especially in contemporary art and popular cartoons.

Story Continues →