|
Clinton to head UN tsunami reconstruction { February 2 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55738-2005Feb1.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55738-2005Feb1.html
Clinton to Lead Post-Tsunami Reconstruction
Former President Will Represent U.N. and Try to Keep Relief Money Flowing
By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 2, 2005; Page A15
UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 1 -- Former president Bill Clinton has been appointed to head the U.N. post-tsunami reconstruction effort, a task that will involve prodding wealthy governments to continuing funding relief projects in stricken Indian Ocean nations after international attention wanes.
Clinton will also offer to mediate long-standing armed conflicts in tsunami-hit areas in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, senior U.N. officials said. The appointment makes Clinton the most senior former U.S. official to serve as a U.N. envoy; previously the most senior was Republican former secretary of state James A. Baker III, who led U.N. efforts between 1997 to 2004 to end a protracted conflict in Western Sahara.
The announcement comes almost one month after President Bush recruited Clinton and former president George H.W. Bush to lead a "massive private relief effort" in the United States to help nations devastated by the tsunami. Clinton said in a prepared statement that he would travel with Bush to the region later this month before taking up his assignment for the United Nations in March.
"I look forward to serving as the special envoy" of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Clinton said. "In the meantime, I continue to focus on my work with former president Bush to urge people to contribute to this cause."
Annan has frequently expressed concern that the generous giving that followed the tsunami might subside once the initial emergency relief phase ends. In announcing the appointment, he said Clinton "will bring dynamism and focus to the task of sustaining world interest in the vital recovery and reconstruction phase following the tsunami disaster."
Annan also hopes Clinton will be able to "facilitate peace negotiations" in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, where the rebel Tamil Tigers have been battling Sri Lankan forces for more than 20 years, said the United Nations' chief spokesman, Fred Eckhard. Separatist rebels in Indonesia's Aceh province, which was devastated by the tsunami, have been fighting for independence since 1976.
Eckhard said Annan is hoping to "capitalize" on the warring factions' willingness to put down their arms during the tsunami relief effort "to make political advances with the rebel movements in those two countries." But he said that all the combatants would have to accept Clinton's peace role.
Clinton recently joined forces with the U.N. Children's Fund to raise $45 million to finance clean-water and sanitation programs in tsunami-affected countries. His work with the United Nations has helped fuel rumors that Clinton wants to become the next U.N. secretary general, even though it is highly unlikely that a citizen from a veto-wielding country on the Security Council could be elected secretary general.
In a fundraising letter for his senatorial library, former Republican senator Jesse Helms urged President Bush to "rebuke all efforts by Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and every other liberal in Congress to push for Bill Clinton to become Secretary General of the United Nations." The contents of the letter were first reported by the Associated Press.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
|
|
