As the world raced to supply food and water to millions of tsunami victims, the Chinese army has been active in what is likely to be their largest peacetime overseas humanitarian mission.

 

Across the country people of all ages were making donations and, though the Chinese death toll remained unchanged at 12 yesterday, the fate of the missing caused much concern.

 

In Hong Kong, the official total of missing residents dropped from 74 to 70, but worries intensified about 58 students missing from schools, said Deputy Secretary for Education and Manpower Cheng Yan-chee.

 

Aircraft carrying over US$7.6 million worth of relief have been sent to affected areas in the past week from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong.

 

The Ministry of National Defense and the General Logistics Department of the People's Liberation Army are involved in operations in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, the hardest hit nations. Their next destination will be the Maldives.

 

Since the tragedy, the army has airlifted nearly 500 tons of food, water, milk powder, blankets, tents, clothing, generators, telecommunications equipment and medical supplies.

 

A task force was sent around provinces in China to collect goods on December 27. The first batch of them arrived in Sri Lanka on December 29 and the second on Monday, said Senior Colonel Guan Youfei, who is coordinating the operation.

 

"All the corporations we contacted answered the call for producing relief supplies immediately," he said. They also contacted several Islamic food corporations for supplies for Muslim victims.

 

"The next batch of supplies will be medicines, rice, and water dispensers," said Guan, adding that they have been in close contact with local agencies to establish precisely what is needed.

 

Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan said his ministry will provide financial assistance, including donations from military officers and personnel, to support relief and reconstruction work.

 

UN relief coordinator Jan Egeland and Secretary-General Kofi Annan said 45 nations had pledged contributions to the relief effort so far but they were concerned much of the money would not materialize.

 

"If we go by past history, yes, I do have concern," Annan said. "We've got over US$2 billion in pledges but it is quite likely that at the end of the day we will not receive all of it."

 

Annan cited the example of aid promised after the Bam, Iran earthquake in December 2003, where money fell short of pledges.

 

"I think we stand a better chance of getting a substantial portion of the pledges and contributions that have been made, but I will not be surprised if we do not get all the money. That is the history we live with," Annan said.

 

At the same time, officials called on the world to remember other people in need.

 

"The rich world should be able to foot the bill for feeding all the children in the world," he said. "It's one day's worth of military spending," Egeland said.

 

The UK, which has assumed the presidency of the G8 group – also consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and Russia – called for an immediate moratorium on debt repayments for nations hit by the tsunami.

 

"That would then lead to an analysis of the debt needs of these countries with the possibility of some write-off of debt," Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the exchequer (finance minister), told BBC Radio.

 

Brown is hoping that a deal, which has the backing of the US, will be announced at a meeting of the Paris Club of sovereign lenders when it meets on January 12.

 

(China Daily January 5, 2005)