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UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in Jakarta Thursday that the international community is "grateful" to the Chinese government for its help to tsunami victims.
Annan, who attends the one-day Special ASEAN Leaders' Meeting on Aftermath of Earthquake and Tsunami, told Xinhua at a press conference that China has donated over US$60 million to the relief and reconstruction efforts undertaken under the helm of his world body.
In his speech at the opening session of the emergency meeting held under the auspices of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations, Annan said, "The governmental response has been matched by unprecedented generosity from the general public. Consider the six-year-old boy in Shenyang, China, who donated his life savings of 22 dollars."
China, which so far has donated US$60.46 million to tsunami affected countries, has sent a second batch of relief materials worth of US$1.21 million to Medan on a chartered plane.
China has also sent a 35-member search and rescue team, including a field hospital, to Aceh. The Chinese companies in Indonesia have donated US$131,000 in cash and US$880,000 worth of goods and equipment to the tsunami victims in Aceh and North Sumatra.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who is attending Thursday's emergency meeting, is scheduled to meet with Kofi Annan in the afternoon.
(Xinhua News Agency January 6, 2005)
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