Powell Tours Sri Lanka Damage

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell on Friday ended a five-day tour of tsunami-damaged areas, inspecting destruction in a Sri Lankan coastal province and promising the country’s residents that “we will be here for a long period of time.”

Powell, who visited Indonesia and Thailand this week, flew by helicopter to an area near the southern city of Galle, a onetime Dutch colonial settlement that lost 4,100 of its 991,000 residents to the pounding waters. Powell saw how the tsunami had tossed fishing boats onto the beach, torn huge sections of railroad tracks from their beds and destroyed row upon row of buildings along the coast.

Twelve days after the catastrophe, the streets were beginning to bustle with residents who were scraping debris from their yards and starting to repair their buildings. With the odor of rotting debris heavy in the air, many were shielding their faces with white cloths.

Powell greeted victims and relief workers at an emergency center set up in a Galle school by Red Cross-Red Crescent and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Children waiting for medical exams or supplies waved to Powell. Elderly people shook his hand or pressed their hands together in a gesture of respect. One of the volunteers handed Powell a poem about the tsunami that began: “It was a blue sea/A beauty to see/Coming in on us.... “ Powell promised to “show this to President Bush.”

He told reporters that the United States had spent about $25 million so far in Sri Lanka and was prepared to send more.

He was asked at a news conference whether the arrival of a contingent of Marines, who were sent to help rebuild roads, meant that the United States intended to play a bigger role in the dispute between the government and ethnic Tamil separatists.

“The United States military presence is strictly for humanitarian purposes and not in any way to influence the political outcome one way or another,” Powell said.

National security advisor Condoleezza Rice has been tapped to replace him as secretary of State, and the trip probably will be his last as the top U.S. diplomat.

A United Nations official said Friday that at least 750,000 people had been affected in Sri Lanka but predicted that by this weekend, relief workers will have reached everyone who needs food and other necessities.

Humanitarian aid coordinator Kevin Kennedy, briefing reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York, called the relief operation “a very significant achievement,” and described the difficulty of coordinating an effort involving 12 countries, 11 militaries and dozens of aid groups and U.N. agencies.

He said aid workers had yet to reach all areas, and the top priority remained getting aid to people in Indonesia, which was “the heart of the crisis.” He estimated that as many as 200 villages on the western coast of Sumatra were unreachable by land and had yet to receive emergency food, water and medical help.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan viewed parts of Aceh, the hardest-hit Indonesian province, by helicopter Friday.

“I have never seen such utter destruction, mile after mile,” he said after surveying the area. “And you wonder where are the people, what happened to them?”

Military helicopters from Indonesia, the U.S., Australia and Singapore are lifting supplies to remote areas, but they can carry only about half a ton at a time, compared with trucks that can hold 10 to 20 tons. The U.N. has asked for military help to repair bridges and roads to speed delivery.

Annan called criticism that the U.N. was slow in starting the relief effort unfair. The U.N. is well-versed in coordination but must rely on governments to transport equipment and supplies.

“I think we move as quickly as we can,” he said. “And you also have to understand, the U.N. is as strong as its members. We are as capable as the members help and allow us to be.”

Richter reported from Sri Lanka and Farley from the United Nations.