Tsunami aid must continue for years - McAleese

The international community must continue to offer assistance in the difficult months and years ahead to the countries affected…

The international community must continue to offer assistance in the difficult months and years ahead to the countries affected by the Indian Ocean disaster, the President, Mrs McAleese, has said.

In her annual address to the Diplomatic Corps at Arás an Uachtaráin, Mrs McAleese also said she is "very proud" to live in a country that has shown the genuineness of its concern in unprecedented levels of aid to those affected by the earthquake and tsunami.

She said 2004 had ended with the "appalling loss of life" and terrible destruction wreaked by the earthquake and tsunami on December 26th.

"The world looked on sick with distress at such suffering and then galvanised its decency and its solidarity in the most amazing outpouring of concern probably ever witnessed.

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"Many of you represent countries which have been directly affected by the catastrophe and I hope that amidst the trauma and the sea of sorrow there is some comfort and reassurance in the kindness of strangers of all nationalities, all creeds, all united in their goodness and their grief," she said.

The world looked on sick with distress at such suffering and then galvanised its decency and its solidarity in the most amazing outpouring of concern probably ever witnessed.
President McAleese

Mrs McAleese paid tribute to everyone who had brought hope and help to "those shattered people and shattered communities.

"While the governments of the countries affected will of course take the lead, it is clear that the international community must assist both now and in the difficult months, even years ahead."

She said Ireland was playing its part in these efforts with the presence of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Ahern, and the heads of leading NGOs in Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka this week. Mrs McAleese offered "a special word of thanks" to the Irish ambassador in the region, Mr Dan Mulhall, and his staff.

"No ambassador is trained to trek from mortuary to mortuary in search of missing countrymen and women, or to cope with the aftermath of something so unique in human history and yet he and so many of your diplomatic colleagues headed into the chaos and the mess and were among the first to begin the vital task of bringing order and assistance, help and comfort to the bereft and the bereaved."

Ireland will celebrate 50 years of membership of the United Nations this year, and Mrs McAleese said our commitment to its values and goals were "as unshakeable as ever".

She also said the European Union continues to provide an example for the world of what can be achieved by partnership, collaboration and understanding between States - even by States which have a history of rivalry and conflict.