World Watch: Rice looks at Thai tsunami recovery
BAN BANG SAK, THAILAND—Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came to view—and laud—rebuilding efforts in a hard-hit coastal area of southern Thailand on Monday. After a 20-minute helicopter ride courtesy of the Thai Air Force, Rice and her entourage drove through a battered swath of beachfront along the Andaman Sea to this village, where American and other volunteers are helping to construct a new school and homes. "The tsunami and the devastation it caused touched the hearts of so many people around the world," Rice told local officials and schoolchildren clad in blue-and-white uniforms on a sultry Thai summer day.
Thai officials seemed delighted by the attention. "The outpouring of compassion from the American people," Thai Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai told Rice, "has been a boost....You've won the hearts of the Thai people."
More than 8,000 people, 2,500 of them foreign tourists, perished in Thailand when giant waves crashed ashore last December 26, swamping resorts and coast-hugging villages alike. Approximately 225,000 people, most from the Aceh region of Indonesia, lost their lives in the tsunami. In Thailand, the damage was particularly severe in the beach area called Khao Lak, where Ban Bang Sak is located. More than half of all Thailand's deaths occurred in the province that includes Khao Lak.
Rice drove past a Thai Navy boat tossed ashore by the waves and still resting crookedly on the ground hundreds of yards inland, as well as several beachside areas with damaged homes, fallen palm trees, and piles of debris. In Ban Bang Sak, the school was wiped out, and about 300 of the 1,000 students were orphaned by the tsunami. Rice visited the site where the children are attending classes—on higher ground than the old school—while a dormitory and school are being built.
Rice, a former professor, sat among the children and eagerly led them in singing the "ABC" song in English. She also thanked American volunteers from Iowa organized by Mercy Corps International who are helping the villagers restore their lives.
"That's what America is all about," she said.
Earlier, Rice met with Thai officials, including Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, over breakfast at a hotel near the tropical resort island of Phuket. Both sides praised the "excellent" cooperation on tsunami recovery. "We are special friends," said Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Apinan Suphamongkhon.
Rice had flown to Phuket from Beijing, her first stop in Asia. Saturday evening, when she arrived in Beijing to meet with Chinese leaders, including President Hu Jintao, she got the word that North Korea had at last agreed to restart six-nation negotiations over its nuclear programs after a year of refusing. Officials believe that the secretive regime used the time to process plutonium for nuclear bombs.
The breakthrough occurred at a Saturday-night dinner hosted by the Chinese in Beijing for the top American and North Korean negotiators. Over steak and cheesecake served at a Chinese Foreign Ministry restaurant, the North Koreans agreed to resume the nuclear talks in Beijing on July 25. The senior officials from both sides then toasted to the hope of making progress in the negotiations. U.S. officials on the trip ascribe the North Korean shift to economic troubles and diplomatic isolation, but few expect an early resolution of the dispute.
After her meetings in Thailand, Rice flew to Tokyo. Late Tuesday, she will move on to Seoul. On Wednesday, she returns to Washington.
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