Help not meant to change anti-US feelings, says official
KUALA LUMPUR: The United States is not looking to change the anti-American sentiments of people in Indonesia and other Muslim countries by helping tsunami victims, said its Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, James A. Kelly.
Instead, he said the United States was using resources it had to help solve a “human problem”.
“I don’t know if it will change people’s sentiments or not because this is not an operation. This is about healing people using the resources that we happen to have,” he told a press conference yesterday at the official residence of the US ambassador to Malaysia, Christopher LaFleur.
He was responding to a question on whether anti-American feelings, which resulted from the US invasion of Iraq, would change with the country helping tsunami victims.
Kelly is in Malaysia to survey the situation in the country as a result of the tsunami and also to meet senior government officials.
He was part of the American delegation that included Secretary of State Colin Powell and Florida governor Jeb Bush which was in Indonesia recently.
Kelly also extended condolences from the US Government, President George W. Bush and the American people to Malaysians who had lost family and friends in the tsunami.
He also thanked the Malaysian government for opening its facilities, including air bases in Butterworth, Subang and Langkawi, for tsunami relief operations.
On whether helping the tsunami victims would affect US aid to other countries, including those in Africa, Kelly said his country's worldwide programme of development assistance would not stop as the assistance to the victims was separate.
News Poll
- Teacher held for oral sex on Year Two girl
- Lau sought psychiatrist’s help after death of fan’s dad
- Police shoot dead leader of ‘Berong Gang’
- Australian court sentences Malaysian who posed as taxi driver
- Teoh Beng Hock exhumed for second autopsy (Update)
- Foreign woman falls to death at high-end condo
- Prime Minister comes up with plan to end crisis in MCA
- 15-year-old held for trying to kill mum with acid-laced sarong
- Indonesia seizes 75tons of explosive material from M’sia
- Fresh polls in six to eight months if new mechanism used
- Australian court sentences Malaysian who posed as taxi driver
- Teacher held for oral sex on Year Two girl
- 10 states see increase in number of dengue cases
- AirAsia launches new flights to three Indian cities
- Teoh Beng Hock exhumed for second autopsy (Update)
- Lau sought psychiatrist’s help after death of fan’s dad
- Prime Minister comes up with plan to end crisis in MCA
- Take care of yourself first
- Police shoot dead leader of ‘Berong Gang’
- Our diversity is a blessing, says PM
RSS
