The Clinton story

As promised, here is the story that was filed at 11pm on Monday night.

"So did slick willie make any moves on you?"

I was there 02.05

The Business Times - 01 Mar 2005

Relief work for tsunami may take 3-4 years: Clinton

By JEAN CHUA, PICTURE BY BRYAN VAN DER BEEK

(SINGAPORE) Relief efforts in the countries affected by December's tsunami could take as long as three to four years, and the international community has to be prepared to do more, said former US president Bill Clinton.

Mr Clinton, a special United Nations envoy for the tsunami reconstruction efforts, told reporters in Singapore last night that long-term reconstruction is well under way in the disaster-hit areas but there's 'a lot of work to do'.

'People have done a heroic job of beginning to clean up, they've kept people alive who could have died from water pollution, the children are beginning to be treated - and that's good - for their emotional distress,' he said.

'But I think the long-term rebuilding is challenging and will cost a lot of money and we have to be prepared to do this for three or four years, and all the countries that have helped have to be prepared to do more.'

Mr Clinton is on a tour of Asia with another former US president, George H W Bush, to visit the tsunami victims and assess how American expenditure should go into the relief effort and what more needs to be done.

'I'll do what I can to make sure the money is well spent, well coordinated and properly accounted for, but these people are good brave people and we ought to keep helping them,' Mr Clinton said.

He singled out Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Aceh as places needing the most help.

'Sri Lanka was hit all the way from the southern point at Galle all the way up to the eastern coast to the top in the area dominated by the Tamils.

'There are all these villages that have been devastated. You not only have to rebuild houses, the fishermen have to have their boats replaced, you have to restructure the whole economy, then you have to build the schools back and the healthcare facilities. That just takes a lot of time.

'And Aceh, northern Sumatra, 110,00 people have been buried and over 130,000 are still missing. There are countless isolated villages. The roads have to be built, the whole structure of society has to be put back together again.'

Mr Clinton also urged people to visit the Maldives again. He said that tourists have stopped going to Sri Lanka and the Maldives even though most of the tourist facilities are open.

'That wasn't what was destroyed but people see in the media that they were hit so the Maldives could lose a lot more money just because people don't know that 70 per cent of their facilities are still open and completely untouched.'

During his visit yesterday and today, Mr Clinton will meet Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. Part of the tour includes the night golf session last night with Mr Goh and several ministers.

In the past few days, Mr Clinton has also been to Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan to sign copies of his best-selling memoir, My Life.