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UN tsunami envoy Bill Clinton to ensure pledges are paid up, money wisely spent

Declaring that "no one could possibly be better qualified," Secretary-General Kofi Annan today formally introduced former United States President Bill Clinton as his special envoy to head United Nations operations spurring recovery in the dozen Indian Ocean countries devastated by December's tsunami.

Among Mr. Clinton's tasks will be to ensure that donors not only pledge but disburse the money needed for recovery and reconstruction, and that it actually reaches the communities who need it most, as well as mobilizing support for a regional early warning system and disaster mitigation mechanisms.

"It's vitally important that we have someone capable of sustaining international interest in the fate of the survivors and their communities - and someone with vision and commitment to ensure that this time the international community really does follow through and support the transition from immediate relief to longer-term recovery and reconstruction," Mr. Annan told a news conference at UN Headquarters in New York.

"Too often, in the aftermath of previous natural disasters, that has not been the case," he said of the "truly amazing" international response in which billions of dollars have been pledged to the UN and other organizations for relief and recovery after the tsunami killed more than 200,000 people and left up to 5 million more in need of basic services, many of them deprived of their very livelihood.

The giant waves destroyed whole towns, thousand of houses and fishing boats, and coastal infrastructure and factories.

Mr. Annan originally announced in February his intention to appoint Mr. Clinton as his Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery but the formal introduction was delayed first by the former president's initial mission to the devastated area on behalf of US President George W. Bush and then by his surgery to remove scar tissue after a heart operation.

Today Mr. Clinton praised UN officials for their "terrific job" in emergency relief and recovery so far and said the mission, if done right, could serve as a template for other humanitarian disasters as in Sudan's western Darfur region, where millions faces hunger and disease after being uprooted by fighting, and in Somalia.

"As we move from relief into recovery and reconstruction, the most difficult period is upon us," he declared, citing the need to rebuild homes, restore jobs, replace fishing boats, reconstruct sanitation facilities and rehabilitate roads. "My job is to ensure first of all that the money which has been committed by the donor countries be invested, that we assure the donors that it is spent effectively, responsibly and in a transparent manner."

But it is also necessary to coordinate the work of the UN, governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to build back the areas better than before, with better housing, schools, sanitation and a more diversified economy, and to establish a list of "best practices" for early warning systems and disaster mitigation, he added.

"Now, if we do all these things, then we will have a model which not only the United Nations, but the NGO community and the world can use in future crises," he said, stressing that he would make sure the finances that have been promised are provided and that the money is "well spent and accountably spent."

"If we can do a good job here, if we do our job, if we can report back to not only the big donors and the governments, but the NGOs and individual donors, if we can be accountable, if we can be transparent and if we can be effective, I hope that then the Secretary-General will be able to issue a call, if we ever get an ultimate resolution of what should be done in Darfur, for example, and in Somalia, for people to help there, and then we'll know what we're worth because we'll have a model here," he added.