Powell: U.S. is not 'stingy' when it comes to aid
Tuesday, December 28, 2004 Posted: 1329 GMT (2129 HKT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell responded to criticism from a U.N. official Tuesday, saying the United States is "not stingy" when it comes to providing aid to countries in distress.
On Monday, Jan Egeland, under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief for the U.N., criticized the United States and other countries in the wake of the tsunami catastrophe in South Asia, saying the amount of foreign aid they gave was "stingy."
But Powell said the United States has responded with help for countries devastated by the weekend's tsunamis and will continue to assess the situation with an eye toward providing more aid.
"The United States is not stingy. We are the greatest contributor to international relief efforts in the world," Powell said.
Powell told CNN's "American Morning" that the catastrophe was "unprecedented in scope and scale."
He said the United States had responded to an appeal by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent by providing $4 million of the $7 million requested.
On Monday, U.S. officials said the total package of aid so far was $15 million.
In addition, Powell said, nine patrol planes and 12 C-130 cargo planes packed with relief supplies were on their way to South Asia.
In a news conference at U.N. headquarters in New York Monday, Egeland called for a major international response -- and went so far as to call the U.S. government and others "stingy" on foreign aid in general.
"If, actually, the foreign assistance of many countries now is 0.1 or 0.2 percent of the gross national income, I think that is stingy, really," he said. "I don't think that is very generous."
In an interview Monday night with CNN, Egeland reiterated his view: "It bothers me that we -- the rich nations -- are not becoming more generous the more rich we become."
The average rich country gives just 0.2 percent of its national income to international solidarity and international assistance, he said.
"We keep 99.8 percent to ourselves, on average. I don't think that's very generous," he said.
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