Pacific Press Release – Pacific Media Watch, 4 October 2009

6466 FRANCE ANNOUNCES RELIEF FOR SAMOA FROM NEW CALEDONIA, FRENCH POLYNESIA

NOUMEA (Oceania Flash/Pacific Media Watch): France has announced deployment of relief assistance to tsunami-stricken Samoa from its Pacific territories of New Caledonia and French Polynesia.

From New Caledonia, a military CASA plane was being sent to Samoa, carrying both human assistance and disaster relief equipment, French High commissioner in New Caledonia Yves Dassonville told a press conference.

Another military plane, based in Tahiti (French Polynesia), was also expected to join in the relief efforts and fly to Samoa as well.

Navy vessels were also expected to be added to the French Pacific contribution.

On top of the metropolitan-coordinated aid, local governments of New Caledonia and French Polynesia have also insisted that they contribute to the effort.

For New Caledonia, this meant “thousands of antibiotic doses, medical equipment” and a team of seven doctors to be embarked on the military CASA.

New Caledonia’s government spokesman Philippe Dunoyer said they had also put together some six tonnes of food and drinkable water, as well as health kits, utensils and 2000 tarpaulins.

Dassonville said the French effort was also part of the tripartite “FRANZ” agreement that binds France, Australia and New Zealand military to coordinate for natural disasters in neighbouring island countries.

On the relief aid in response to this week’s earthquake and tsunami that have claimed the lives of at least 170 in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga, the FRANZ coordination has been with New Zealand.

“So we provided them with a list of what we were ready to contribute”, Dassonville said.

In French Polynesia, also, another navy ship was expected to visit Tonga, where at least nine people have died from the September 29 quake and tsunami.

French Polynesia’s President Oscar Temaru said on Thursday he had personally written to the head of governments of Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga to inform them that teams and some 600 kilograms of medical equipment, one doctor, two nurses and one logistics expert, would be despatched.

The equipment also included an inflatable tent, 20 emergency stretchers, 25 mortuary bags, eight containers of medicine and a satellite telephone.

The deployment from New Caledonia also relies on a recently-created “South Pacific Regional Intervention Platform” (PIROPS), which is a logistics facility in the Nouméa suburbs, where emergency equipment is permanently stocked in order to respond to regional situations at short notice.

The PIROPS was set up with the support of the French Red Cross and is now placed under the responsibility of the regional International Red Cross Committee (ICRC) headquarters in Suva, Fiji.

In October 2008, the Australian government also announced the setting up of a similar facility in Brisbane, in partnership with the Red Cross, Oxfam and World Vision.

“Australia is the regional leader in terms of critical emergency humanitarian relief. It is often the first to respond when a natural disaster strikes our region, international and development assistance secretary Bob McMullan said at the time.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Australian and New Zealand Defence Ministers John Faulkner and Wayne Mapp announced after a meeting in Sydney that both countries would now form a “joint rapid reaction military force” in order to respond at short notice to regional disaster and humanitarian crises.

They said the force would further strengthen the already strong defence relationship and would be drawn from the old ANZAC concept that saw both forces fight in the same expeditionary corps during World Wars I and II and the Vietnam war.

“The ADF (Australian Defence Force) and NZDF (New Zealand Defence Force) will form a Pacific-focused Rapid Reaction Force to respond to regional contingencies including humanitarian assistance and disaster relief… The force will regularly train and exercise together and be able to deploy at short notice”, they said in a joint statement.

“The development of this capability is an important demonstration of our mutual commitment to work together to promote security, stability and development in the Pacific region and will, over the next six months, be given impetus through joint ADF NZDF contingency planning for potential regional events”, they said.

The move is a direct result of talks held in August this year in Canberra between Australia and New Zealand Prime ministers Kevin Rudd and John Key.

For the past three days, Australia and New Zealand have mobilised significant relief resources in Samoa in terms of military Hercules C130 and Orion P3 aircraft, as well as medical teams and equipment worth respectively AUD$2 million and NZ$1 million.

In American Samoa, which was declared earlier this week by President Barack Obama as in a state of “major disaster”, aid is coming from Hawaii (also including Hercules C130 aircraft) as part of the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) set-up.

Source: Pacific Media Watch
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