JEDDAH, 7 June 2003 — Sri Lanka has urged Saudi Arabia for help in its massive task of providing relief and rehabilitation to the island’s flood-hit people.
“The Kingdom has been very generous to Sri Lanka. It rushed to our help with 100 tons of food when the island was faced with one of the worst droughts in 2001. Now we’re facing yet another natural calamity; unprecedented floods have caused havoc in parts of the island and the task of providing the homeless is massive. We’ve already appealed for Saudi help,” Sri Lankan Ambassador Ibrahim Sahib Ansar told reporters on Thursday night.
He said several ministers from different countries and two officials of the Saudi Fund for Development would attend a two-day meeting scheduled in Tokyo from Monday to discuss global assistance for the rehabilitation of the people affected by the two-decade-old civil war. “The Tokyo meeting will discuss the current ceasefire and measures for relief and rehabilitation of the war-hit people,” the ambassador said.
Ansar, who addressed a community meeting at the Sri Lankan Consulate convened by Consul General A.C.M. Ibrahim to launch a fund collection drive for flood relief, said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was among the first donors to rush a contribution of 3.7 million Sri Lankan rupees to the flood relief fund.
