“Once again Indonesia has been struck by disasters and once again many of its people have experienced hardship. On behalf of the Swedish Government I wish to convey my sincere condolences on the tragic loss of lives caused by the recent earth quakes on the island of Sumatra and the plane crash in Yogyakarta”.
So starts the letter of condolences sent by Sweden’s PM Fredrik Reinfeldt to his Indonesian colleague on March 7th 2007 after Indonesia was struck by two disasters in only two days. On Tuesday 6th of March, the island of Sumatra was struck by an earth quake killing between 70 and 80 people and leaving 4000 homes destroyed. The following day, an Indonesian plane caught fire, killing approximately 50 people.
The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) has decided to contribute 800,000 Euro to emergency operations in Indonesia, according to the United Nations Reliefweb.
