The huge Asian communities in Gulf Arab states have mobilized to send aid to victims of a massive earthquake and tidal waves across Asia

The huge Asian communities in Gulf Arab states have mobilized to send aid to victims of a massive earthquake and tidal waves across Asia as the death toll from the disaster neared the 120,000-mark and millions more were left destitute. In Saudi Arabia, where the government has pledged $10 million dollars in aid, local and expatriate communities have joined the effort. (See Page 6) In the United Arab Emirates, authorities have directed the country’s Red Crescent Society to send emergency aid to the disaster-hit areas. The Dubai-based Emirates National Oil Company and its subsidiary Emirates Petroleum Products Company said they had set up a disaster appeal, with collection boxes in service stations across Dubai and the adjacent emirate of Sharjah. Dubai’s Emirates Airline said its cargo division had already dispatched the first 100 tents of a shipment of 1,000 donated by a local Sri Lankan benefactor to Colombo, in addition to five tons of foodstuffs sent to the Maldives. The head of the Sri Lankan Business Council in Dubai and the nearby northern emirates, Dulal Wyjeyasinghe, said an aircraft would fly to Colombo carrying medicines, foodstuffs and blankets, much of it donated by companies in the UAE, as professional associations join Sri Lankan missions in collecting relief aid.