U.N. conference talks of tsunami lessons

BONN, Germany, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- A U.N. Conference on Early Warning in Germany has been told not enough has been done to prevent widespread death in the next Southeast Asian tsunami.

The U.N.'s top humanitarian official, Jan Egeland, said a tsunami warning system will be started in Asia by July but acknowledged many communities would still not be plugged into it.

A U.N. source told Deutsche Welle former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who is the U.N. special envoy for tsunami relief, and Egeland were meeting behind closed doors Tuesday with representatives of the 28 countries in the Indian Ocean to push them to take more steps that would ensure the warnings reach their people, and that the people have evacuation plans.

Monday, Clinton made an appeal for more aid in rebuilding Indonesia and 10 other countries that were hit by a wall of water on Dec. 26, 2004, that killed some 217,000 people.

"Rich countries will pay sooner or later. But we have the habit of ignoring the problems of our brothers and sisters until they are too great and painful to ignore," Clinton said.