Big Bill has beleaguered Kutchis in rhapsody Thursday, April 5, 2001
BHUJ/ANJAR: Television images can be deceptive, not portraying life in its true colours. Bill Clinton, his face looking tomato red due in the unsparing desert Sun, had a close encounter on Wednesday with the Kutch countryside that was devastated by the January 26 earthquake.
And the former US president, who said he had come to "look, listen and learn", also admitted that the destruction was much more than what he had imagined.
"I have followed this earthquake on television, but when I came here I realised that this is something unimaginable, almost incomprehensible," he said, moments after taking a walk down the Anjar street where 200 children marching for the Republic Day parade had perished.
The swarming crowds applauded every bit of what he had to say, even though they may not have understood much of what was being said.
Clinton, dressed in a parrot green shirt and brown trousers, later addressing the media and the people at the now collapsed Jubilee Hospital in Bhuj said that he had plans to collect several million dollars to help rebuild houses, hospitals and schools and give jobs to the affected people.
"Till all the villages are rebuilt, all children have schools to go to, our partnership which has begun today should last.''
The Clinton visit started late by an hour to begin with. Arriving at the Bhuj airport, he drove down straight to Ratnal where over 200 people died and 98 per cent of the buildings were destroyed. Flanked by US Secret Service sleuths and a sprinkling of district police officials, Clinton met Chhaya a survivor of the Anjar school tragedy.
"They are courageous people who have withstood such a devastation and I am here to see how I can help them. The rest of the world will now have to come to Kutch to restore the lives of these people," he told reporters.
The cavalcade of Astras, Land Cruisers, police jeeps and Ambassadors then zoomed through the searing afternoon desert road to Anjar, where Clinton took a stroll down the road on which 200 school children had died.
Flanked by a couple of surviving children, principal and a teacher of the school, Clinton then laid flowers on the small brick and mortar platform built as a memorial.
Clinton's motorcade, with he himself travelling in a Cherokee Jeep, blazed out of Anjar to return to Bhuj and on the way stopped at Dhaneti village to visit a tented camp site.
Onwards to Bhuj, Clinton visited the massive Red Cross rehabilitation centre in the college ground complex and then went to the 180-year-old Jubilee hospital to address the press and some 3,000 people.
He said, "So many people have done some wonderful work here after the earthquake. It is an honour to be here with 40 people of Indian origin who have done well in America.
"Before coming here I had a talk with Prime Minister Vajpayee and he told me that the whole world came to rescue the people during the quake and now there is need for long-term rehabilitation.
"So I am here to find out how we can make houses, hospitals, schools, drinking water systems and how best we can help. When I was here the last time, I had decided to return to this fascinating country, but I had not imagined I will be here so soon. This sad event has brought me here and we can now be partners and work together to see that all the people in all the affected villages get rehabilitated. People have jobs and houses and children have schools."
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