Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Wednesday the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami brought his country and Indonesia closer. “My first impressions are that nothing I have seen on television captured the extent of the devastation,” he said after an aerial tour of Indonesia’s tsunami-hit Aceh province. Ties between the two countries have traditionally been tense but the Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed more than 150,000 people in Indonesia alone, led to an outpouring of Australian support for the victims of the disaster. Australia pledged more than $700 million to the victims over the next five years. Additionally, Australian and Indonesian armed forces worked together to assist those affected by the tsunami. “We look to the future, the past has been tragic,” Howard said, adding the international response to the disaster showed a shared “common humanity.” He also told Indonesian officials his country was prepared rebuild the provincial capital, Banda Aceh. © Copyright 2005 by United Press International

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