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"People's premier" moves Sri Lanka
9/4/2005 20:42

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, known as his kindness to Chinese common people, shows his sympathy and relief to the tsunami-stricken Sri Lankan people here Saturday.

"We take your anti-disaster campaign as our own business, and will make all our efforts to help you," said Wen when he was visiting a tsunami-stricken fishing harbor over 20 kilometers awayfrom Colombo.

Wen arrived in Colombo Friday afternoon to pay an official visit to Sri Lanka, and in the early Saturday morning, he came to the Panadura fishing harbor, which is one of the six fishing harbors under the construction of the Chinese side.

Wen came to a village beside the Panadura harbor, which has only 12 families that all depend on fishery. Wen is the first foreign leader to visit this village, and all the villagers were lining up to welcome him.

Wen walked to the crowd, shaking hands with them and had a short talk with them.

"Are you all right now? How about your mom?" Wen lowered down to ask a five-year-old boy. "She is OK, but coughing a little bit," said the boy.

"where do you live ? " Wen asked. "We are living in tents," theboy said, while more and more villagers got close to Wen, crying "the raining season is coming soon, we don't know where to live, premier, help us......"

"I talked with your president yesterday, and she told me your housing arrangement is on the agenda," Wen said. The crowd applauded, expressing their gratitude and happiness.

During the talks between Sri Lankan President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and Wen Friday, the Chinese government promised to help Sri Lanka to reconstruct the fishing harbors, road, rail way, and other infrastructure. A tsunami and earthquakemonitoring system will also be built soon.

Sri Lanka is a heavily-stricken country during the tsunami of the Indian Ocean last December, and over 30,000 people died, and lots of fishing harbors destroyed. China had a quick response to Sri Lanka's difficulties, and the government appropriated 166 million RMB (about 20 million US dollars) to aid Sri Lanka.

On Wen's current visit, he brought about another 8.7 million US dollars donated by Chinese people to Sri Lanka, as well as the relief goods loaded with the special plane.

The premier witnessed the opening ceremony of the reconstruction work of Panadura harbor. "We help Sri Lankan peoplebecause they have helped us too when we were in the most difficulttimes," Wen said.

China and Sri Lanka established diplomatic relations in 1957, and the two countries have all along supported each other and maintained friendly relations over the past four decades.

The construction work of Panadura harbor is expected to complete half a year later. It includes rebuilding the dike, removing the silt, and repairing other facilities, according to Meng Fengchao, president of China Harbor Engineering Company whichis responsible for all harbors reconstruction work of Chinese sidein Sri Lanka.

Looking at the sea far away, Hewafan Seage Serath Fouseka, a fisherman, said he is so touched by Chinese premier's remarks, andis thankful for China's assistance.

"The premier gives us a new hope for life, and we are very happy that we could go fishing again soon," he said.



 Xinhua