World Tempers New Year Celebrations After Tsunami

[WernerS]

World Tempers New Year Celebrations After Tsunami

Friday, December 31, 2004 5:13 a.m. ET

By Paul Tait

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Normally exuberant New Year's celebrations will be tempered by thoughts for victims of south Asia's tsunami, as several cities worldwide cancel parties and Australia hopes to lead a global minute of silence.

Sydney, the world's first major city to start the New Year celebrations, decided to go ahead with its annual New Year's Eve fireworks displays on Friday, but revellers who flocked to the harbourside city center were being urged to remember the nearly 124,000 people who died.

The Asian disaster has cast a long shadow over global New Year celebrations, particularly in Europe. Europeans made up the majority of the more than 2,200 foreign tourists dead and more than 6,000 missing.

Sweden, Norway, Finland and Germany plan to fly flags at half mast to start their New Year as a mark of respect for their many dead and missing, who had left Europe's cold, dark winter for the sunshine and golden sands of Asia.

Paris will put black mourning crepe on the trees lining the Champs Elysees to pay homage to the victims. Thousands of Parisians traditionally rally on the tree-lined boulevard in the center of the French capital on New Year's Eve.

Sydney usually brings in the New Year with fireworks displays along its postcard-perfect harbour, one especially for children at 9 p.m. (5 a.m. EST) and the other at midnight (8 a.m. EST). Sydneysiders and a global television audience of millions will be asked to observe a minute's silence in remembrance of tsunami victims before the first display.

"This gives an opportunity for mums and dads to help to explain what happened to their children," a spokesman for Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said.

The first of the fireworks was due to begin just three hours after Australian navy ship HMAS Kanimbla steamed out of Sydney Harbour bound for Indonesia's devastated Aceh region, carrying emergency supplies, helicopters and engineers.

PARTIES CANCELED

Australian party-goers will also be asked to dig deep for charity, with a giant appeal for donations to an Oxfam tsunami relief fund to be flashed up in lights on the pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge next to a huge disco ball.

City officials hope to raise A$5.0 million ($3.9 million).

"As the year 2005 commences, it is time to extend the hand of friendship and assist our Asian neighbors in their time of need," Sydney mayor Moore said in a statement.

Around the world, party plans were dropped or toned down. In Sri Lanka, where more than 28,500 people died, the plush Hilton Colombo hotel has called off an end-of-year dance.

Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has shelved a party with tennis stars, including Russian Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova, and tinsel has been stripped from hotel foyers.

Thailand has called off outdoor celebrations in memory of its 4,500 victims and Malaysia will not hold official festivities.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has called for muted New Year celebrations and a fireworks display over the Marina Bay area has been canceled. A minute's silence will be observed just before midnight on state television and at outdoor parties.

In Hong Kong, where disgruntled residents are used to marking public holidays with anti-government protests, political parties across the spectrum have decided to postpone a New Year's Day march and instead will raise funds for tsunami victims.

In Europe, a number of Italian cities have abandoned plans for major New Year's Eve parties and will instead send the money saved to charities helping the victims.

Among the cities that have canceled parties are Bologna and Turin. Naples, Bolzano, Padova and Benevento have canceled traditional firework displays.

Near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, where a million people typically throng on New Year's Eve, flags are being flown at half-mast as Germany faces its worst post-war disaster.

Norwegians have been urged to celebrate with moderation and the media in Norway have reported that the country's richest man, billionaire Kjell Inge Rokke, has canceled his fireworks show.

The Mediterranean island of Cyprus canceled celebrations and money that would have been spent at New Year parties in the capital Nicosia and the port town of Limassol is to be donated toward relief funds instead, the town councils announced.

Nicosia urged members of the public to assemble in a candlelit vigil for victims at the stroke of midnight.

Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited.

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