Can’t forget your story: Bill tells survivors

Then, there was five-year-old Thangam, whose hand was crippled when the waves hit the nearby Nagoor village on December 26. Clinton met her at a nursery in a relief camp. ‘‘We sang a tsunami song for him and he seemed to like it. He held my hand when I stretched it towards him,’’ she said, grinning. He requested another song, saying he would return if they did that. They promptly obliged.

The UN’s tsunami pointsman later told reporters that Clinton was especially ‘‘thankful’’ to families who allowed him into their homes. ‘I will do my best to accelerate the benefits due to them, especially in building permanent homes and schools,’’ he said.

The biggest challenge in handling relief operations, the former president said, is to get the coordination right among donor agencies, adding, ‘‘That’s what I found most impressive here.’’

He told Collector, J Radhakrishnan, that he was very impressed with the manner in which ‘‘you are moving on a deliberate schedule, coordinating well among the government, NGOs and multilateral agencies. At the Collectorate, Clinton walked through a photo gallery of the December 26 disaster.

One man was particularly smug after Clinton’s visit. Sixty-year-old P. Murugesan’s shelter had not been chosen for a visit. But

in an impromptu gesture, Clinton stepped in and looked at the array of religious pictures hanging from the tin-sheet walls. ‘‘He promised to help us all,’’ Murugesan said happily.

Pat for Chandrika

Former US president and UN Special Envoy Bill Clinton on Friday said Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s decision to involve LTTE in tsunami recovery operations could pave the way for a political solution to the ethnic problem in the island nation.