Diamond and gold jewelry, as well as clothes, tents, blankets, and even a schoolboy's daily $1.30 allowance, were among the donations. Individual contributions ranged from $1 to $133,000.
A day earlier, the official Saudi Press Agency reported the government was raising its initial tsunami aid pledge of $10 million to $30 million ''in view of the recent assessments of the magnitude of the tragedy."
Oil-rich Gulf states have steadily increased their pledges for tsunami victims as the scope of the disaster became clearer and they faced accusations at home and abroad that they are doing too little, especially when one of the worst-hit regions is mostly Muslim Indonesia. Some in the Gulf have questioned why Western governments and individuals have reacted more generously than Arabs.
Also yesterday, the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera television publicized a fund-raising campaign launched in cooperation with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Al-Jazeera's role was to urge viewers to donate and advertise a bank account where money for the victims could be deposited.
''We care to mobilize [Arab] viewers around the crisis, more than we are concerned about how much we collect," said Aymen Gaballah, deputy editor in chief. Religious leaders, public figures, actors, and sportsmen from the region appeared in the ads on the station, often accused of giving voice to terrorist groups.
In Saudi Arabia, King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah have appointed the interior minister, in charge of police, to supervise the private donation drive that was kicked off with the telethon.
In addition to the $30 million allocated by the kingdom, the Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank on Sunday earmarked $10 million for relief efforts, according to a statement from the Saudi Embassy in Washington.
The United Arab Emirates pledged $20 million, and Kuwait and Qatar each pledged $10 million for tsunami victims.
Arab countries that cannot claim the Gulf's oil riches also were helping. A Syrian airplane loaded with 40 tons of medical and food aid took off from Damascus Airport to Indonesia yesterday. The Syrian government newspaper Al-Thawra quoted Syria's health minister, Maher al-Hussami, as saying that the load included 20 tons of medicine, food, and drinking water, as well as 880 blankets.
