JJsushi Posted December 30, 2004 Report Share Posted December 30, 2004 Considering that the major media organizations are mainly setting up base in Thailand and thus spending most of their coverage in Thailand, there has not been much info coming out about Indonesia which was at the epicenter of the 9.0 quake as well as the Tsunami, I think another thread should be started about Indonesia. News is now starting to trickle out about the devastation. Phuket and a few of the surrounding islands will recover quickly because their infrastructure is still intact and teh Thai government is cash as well as politically rich internationally but the Aceh province of Indonesia is fucked because everything has been wiped out and I doubt if the Indonesian government which is extremely corrupt will do what is neccessary to help it's citizens. Hell up until the quake there was still a sort of civil war going on. ********************************************* Delays prevent delivery of Aceh aid By Shawn Donnan in Banda Aceh Published: December 29 2004 20:51 | Last updated: December 29 2004 20:51 India quakeInternational aid began to arrive in Aceh in earnest on Wednesday, almost four days after the biggest earthquake in 40 years and the tsunami that followed devastated the Indonesian province. Officials in Jakarta said the death toll from Sunday's disaster had reached more than 45,000 in Indonesia. But that number is expected to continue to rise, with a senior UN official saying yesterday that the eventual toll could be 55,000 to 80,000 in Aceh alone. That news came amid the emergence of serious bottlenecks in the delivery of aid, now being distributed on the ground by the Indonesian military. As a result, it appears likely to be days before many Acehnese receive the food, medicine and clothing they so badly need. Aid workers said delivery of supplies from Medan in north Sumatra, the nearest main airport, were being delayed by heavy air traffic and slow loading and unloading of cargo aircraft flying out of the Indonesian military base there. In Banda Aceh, hundreds of boxes of instant noodles and water shipped in from north Sumatra sat in a pavilion at one end of the airport. These were brought in by aid relief flights that had landed before lunchtime. An officer said that aid was slow to move beyond the hangar and trucks were arriving only rarely to load up. In camps set up around the provincial capital, refugees complained about the lack of food, drinking water and medical attention. At a camp on the grounds of the local office of Indonesia's national broadcaster, TVRI, refugees complained that survivors from villages destroyed by Sunday's disaster were forced to split asingle 15kg bag of rice. ?How can anyone survive with that?? asked Abu Bakar, a 42-year-old who had brought his family to the camp. ?Can you imagine? What we get is only like this,? he said, cupping a hand. In the same camp, just a 30-minute drive from the airport, the only sign of medical help was a group of six student volunteers handing out antibiotics, painkillers and vitamins, using only the instructions printed on the box to determine who should receive what. Michael Elmquist, the head in Indonesia of UNOCHA, the UN agency now co-ordinating international relief effort, yesterday defended the speed at which aid was being delivered. The fact the province had been effectively shut from the outside world until Sunday's earthquake because of a long-running separatist conflict had caused ?not even a day? of delay. But other aid workers, who asked not to be named, said the government in Jakarta appeared to remain suspicious of international aid. Moreover, a lack of co-ordination between the civilian government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the military, which is delivering the bulk of the aid on the ground, was slowing the process, they said. Evidence of the slow pace of the clean-up and the delivery of aid remained easy to find in Aceh yesterday. Bloated corpses still littered the streets of Banda Aceh, and near the city's port more than 100 decomposing bodies were floating in the water. The biggest problem emerging for survivors, however, appears to be the delivery of aid on the ground in Aceh. When the first of what is expected to be a long series of Australian aid shipments flew into Banda Aceh yesterday, it was met with demands for proper paperwork and a reticent welcoming party. ?I can bring a forklift up. I can bring the people to operate it. I can bring everything we need,? Group Captain John Oddie, the officer in charge of Australian relief shipments, told Indonesian General Bambang Darmono, as they stood near a group of idle soldiers. But Gen Darmono, a veteran of the Aceh conflict, said he could not make a decision on the help offered and asked Group Captain Oddie to ?come back tomorrow?. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted December 30, 2004 Report Share Posted December 30, 2004 JJ, Whilst I agree with the thrust of your post, I take umbrage with the title. The Republik of Indonesia is far from 'fucked', and life for people in the rest of Indonesia continues as it did prior to the quake, at least from my understanding of the situation. I do agree that the media would do a better job by broadening its focus, but that includes Sri Lanka as well as Aceh. Cheers, Artie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJsushi Posted December 30, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2004 artiew said:JJ, Whilst I agree with the thrust of your post, I take umbrage with the title. Will you quit it and not nitpick about a freaking title? What in the world are you taking "umbrage" or basically offense for? The title accurately reflects what i think about the Indonesian situation. And if you think that the "rest" of indonesia will be isolated from the tragedy of the Aceh province then you are hitting that pipe too hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted December 30, 2004 Report Share Posted December 30, 2004 LOL ! Yes, I am 'hitting that pipe' as I type this :: Dude, one of us needs to loosen up. If you want to start posts using misleading and inflammatory titles, then be my guest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJsushi Posted December 30, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2004 Indonesia quake toll leaps to more than 27,000 BANDA ACEH (Indonesia): Indonesia's death toll leapt to more than 27,000 Tuesday as desperate SOS calls came from an obliterated coastline. Great tracts of land remained under surging tides on the northwest tip of Sumatra island, 150km from the epicentre of the natural disaster which has claimed more than 55,000 lives, half of them in Indonesia. As night fell three full days after the quake there was still no contact with many parts of the worst-affected area. Officials predicted the death toll could even triple as the full picture becomes clear. A frantic appeal from what remained of the main west coast town of Meulaboh warned that looting was breaking out and starvation loomed for the few survivors unless aid was swiftly despatched. But blocked roads, collapsed bridges, treacherous seas and fuel and vehicle shortages hampered relief efforts. Indonesia's health ministry said in a statement yesterday that the toll had reached 27,174 as the dead were counted in Banda Aceh and the western areas of Meulaboh and Aceh Jaya. There were apocalyptic scenes in the northernmost city of Banda Aceh where the stench of death hung over the rubble of demolished houses as survivors from Sunday's earthquake and tidal wave struggled to dig graves in tropical heat. After returning from a reconnaissance flight over Meulaboh and nearby islands, Vice President Yusuf Kalla told journalists there appeared to be no sign of life in the town, which was home to 40,000 people. ? AFP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJsushi Posted December 30, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2004 Dec 29, 8:13 PM EST Tsunami Death Toll Soars to Near 77,000 By CHRIS BRUMMITT Associated Press Writer BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) -- As the world scrambled to the rescue, survivors fought over packs of noodles in quake-stricken Indonesian streets Wednesday while relief supplies piled up at the airport for lack of cars, gas or passable roads to move them. The official death toll across 12 countries soared to near 77,000 and the Red Cross predicted it could pass 100,000. Bodies were piled into mass graves in the belief that burial would ward off disease. Paramedics in southern India began vaccinating thousands of survivors against cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A and dysentery, and authorities sprayed bleaching powder on beaches where bodies have been recovered. In Sri Lanka, reports of waterborne disease such as diarrhea caused fears of an epidemic. President Bush announced the United States, India, Australia and Japan have formed an international coalition to coordinate relief and reconstruction of the 3,000 miles of Indian Ocean rim walloped by Sunday's earthquake and the tsunami it unleashed. "We're facing a disaster of unprecedented proportion in nature," said Simon Missiri, a top Red Cross official. "We're talking about a staggering death toll." On hundreds of Web sites, the messages were brief but poignant: "Missing: Christina Blomee in Khao Lak," or simply, "Where are you?" All conveyed the aching desperation of people the world over whose friends and family went off in search of holiday-season sun and sand and haven't been heard from for four days. But even as hope for the missing dwindled, survivors continued to turn up Wednesday. In Sri Lanka, where more than 22,000 died, a lone fisherman named Sini Mohammed Sarfudeen was rescued by an air force helicopter crew after clinging to his wave-tossed boat for three days. Indian air force planes evacuated thousands of survivors from the remote island of Car Nicobar. Some of them had walked for days from their destroyed villages to reach a devastated but functioning airfield, where they were shuttled out 80 to 90 at a time. Journalists were not allowed to leave the base to verify reports that some 8,000 people were dead there, but at the base alone, 67 officers and their families were missing and feared dead. AP VIDEO Aid Arrives Following Quake-Tsunami Catastrophe Audio Sobolewski says he took off toward the victims in the sailboat's dingy. (MANDATORY CREDIT: N-B-C's ``Today'' show) PHOTO GALLERY Tsunami Interactive Tsunami Disaster Earthquakes Explained Latest News Summary: Tsunamis Could Hit West Coast Bush Promises Long-Term Help for Asia U.S. Response to Asia Catastrophe Medical Companies Donate to Quake Victims Scientists: Tsunami Could Hit West Coast Americans in Asia Told to Call Home Now NOAA Calls for Tsunami Warning System Bush Promises Long-Term Help for Asia List of Donations to Help Quake Victims Asia Toll Nears 77,000 As Aid Arrives India's death toll rose to nearly 7,000, while Indonesia's stood at 45,268, but authorities said this did not include a full count from Sumatra's west coast, where more than 10,000 deaths were suspected in one town alone. In Sumatra, the Florida-sized Indonesian island close to the epicenter of the quake, the view from the air was of whole villages ripped apart, covered in mud and seawater. In one of the few signs of life, a handful of desperate people scavenged a beach for food. On the streets of Banda Aceh, the main town of Sumatra's Aceh province, the military managed to drop supplies from vehicles and fights broke out over packs of instant noodles. Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya, military commander of Aceh province, said after flying over the stricken region that 75 percent of the west coast of Sumatra was destroyed. Footage shot by an Associated Press Television News cameraman on the military helicopter showed town after town covered in mud and sea water. Homes had their roofs ripped off or were flattened. A solitary mosque and green treetops were all that broke the line of water in one town. With tens of thousands of people still missing across the entire region, Peter Ress, Red Cross operations support chief, said the death toll could top 100,000. More than 500,000 were reported injured. "We have little hope, except for individual miracles," Jean-Marc Espalioux, chairman of the Accor hotel group, said of the search for thousands of tourists and locals missing from beach resorts of southern Thailand - including 2,000 Scandinavians. The State Department said 12 Americans died in the disaster - seven in Sri Lanka and five in Thailand. About 2,000 to 3,000 Americans were unaccounted for. Bush, at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, talked by phone Wednesday with leaders of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India. "We're still in the stage of immediate help. But slowly but surely, the size of the problem will become known, particularly when it comes to rebuilding infrastructure and community to help these affected parts of the world get back up on their feet," Bush said afterward. The Pentagon says it will divert several U.S. warships and helicopters to the region, some of which can produce up to 90,000 gallons of drinking water a day. Without clean water, respiratory and waterborne diseases could break out within days, putting millions at "grave risk," the U.N. children's agency said. "Standing water can be just as deadly as moving water," said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy. "The floods have contaminated the water systems, leaving people with little choice but to use unclean surface water." Near Banda Aceh, trucks dumped more than 1,000 bloated, unidentified bodies into pits. Military Col. Achmad Yani Basuki said there was no choice, given the danger of disease and the difficulty of identifying any of the dead. But Dana Van Alphan of the Pan American Health Organization issued a statement declaring there was no danger of corpses contaminating water or soil because bacteria and viruses cannot survive in dead bodies. The organization said it issued the statement, hoping to avert mass burials of tens of thousands of unidentified victims. Van Alphan said it was important for survivors to be allowed to identify loved ones and urged authorities in tsunami-stricken countries to avoid burying unidentified corpses in mass graves. "I think that psychologically, people have to be given the chance to identify their family members," she said. "Whatever disease the person has while still alive poses no threat to public health in a corpse." The World Health Organization has also said dead bodies are not an immedieate threat to health. "The health hazard associated with dead bodies is negligible. The collection, disposal, burying and/or cremation of corpses requires important human and material resources which should instead be allocated to those who survived and remain in critical condition," the organization said in a news release after the 1999 earthquake in Turkey. Thailand said it had more than 1,800 dead and a total of more than 300 were killed in Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Somalia, Tanzania and Kenya. In Sri Lanka, four planes arrived in the capital bringing a mobile hospital from Finland, a water purification plant from Germany, doctors and medicine from Japan and aid workers from Britain, the Red Cross said. Supplies that included 175 tons of rice and 100 doctors reached Banda Aceh but officials said they were having difficulty moving it out. Widespread looting was reported in Thailand's devastated resort islands of Phuket and Phi Phi, where European and Australian tourists left valuables behind in wrecked hotels when they fled - or were swept away. An international airlift was under way to ferry critical aid and medicine to Phuket and to take home travelers, some with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. France, Australia, Greece, Italy, Germany and Sweden were sending flights. The world's biggest reinsurer, Germany's Munich Re, estimated the damage to buildings and foundations in the affected regions would be at least $13.6 billion. --- Associated Press reporters Lely Djuhari in Banda Aceh, Manish Swaroop in Car Nicobar, India, Dilip Ganguly in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Alisa Tang in Phuket, Thailand contributed to this report. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosal Posted December 31, 2004 Report Share Posted December 31, 2004 Artiew, Adik, Carlton, have you some news from the others Sumatra's south coast cities like Padang, of Nias Island, and of the southern and western shores of Java like Anyer, Carita or Pagandaran areas, which are traditional vacations spots for many Jakartaneses . All those places could have been exposed to the wave, but no report has been done yet. Thanks for any feedback about those areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torneyboy Posted December 31, 2004 Report Share Posted December 31, 2004 Hi JJ Oz has a news crew on the ground there now. We have several ships on route one of witch has a mobile hospital etc to allocate once they land....plus 100+ troops to help out. Along with several helicopters (they need heaps of these) Medical supplies etc as well. Our news is even across the region..imo. I think all are doing as much as they can as fast as they can under a chaotic conditions at this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilli13 Posted December 31, 2004 Report Share Posted December 31, 2004 80.000 killed in Indonesia alone as reported by the government just now according to danish news source jp.dk(indonesia's health department & reuters quoted - just translate by google): http://www.jp.dk/udland/artikel:aid=2799082 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJsushi Posted December 31, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2004 Aceh damage 'catastrophic' The BBC's Rachel Harvey is one of the few western correspondents in Aceh, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra - the closest landmass to the epicentre of Sunday's earthquake. I've never seen anything like this before. It's absolutely catastrophic. Scene of devastation in Aceh Some parts of Aceh have been literally flattened by the disaster Right now, the emphasis in Banda Aceh is on trying to recover and bury the bodies which still litter the streets. Thousands of extra troops have been drafted in to help. In the space of 20 minutes I counted 10 trucks filled with bodies arriving at just one mass grave on the outskirts of town. There was no ceremony, no formality - it's just a grim job that has to be done. There are still people looking for loved ones, and because of the mass burials, they may never find them. I'm not even convinced the authorities are able to keep up with counting the number of dead. Refugees are seeking shelter wherever they can find it. Hundreds of families have set up home on a narrow strip of grass in the middle of the road. Water is running low, food is running low and there is a desperate need for shelter. Trucks dump bodies into mass grave Soldiers have a new task - disposing of the dead It may be hard to comprehend, but elsewhere in Aceh, the situation is even worse than it is here. The true scale of the disaster in the south-west and among the string of small islands just off the coast is still not known. No-one has been able to get there for days, although an Indonesian TV crew has flown over the town of Meulaboh - close to the epicentre of Sunday's earthquake - and reported widespread devastation. The aerial pictures are absolutely staggering. It seems that nearly 80% of the town has been destroyed. There are 95,000 people living in the town and officials say many thousands may have perished. Five navy ships are said to be on their way to the area, and we should get a better impression about the scale of the disaster when they report back. Aid effort Some aid is getting into Banda Aceh now. Several Indonesian planes have arrived, as have flights from Australia and Malaysia. But there needs to be some sort of central co-ordination. Lots of groups are trying to help, but it doesn't feel like there's a big international effort yet. Aceh is a province which is already suffering from conflict between separatist insurgents and the Indonesian government. The soldiers that were sent to Aceh to fight rebels now have a new task - disposing of the dead. I think most people are now desperate for help from anyone. If it comes from an Indonesian soldier, that's fine. The conflict is now at the back of everyone's minds. People are fighting for survival - they haven't got time to fight among themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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