 |
Save as Homepage |
 |
  |
|
|
|
|
Java quake aid bottlenecks overcome soon - U.N. The Star Online > Worldupdates, June 2, 2006 YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Bottlenecks in getting aid to tens of thousands left homeless by an earthquake in Java should be overcome soon but the hard-hit region will need a six-month relief operation, U.N. officials said on Friday. They conceded problems in distributing basic aid such as clean water, food and shelter after the quake destroyed or damaged over 100,000 homes as well as some roads and bridges. "The area, although not large, is constricted and there are many difficulties in moving relief to difficult areas," Charlie Higgins, U.N. aid coordinator in the area, told a news conference. However, he added: "The relief operation is getting into swing and moving along quite well. In the next few days bottlenecks in logistics will be overcome." Higgins said the relief operation would last six months and the U.N. did not plan to set up large camps, but rather would get people to stay in their villages. Rescue workers are still pulling dead bodies from the rubble of the 6.3 magnitude quake that struck at dawn on May 27 and levelled entire villages around the ancient royal capital of Yogyakarta, reducing homes to piles of wood, tiles and tin. "I believe the figure for casualties is stabilising, with about 6,000 killed. The emergency medical needs are being met," said Higgins. World Health Organisation (WHO) representative Georg Petersen said officials had not heard reports that victims in crowded hospitals were dying at a rate of several hundred a day. However, he added: "We are in an area with more than 3 million people directly affected and the mortality rate is rather high on a daily basis." The government's official death toll on Friday morning was unchanged from late Thursday's 6,234. The social ministry's disaster task force also said 33,231 people were seriously injured and 12,917 people lightly hurt. Task force office official Andriana told Reuters there was no breakdown of how many of the dead were killed on Saturday and how many died later from injuries. HELP FOR HOSPITALS Witnesses said that overcrowding in hospitals seen in the first few days after Saturday's quake had largely subsided, and there were no signs of large numbers of new deaths. "There are a lot of seriously injured people. We are working very hard to evacuate hospital patients that don't need to be there," said Petersen, referring to the reluctance of some to return to uncertain conditions in their home villages. Some 21,000 people needed to be admitted to hospital and there were 132,000 outpatients, he said. At a hospital in Bantul, centre of the regency with the most casualties, medical supplies and new hospital beds were being unloaded and there did not appear to be serious overcrowding. While there have been no reports of infectious disease, the risk remains high because of the crowded nature of the quake-hit area, said Petersen. "But we are not expecting an epidemic," he added. Many have been living in makeshift shelters at the sites of their former homes, now piles of rubble. On widespread but largely second-hand reports of looting, the officials said they were taking the threat seriously but did not see it as a major problem so far. Meanwhile in areas outside Yogyakarta hardest hit by the quake, witnesses reported some signs of hope on Friday. On roads in the affected area, few people were trying to stop passing motorists to ask for money or food, in sharp contrast to earlier in the week. One hopeful resident, however, had left a sign by the road in case anyone cared to stop saying: "We are not a target of your campaign. We are not a show. We just need your aid." (Additional reporting by Achmad Sukarsono, Lewa Purdomuan, Darren Whiteside, Harry Suhartono and Muhamad Ari)
|
