Struggle to find survivors in Indonesia
Dozens of bloated bodies littered the streets of Banda Aceh city today as soldiers and volunteers searched for survivors of an earthquake and tidal waves that killed more than 5,000 people in Indonesia.
On the outskirts of the city, relatives searched for loved ones among around 500 dead bodies that were lined up under plastic tents, rotting in the tropical heat.
The government warned of the danger of disease spreading in the city, the capital of Aceh province.
“We are trying to give the bodies a proper burial but there are so many of them,” said Dr Indrawadi Tamin of the national disaster handling agency. “We fear the rapid spread of cholera and dysentery.”
The quake destroyed dozens of buildings in Banda Aceh before triggering tidal waves that turned the streets into rivers and washed away scores of houses.
Some 3,000 people – many of them young children – died in the city, which has been virtually cut off since the quake struck due to power cuts and downed telephone wires.
Communication was still cut off to several other towns in Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island.
The island bore the brunt of the destruction from the 9.0-magnitude quake, which was centred just off its western coast.
Villagers in Sunadon district, near northern Aceh’s Lhokseumawe city, picked through the debris of their ruined houses amid the smell of decomposing bodies.
One man, Rajali, said he had lost his wife and two children to flooding and could not find dry ground to bury them. Islamic tradition demands that the deceased be buried as soon as possible.
“What shall I do?” said the 55-year-old, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name. “I don’t know where to bury my wife and children.”
At least 4,491 people were killed on Sumatra and on Nias, an isolated island that lies west of Sumatra, State Secretary Yusril Mahendra said.
Rifwar, a government official in the town of Meulaboh, said separately there were another “around 500” corpses close to the town, bringing to at least 5,000 the total death toll in Indonesia.
Rescue teams had yet to reach the town, which is on Sumatra’s west coast close to the epicentre of Sunday’s offshore earthquake.
Scores of other people were missing, including at least 200 police and family members believed buried under their barracks in Banda Aceh, which were demolished by the quake, a police spokesman said.
“We have ordered 15,000 troops into the field to search for survivors,” said military spokesman Edy Sulistiadi. ”They are mostly retrieving corpses.”
Separatist violence has torn Aceh for the past 26 years, and Jakarta has prevented foreign journalists and international aid agency representatives from visiting the region for more than a year.
The government said it was considering relaxing the restrictions on foreigners so they could help in relief efforts, and would make a decision on Wednesday.
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