Tens of thousands of homeless survivors of an earthquake that killed more
than 5,000 people in Indonesia spent the night camped out in the rain as aid
from across the world arrived on Monday.
![An Indonesian volunteer carries the body of a six-year-old boy who was dug out from a ruined house in the town of Klaten in central Java May 28, 2006. [Reuters]](xin_050503291140331306096.jpg) An Indonesian volunteer carries the body of a
six-year-old boy who was dug out from a ruined house in the town of Klaten
in central Java May 28, 2006. [Reuters] |
Many survivors who were injured or whose homes were destroyed by the quake
spent a rainy Sunday night in the open on the grounds of hospitals and mosques
or in makeshift shelters beside the rubble of their houses.
Flows of foreign and domestic aid were increasing on Monday as the official
death toll from the 6.3 magnitude quake reached 5,115. The tremor early on
Saturday was centred just off the Indian Ocean coast near Yogyakarta, the former
Javanese royal capital.
Outside Yogyakarta's main hospital, the number of injured being treated was
much reduced from Sunday although the corridors were still packed with patients.
"I am still traumatised, especially when it rained last night," said Sartoyo,
who had come to the hospital from a nearby village. "Everyone was in panic ...
and rushing inside the hospital.
"I heard help is on the way," he added. "We badly need tents, please note
that. Do not forsake us."
Government figures put the number of injured at 2,155, but the United Nations
children's fund (UNICEF) said 20,000 had been injured and more than 100,000 made
homeless.
Government and private aid agencies agree shelter in the form of tents is a
top aid priority, along with clean water supplies.
Under the Debris
An estimated 35,000 homes and buildings in and around Yogyakarta were reduced
to rubble by the quake, and by Monday morning chances were slim that many people
were still alive under the debris.
|
 Name
tags are hung on the foot of quake victims outside the morgue at a
hospital in Yogyakarta May 27, 2006. A powerful earthquake struck around
Indonesia's royal city of Yogyakarta on Saturday, killing more than 5,000
people as houses and buildings collapsed near ancient heritage
sites.[Reuters]
|
The international community has rallied to help, offering medical relief
teams, disaster experts and emergency supplies.
The government declared a three-month emergency and President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono moved his office to Yogyakarta.
After a cabinet meeting late on Sunday, Vice President Jusuf Kalla put relief
and rebuilding costs at around 1 trillion rupiah ($107 million) and said the
government aimed to complete "reconstruction and rehabilitation" within a year.
Kalla said the quake had destroyed power facilities worth 200 billion rupiah
and deprived tens of thousands of electricity.
In Yogyakarta on Monday a group from Peditan village were loading dozens of
friends and relatives onto a truck to head home.
Walji Mardiutomo, whose mother in her 70s was injured in the quake, said:
"Doctors said she can go home, her forehead has been stitched. Fourteen people
out of 600 from our villages died."
"Our village is flat to the ground. We will used makeshift tents to stay
there," she told Reuters.
Rubling Merapi
Medical supplies and body bags arrived at the airport of
Yogyakarta, about 25 km (16 miles) from the coast. The airport was closed to
commercial traffic.
 An Indonesian soldiers treats a villager at a
tent hospital in Bantul, near Yogyakarta, May 28, 2006. Rescue workers dug
desperately for survivors on Sunday and hospitals struggled to cope with
the thousands of injured, a day after an earthquake killed more than 5,000
people on Indonesia's Java island. [Reuters] |
A vulcanologist said the quake had heightened activity at nearby Mount
Merapi, a volcano that experts believe may be about to erupt. Merapi has been
rumbling for weeks and sporadically emitting hot lava and highly toxic hot gas.
Throughout the disaster-struck region, authorities struggled to deliver aid.
"The problem now is that we are still short of tents, many people are still
living on the streets or open areas," Suseno, a field officer of the Yogyakarta
disaster task force, said.
Social Minister Bachtiar Chamsyah urged understanding. "I have already told
you that the area destroyed by the quake is very large ... We need time.
Saturday's quake was one of the worst disasters in modern Indonesia's
history. The worst, the December 26, 2004 quake and its resulting tsunami, left
some 170,000 people dead or missing around Aceh. Indonesia sits on the
Asia-Pacific's so-called "Ring of Fire", marked by heavy volcanic and tectonic
activity.
Yogyakarta is a prime tourist attraction, home to ancient and protected
heritage sites such as Borobudur, the biggest Buddhist monument on Earth, which
survived the quake.
But the Prambanan Hindu temple complex suffered some damage, as did nearby
roads and houses, a Reuters witness said. Local media reported that outer
sections of Yogyakarta's centuries-old royal palaces had also collapsed.