|
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Rescue
workers pulled thousands more rotting corpses from the mud and
debris of flattened towns along the Sumatran coast Saturday,
two weeks after surging walls of water caused unprecedented
destruction on the shores of the Indian Ocean. The death toll
in 11 countries passed 150,000.
Hungry people with haunted
expressions were still emerging from isolated villages on
Sumatra island.
Staggered by the scale of the disaster, aid officials
announced plans to feed as many as 2 million survivors each
day for the next six months, focusing particularly on young
children, pregnant women and nursing mothers.
World Food Program Executive Director James Morris said at
a Jakarta news conference that the operation likely would cost
$180 million.
"Many of the places where we work are remote, detached
and their infrastructure has been dramatically
compromised," Morris said, a day after he visited Aceh
with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. "We will be
distributing food ... by trucks, by barges, by ships, by
helicopters, by big planes."
He said the agency has now dispatched enough food in Sri
Lanka to help feed 750,000 people there for 15 days.
Jeff Taft-Dick, WFP country director in Sri Lanka, said
that was a critical milestone "because there is now
enough food around the country to feed everyone who needs
it."
Morris said the agency was feeding 150,000 people in
Indonesia and expected that to increase to 400,000 within a
week and possibly reach as high as a million eventually.
As two Indonesian navy amphibious vessels zoomed ashore in
Calang, hundreds of refugees lined up amid the wreckage of
boats to unload supplies. Eighty percent of Calang residents
were killed in the giant waves. The Indonesian military set up
two field hospitals, one with 50 beds, the other with 20.
"The tragedy was terrible, but considering this, the
survivors here now are in pretty good shape," said Dr.
Steve Wignall, an American who works for Family Health
International and was making an assessment with several other
aid workers.
In other areas, victims were more vulnerable, though health
officials said there were no signs yet of feared epidemics of
disease.
President Bush (news
- web
sites), in his weekly radio address, said the United
States was "rushing food, medicine, and other vital
supplies to the region. We are focusing efforts on helping the
women and children who need special attention, including
protection from the evil of human trafficking."
Indonesia, which has a reputation as a base for child
trafficking gangs, said Saturday it was monitoring its borders
to prevent such smuggling.
As aid poured into a region long troubled by separatist
violence, Indonesian soldiers resumed patrols in Aceh province
to search for rebels. International aid groups worried that
renewed conflict could hamper their work.
Problems persisted in coordinating the humanitarian
efforts. Aid groups complained that dignitaries visiting to
look at the devastation have choked the tiny main airport in
Banda Aceh and hampered distribution of relief supplies. The
airport was temporarily shut for the visits of Annan and
Secretary of State Colin Powell, for example.
"It slows things down," said Maj. Murad Khan, a
spokesman for Pakistan's Tsunami Relief Task Force.
U.S. officials disputed the allegation, saying Powell's
plane took off immediately after dropping him off Wednesday so
it would not be in the way. He toured the area by helicopter,
and Tim Gerhardson, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in
Jakarta, said aid shipments continued to flow during that
time.
A delegation of U.S. congressmen traveled to Banda Aceh
later Saturday. They came by helicopter from the USS Abraham
Lincoln aircraft carrier so they would not disrupt other
flights.
Annan toured a Sri Lankan town where hundreds of shoppers
at an outdoor market were swept to their deaths. He
reluctantly agreed to a government request to bypass stricken
areas controlled by Tamil Tiger rebels.
The Tigers, who have fought a 20-year war for Tamil
independence from the Sinhalese-dominated south, invited Annan
to tour the northern province. But government officials said
they could not guarantee Annan's safety.
"I'm concerned about everyone with need in the
humanitarian situation," Annan said. "But I'm also a
guest of the government, and we'll go where we agreed we'll
go."
With volunteers and rescue workers reaching more remote
areas, still more dead were found. Indonesian authorities
raised their death toll estimate by nearly 3,000 to more than
100,000 and braced for tens of thousands more homeless than at
first expected.
Sri Lanka, by contrast, closed scores of refugee camps as
people began drifting back to their damaged homes. With 38
more confirmed deaths, the nation's death toll stood at
30,718.
World governments, led by Australia and Germany, have
pledged nearly $4 billion in aid — the biggest relief
package ever. The United States has pledged $350 million,
which Bush called only an "initial commitment" and
essentially a line of credit that can be spent as American
relief officials identify needs.
The World Bank said it will consider significantly boosting
its aid, perhaps to as much as $1.5 billion. It has already
pledged $175 million in assistance to the 11 countries in Asia
and Africa hit by the Dec. 26 disaster, but bank President
James Wolfensohn said he was flexible on the amount.
"We can go up to even $1 billion to $1.5 billion,
depending on the needs ... our immediate focus is to provide
relief to the affected people," he told a news conference
at the end of a one-day visit to Sri Lanka.
The tsunami battered Sri Lanka's southern and eastern
coastlines, causing heavy damage to houses, hotels and
commercial buildings and devastating the country's fishing
industry.
The Sri Lankan government estimates it will need between
$1.3 billion and $1.5 billion to rebuild.
Survivors in Indonesia struggled to put their lives back
together, some straggling across debris-strewn miles of
countryside to reach larger towns — only to find those
regional centers also flattened.
The relief effort is building quickly in Calang, 55 miles
southeast of Banda Aceh, where the 1,000 survivors have been
joined by 6,000 refugees even though only foundations of homes
remain.
About 13,000 U.S. servicemen are now in Indonesia and
surrounding seas, along with 10 ships and more on the way, the
U.S. Navy said Saturday. The U.S. military says it is
incurring $5.6 million a day in operating costs.
At the bustling market in the Lambaro section, women
haggled over costs of chilies, bananas, chickens and goats.
Barbers set up shop and old men sipped coffee at outdoor
cafes.
But business was bad for fish traders, since many buyers
were queasy because of the bodies washed out to sea.
"Business is down 50 percent," said one seller,
wiping the flies off five fat tunas. "People fear the
fish are feeding on the human remains." |