Indonesia fears FIVE FOLD rise in deaths
Indonesia's Vice President Yusuf Kalla has said that he thinks up to 25,000 people may have died in the earthquake and flooding that ravaged the country's Sumatra Island.
Although Kalla said he had no confirmed data, he did think more than 20,000 were dead.
The government has so far confirmed the deaths of around 5,000 people as a result of Sunday's quake and the tsunamis it triggered.
Most of the deaths have been in Aceh province, on the northern tip of Sumatra Island.
But large parts of the province, especially towns on its western coast that were facing the epicenter of the undersea quake, have yet to be visited by either reporters or rescue teams.
for further imformation
Although Kalla said he had no confirmed data, he did think more than 20,000 were dead.
The government has so far confirmed the deaths of around 5,000 people as a result of Sunday's quake and the tsunamis it triggered.
Most of the deaths have been in Aceh province, on the northern tip of Sumatra Island.
But large parts of the province, especially towns on its western coast that were facing the epicenter of the undersea quake, have yet to be visited by either reporters or rescue teams.
for further imformation
saltandsaffron at 3:34:00 pm |
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From Beyond Wallacia:
Aceh is suffering tremendously from the massive earthquake and tsunamis but there is relief, at least temporarily, from the 30-year separatist war within the province.
The Free Aceh Movement (known as GAM) has accepted the suggestion by national military commander, General Endriartono Sutarto, for a ceasefire in the conflict which has cost nearly 3,000 lives over the past four years alone.
The army is reassigning most of its 15,000 troops in the region to relief efforts and GAM has ordered its guerillas to cease hostilities and focus on humanitarian work.
However Vice President Jusuf Kalla admitted that security forces had also been overwhelmed by the disaster with some 400 soldiers missing and presumed dead and 300 police killed when their barracks were destroyed by the sea.
During his visit yesterday to the devastated area, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono declared three days of national mourning and announced the relaxation of martial law security restrictions to allow international relief agencies to directly fly in medicines, food and other basic necessities.
Indonesian media report that thousands of homeless families are huddled together in mosques and schools in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, only about 210 km from the earthquake's epicenter. The city's only shopping mall is reportedly a pile of rubble and the minaret of the city's 150-year-old mosque is leaning dangerously.
Remote coastal villages on both coasts were washed away in the province, home to about 4.3 million Indonesians. Local casualties are estimated at 3,000, about 60% of the national toll.
However officials now fear that the number of deaths could total more than 25,000 once information is received from isolated areas.
Ironically, the head of Aceh's civil administration, Governor Abdullah Puteh, is required in Jakarta where he went on trial for corruption yesterday.