Emergency phase has weeks left: UN

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sat, 06/03/2006 12:56 PM

The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta, Klaten, Jakarta

Nearly a week after the devastating earthquake hit Yogykarta and Central Java last Saturday, the United Nations said that while conditions were improving, the emergency phase was far from over.

With more than 6,200 dead and 650,000 people left homeless by the 5.8 magnitude quake, the head of UN relief operations, Charlie Higgins, said Friday the emergency effort would continue for up to two weeks and survivors would need help for months to come.

An estimated US$100 million would be needed over the next six months to address the area's most immediate needs, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told AP, adding that nearly half of that money should go toward housing.

""The earthquake's large-scale destruction of water and sanitation facilities combined with large numbers of displaced survivors creates the potential for high disease and death rates,"" said Michael Kocher, International Rescue Committee regional director for Indonesia.

Higgins said the relief operation could last up to six months but the UN has no plan to set up large refugee camps and would rather survivors stayed in their villages until help came to them.

The UN conceded problems in distributing basic aid such as water, food and shelter after the earthquake destroyed or damaged an estimated 130,000 homes along with some roads and bridges.

However, Higgins said the relief operations were in full swing by Friday, with the bottlenecks in logistics expected to be overcome during the next few days.

With some trucks loaded with aid locked in traffic jams in some areas, one group of villagers only a few kilometers from an aid distribution center said they had received little help.

Mulyani, 40, who lives in the hills behind Parangtritis beach, about 30 kilometers south of Yogyakarta, complained on Friday that residents in his village received no help and were still sleeping in makeshift shelters without power.

Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is personally overseeing the disaster relief effort, had ordered local officials to deploy all available aid and distribute cash to the earthquake victims to buy food.

Speaking after a five-hour meeting at the presidential office Friday, Sudi said Yudhoyono wanted the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, local administrations, the Indonesian Military and the police to solve the logistical problems in the next few days.

But the situation appeared better in Bantul's main hospital, which has treated thousands of patients since the quake, with volunteers cleaning up piles of rubbish and foreign medical teams joining local doctors to tend quake victims.

""The main issue now is patients that are allowed to go home, they do not want to go, because they have no homes. They are creating more problems for the hospital,"" nurse coordinator Tri Hastuti told Reuters.

She said even offers of money and transport could not persuade people to leave the 367-bed hospital, which had treated more than 1,600 patients since the quake. There had been 36 deaths in the hospital, but none since Tuesday.

Outside the hospital, earthquake survivors started salvaging bricks and planks from the remains of their flattened homes Friday, while others helped demolish damaged houses as they began the arduous process of rebuilding.

Thousands of Muslims crammed into mosques or lined up outdoors for the first Friday prayers after the temblor. The mood was particularly solemn in Pudung Pandean hamlet in Imogiri, Bantul, one of the worst-hit areas.

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