The Hindu : International : Bloated bodies litter Banda Aceh

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 28, 2004

International

International

Bloated bodies litter Banda Aceh

BANDA ACEH (INDONESIA), DEC. 27. Dozens of bloated bodies littered the streets of Indonesia's Banda Aceh city on Monday as soldiers and desperate relatives searched for survivors of an earthquake and tidal waves that killed at least 4,491 persons.

On the outskirts of the city, some 500 bodies collected by emergency workers lay under plastic tents, rotting in the tropical heat, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

Sunday's earthquake destroyed dozens of buildings in Banda Aceh, capital of Aceh province, before triggering tidal waves that turned the streets into rivers.

Some 3,000 people died in the city, which has been virtually cut off since the quake struck due to power cuts and downed telephone wires.

Million left homeless

Communication was still cut off to several other parts of 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.

On Sumatra, a million people were left homeless, said the Health Ministry.

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 do not know where to bury my wife and children.''

At least 4,491 persons were killed on Sumatra island and on Nias, an isolated island that lies west of Sumatra, State Secretary Yusril Mahendra told reporters in Jakarta.

``We have ordered 15,000 troops into the field to search for survivors,'' said military spokesman Edy Sulistiadi. ``They are mostly retrieving corpses.''

Refugees in Lhokseumawe, many of whom had spent the night sleeping outside on open ground, complained that little or no aid had reached them.

National mourning

The Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was in Papua province visiting the victims of a recent earthquake there, declared three days of national mourning.

He was scheduled to visit Aceh, home to about 4.3 million people, later on Monday.

— AP

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International