The Hindu : International : 7,118 more bodies recovered in Indonesia

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Saturday, Jan 08, 2005

International

International

7,118 more bodies recovered in Indonesia

BANDA ACEH, JAN. 7. The U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, described the devastation on Indonesia's tsunami-battered Sumatra island on Friday as the worst he has ever seen, while authorities there pulled 7,118 new bodies from the rubble bringing the confirmed overall death toll to nearly 150,000.

Twelve days after the tsunami hit, Mr. Annan and World Bank President, James Wolfensohn, flew over the island's west coast in a Singaporean helicopter and later drove around the shattered coastal town of Meulaboh, where families picked through piles of rubble two metres high.

"Utter destruction"

``I have never seen such utter destruction mile after mile,'' a shaken Mr. Annan told reporters afterward. ``You wonder where are the people? What has happened to them?''

Relief workers were still trying to come to terms with the scale of the December 26 earthquake and killer waves that hit 11 nations. With tens of thousands and still missing and threatened by disease, the United Nations said the number of dead would keep climbing.

``I think we have to be aware that very, very many of the victims have been swept away and many, many will not reappear,'' the U.N. Humanitarian Chief, Jan Egeland, said in New York. ``The 150,000 dead figure is a very low figure. It will be much bigger.''

Hardest hit

Hardest hit was Sumatra, which was closest to the 9.0 magnitude quake, where all of Indonesia's some 100,000 deaths occurred.

The country increased its toll by 7,118 on Friday, after uncovering thousands of bodies in and around Meulaboh, which was cut off from the rest of Sumatra for days because roads were swept away and sea jetties destroyed.

Mr. Annan's visit came after he attended a summit of world leaders in Jakarta on Thursday on how to turn one of history's largest-ever aid packages — nearly $4 billion (euro3 billion) in pledges — into food for the hungry and shelter for the homeless. The U.N. chief urged nations to come up immediately with their promised aid, and to break with past practices of pledging much and delivering little.

Australia leads the world with a total aid pledge of $810 million (euro615 million), followed by Germany, Japan and the United States.

Private donations were also pouring in. A telethon in Saudi Arabia raised $67.4 million (euro51.13 million) in 11 hours: with donations ranging from diamonds to tents and blankets. In Norway, four young girls sold their Christmas presents, raising nearly 6,000 kroner ($1,000; euro756).

Meanwhile, the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, toured stricken areas in Sri Lanka, where more than 30,000 people died, and promised long-term U.S. help for rebuilding an economic recovery.

``Only by seeing it on the ground can you really appreciate what it must have been like on that terrible day,'' he said. — AP

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