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Aid pours into quake zone

Indonesian tragedy displaces 650,000

BANTUL (Indonesia): International relief poured into Indonesia's earthquake disaster zone on Wednesday, but for many of the estimated 647,000 displaced persons, aid was not arriving quickly enough and health care remained patchy.

Thousands of women and children lined roads clogged with relief vehicles and curious onlookers, asking motorists for money so they could buy food. Some stood next to a banner that said, ``Don't just look. Help.''

Saturday's 6.3-magnitude quake on Java island killed more than 5,800 persons and injured at least 30,000.

The main hospital in hardest-hit Bantul district remained overwhelmed, with patients cramming corridors or sleeping on pieces of cardboard in the parking lot, and doctors complained of a lack of supplies.

The United Nations said the crisis appeared to be easing with the arrival of aid workers from more than 20 countries, and Indonesia's President said he had enough confidence in the relief efforts to return to Jakarta.

Roads repaired

``Certainly, a lot more needs to be done,'' Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said. But he said roads had been cleared, the main airport's runway repaired and reopened, and electricity restored in some areas.

The temblor that struck soon after dawn reduced more than 135,000 houses into piles of bricks, tiles and wood in less than a minute, displacing some 647,000 persons, said Bambang Priyohadi, a provincial official.

Nearly a third of them now live under plastic sheets close to their former homes or in rice fields or by sides of roads, while the rest are staying with relatives, he said. Their misery has been compounded by days of on-again off-again rain and blazing sun, with another downfall dousing the region on Wednesday. Getting food and fresh water to survivors remained a pressing concern, with some $5 million needed over the next few months to pay for rations of enriched noodles and high energy biscuits, said the U.N. World Food Program. — AP

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