Indonesia's president warned last night it would take months to deal with the basic needs of tens of thousands of earthquake survivors, as rescue teams all but gave up hope of pulling more people alive from the rubble.
Relief started trickling through to towns demolished by Saturday's 6.3-magnitude quake that killed more than 5,000 people on Java island, but President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono predicted it would take three months to provide the displaced and injured with basic shelter and medical equipment and regular, sufficient food supplies.
Compounding fears for the estimated 200,000 people left without shelter in heavy rains that have drenched the stricken landscape, a volcano 24km north of the most devastated communities belched lava more than two miles down its slopes yesterday.
The head of Mount Merapi's monitoring centre, Subandriyo, said the earthquake had caused "instability in the lava dome". "There is still a chance that a big eruption might occur," he said.
Government agencies are giving different death tolls from Saturday's tragedy, highlighting the confusion and inadequate co-ordination. Mr Yudhoyono is working on a figure of 4,395 provided by the provincial government. Earlier in the day, the social affairs ministry said 5,137 people had died. The UN estimates 20,000 have been injured.
Indonesian soldiers and Malaysian rescue crews were among those who spent the day touring the area responding to calls that bodies were still trapped below crumpled houses. Nobody was pulled out alive. "We've received a few calls this morning," one team leader, Lieut Col Tinan Duisjanto, said as his troops pulled the body of an elderly woman from the rubble of her home. "But I am quite sure they are all dead."
Mr Yudhoyono, who moved his seat of government to Yogyakarta on Saturday and is personally overseeing the rescue effort, said last night the emergency phase of the relief operation was going to be long and arduous. "We hope it can be done in three months," he told a news conference. "Of course we hope it can be done faster but we have to be realistic." He admitted co-ordination could be improved and ordered government agencies to be "more agile". One senior official said at the highest levels of government there is an acceptance that many officials are not up to the job and so the military will carry much of the burden.
Indonesia's military commander, Air Chief Marshall Djoko Suyanto, said yesterday his priority was to assess exactly what is needed where. "We would like to emphasise the distribution," he said. "The soldiers have to know where the aid is needed so they can deliver what is needed to where it is needed." A senior United Nations official, Puji Pujiono, agreed, saying this is where the international experts who are starting to arrive in droves could help. "They should leave the Indonesians to buy what they need and instead make sure the help is used smarter rather than bigger," he said.
International help arriving yesterday included an aircraft of aid from the UN children's agency, Unicef. Mr Yudhoyono said 27 countries have offered assistance, including Japan and the United States, which are both planning to send troops.
The vice-president, Jusuf Kalla, announced that survivors would be given 200,000 rupiah (€17) each for clothes and household items, while families would get 12kg of rice. People will also be compensated for damaged homes. - (Guardian Service)