Indonesia digs mass grave for quake victims, appeals for international aid
BINTANGNEWS.com –
Indonesia has prepared a mass grave for victims of a powerful earthquake and a
tsunami to prevent an outbreak of disease as it appeals for international
assistance in its efforts to deal with the trail of destruction.
The official death toll currently
stands at more than 844, but the figure is expected to rise amid ongoing search
and rescue operations.
Indonesia volunteers on Monday dug a
100 meter-long grave in hills above the city of Palu to bury some 1,300
victims. They began burying the dead bodies already retrieved.
“The casualties will keep increasing,”
said national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. “We will start the
mass burial of victims, to avoid the spread of disease.”
Four days on, authorities are
desperate to stave off any disease outbreak caused by decomposing bodies. They
have announced a 14-day state of emergency.
According to officials, the situation
in the far remote areas and villages are not yet clear, medicines are running
out and rescuers are struggling with a shortage of heavy equipment to reach
those calling out for help from the ruins of collapsed buildings.
Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla said
the final death toll in the more outlying regions could be in the “thousands”
since many places have still not been reached.
Head of the International Red Cross in
Indonesia, Jan Gelfand also said, “It is not just the people in the large urban
areas. There are a lot of people also living in remote communities who are hard
to reach.”
Many victims are already buried under
the rubble of buildings and houses, according to officials.
Dozens of people were reported to be
trapped in the rubble of several hotels and a mall in Palu, a city of 380,000
people.
President Joko Widodo has called for
“day and night” efforts to save all those who could be saved.
Spokesman for the National Disaster
Mitigation Agency, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, however, said the sheer power of will
may not be enough.
“Communication is limited, heavy
machinery is limited... it’s not enough for the numbers of buildings that
collapsed,” he said.
The aftermath of the country’s most
destructive earthquake and tsunami since 2009, prompted the government to
appeal for international aid.
Senior government official Tom Lembong
wrote on Twitter that the president on Monday “authorized us to accept
international help for urgent disaster-response & relief.”
With the Palu airport closed, relief
workers are also facing difficulties to reach the devastated island, while the
drive from the nearest airport is around 10-12 hours to Sulawesi.
In the meantime, many survivors have
turned to looting shops for basics like food, water and fuel.
“There has been no aid, we need to
eat. We don’t have any other choice, we must get food,” one man in Palu was
quoted by AFP as he filled a basket with goods from a nearby store.
Officials also warned that as many as
1,200 inmates have fled at least three different prisons in the in Palu and
Donggala.***
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Editing:
T.Bintang
Source:
Republika.co.id
