INDONESIA: The massive international effort to help Indonesians blighted by the tsunami is failing to reach the people most in need, with thousands of volunteers being sidelined by the local military co-ordinators while rotting corpses are left by roadsides. Lynne O'Donnell reports from Meulaboh
In Meulaboh, the flattened harbour city of west Aceh, young volunteers have been cooling their heels for more than a week as they await permission from the Indonesian army to fan out to the local community.
Almost 30 domestic and international aid organisations have sent teams to Meulaboh, where the Indonesian army says 28,018 people died when the eight-metre wall of water hit the coast here on the morning of December 26th.
The tidal wave inundated the western coast of Aceh province, claiming more than 100,000 lives as it crashed over villages as far as 10 kilometres inland.
The UN co-ordinator in the area, Joel Boutroue, said yesterday some remote coastal areas full of people had yet to be helped. "We need now to probably enter a new phase whereby we should be able to reach all the vulnerable population in a more predictable and even-handed manner," he said.
The devastation of the area is complete, with whole villages wiped out. In some areas, the smashed debris of housing, furniture, cars, coconut palms, telegraph poles and electricity wires carpets the ground. In others, the only remaining evidence of life are bald concrete foundations where houses once stood. Nothing is left of formerly thriving fishing villages but filthy swampland where bodies are trapped.
In Langka, south of Meulaboh, Umi Slama (47) sat on a stack of wooden planks by the roadside, staring blankly into space. Two weeks after the disaster that killed her husband, Nga Lim, and pulverised her house, she is paralysed by trauma. "No help has arrived yet," she said. "I'm getting two packets of dried noodles a day from the army logistics and I don't think that it's enough."
Not far away, where once stood Naga Pasi village, a formerly popular beach spot for locals, Emnor Kha (60) points to a body caught in a fallen palm tree. The flesh is so decomposed that the skull sits atop a bloated torso still clad in a purple checked shirt.
"I haven't bothered to tell anyone about it, or to get it, and nor has anyone else," he said. "People are too traumatised and busy with their own affairs to worry. There are bodies everywhere, but there is no point in telling anyone because nothing is being done. It rains often here and it would be difficult to get them out."
The Indonesian army arrived in Meulaboh on December 28th and set to work collecting thousands of bodies that have been interred in a shallow sand grave outside the city. More arrive each day and the grave must be regularly dug over.
Many in the area, including army officials like Col Gerhan Lantara who is leading the relief co-ordination, concede that they are ill-equipped to deal with a catastrophe of such magnitude.
"We have never had to deal with something like this before and we have done a lot already," he said. "Every day we are making some progress."
Hospitals have enough drugs but they lack other basic essentials such as body bags. Louise Camm, a nurse with the South African non-governmental organisation, Global Relief, said medical care was often below standard, and some wounds were simply redressed, causing secondary infection.
This is despite an apparent surfeit of medical assistance provided by an array of organisations - the Red Cross, Mercy Corp, Peace Winds, Médecins Sans Frontières, Marins-Pompiers - from a variety of countries.
Most relief services are concentrating on medicine, water purification and food distribution, and most appear to remain in and around the city. As a result, much effort is duplicated and some pressing needs like corpse collection and providing food and water to outer areas are neglected.
Global Relief's Burd Crodier said his 15-strong paramedic team was one of the few agencies to venture outside the city confines, adding that foreign groups feared insurgent attacks, as members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) are said to have attacked some villagers and aid convoys.
"The threat is real, but it is banditry - they are trying to boost their own supplies but they are not a force to be reckoned with," he said.
A shooting was reported in Banda Aceh yesterday as shots were fired outside a deputy police chief's house and near the main UN aid office. Some officials blamed insurgents, and others said a disturbed government soldier had fired the shots. No one was hurt.
Thousands of volunteers from Jakarta have arrived in stricken areas, but many in Meulaboh complained they are not being allowed to make a contribution.
They appear to be ensnared in the Indonesian army's culture of bureaucracy and its traditional role of maintaining political stability, as it has sought to contain the GAM insurgency for decades.
One volunteer said the GAM threat had been cited as an excuse for not mobilising groups for such dirty work as body collection and debris clearance, despite their willingness.
The army is maintaining a tight grip on logistics even though its own resources are severely limited. In central Meulaboh yesterday soldiers were using planks of wood to clear mud from roads as they did not have enough shovels. The Singapore army moved heavy equipment from ships moored outside the wrecked harbour, and yesterday began work in the centre of town.
Wei Kok Chandra, an insurance agent in Jakarta, arrived in Meulaboh aboard a navy ship eight days ago. He said his group of more than 200 volunteers included people native to the tsunami-hit areas, but that the army would not allow them to enter villages to help. "We are very frustrated. We want to help but we are under the orders of the army. There are bodies still trapped in buildings, and in trees, and floating into the shore. There are not even rubber gloves, but we would be willing to work with our bare hands."