Posted on 12/28/2004 8:14:26 AM PST by dead
The survivors have blank stares and do not speak. We walk together among black and bloated bodies still lying in the streets of Banda Aceh three days after the 25 minutes of terror that struck on Boxing Day morning.
"We thought it was the end of the world," says Sofyan Halim, who lost 15 members of his family.
Banda Aceh's 40,000 people have suffered greatly over the years, caught in a bitter fight between the Indonesian military and rebels struggling for independence from Jakarta. But nothing like this; never before such death and utter devastation.
Nobody here is talking about recovery, just survival.
This is just a slice of the devastation wreaked across 11 nations by an earthquake and resulting tsunami. The rescue mission here is painfully slow, just as it is in most of the stricken areas.
Only a 16-hour boat ride away, close to the epicentre of the earthquake, is an island of 100,000 people - all of them unaccounted for and beyond the reach of Indonesia's limited resources.
"We just don't know about them," a government official, Djoko Sumaryono, says of Simeulue. "No contact makes us fearful. We're trying to send helicopters there."
An Australian trying to reach Simeulue yesterday with vital aid and a satellite phone also fears the worst. "There will be people there with nothing, no fuel, no food, no water, nothing at all. The whole place is washed away I'd say," Brian Williams says.
Among the ruins of what used to be Banda Aceh's thriving market, shocked men and boys pick through the rubble, ignoring dozens, perhaps hundreds, of rotting bodies.
When the stink becomes unbearable, they cover their faces and continue their search for anything that will keep their families alive. Food is desperately short, so much so that people stand for hours in the sun outside the few shops untouched by the devastation in the hope they will open and sell them food.
Looting and lawlessness are other problems plaguing the region, but there are by no means the worst. The head of Banda Aceh's military hospital, Taufiq Urahman, says there are grave fears of an outbreak of cholera and typhoid. "Banda Aceh is paralysed," he says. "This is a very grim situation."
Survivors say the city was shaken first by two earthquakes, five minutes apart. Three tsunamis came 25 minutes later.
"The water was as high as a coconut palm," says Sofyan Halim. "All the debris came with it. People were screaming. Some got away, many didn't. The water went 15 kilometres inland in some places. It was all over in 25 minutes. That's all. How can that be ... such devastation."
It is difficult to imagine how Banda Aceh can rebuild itself. Trees, uprooted and dumped kilometres away, litter the streets, as do the twisted shells of cars. Layers of stinking mud cover everything and several of the biggest shopping centres have collapsed. Even the symbol of Aceh, the Baiturrahman mosque, has been badly damaged.
One of the many ruins, the three-storey Doctor Zainal Abidin Hospital, tells a particularly grim tale. "Children in emergency wards were killed [when the water hit]," says a nurse, Citra Nurhayat. "Soldier patients suffering from malaria helped to evacuate other patients."
Families sit in shock in the street or in the grounds of mosques. Only the children seem to cry; the parents seem numb with disbelief.
A 34-year-old mother, Nurhayati, says she has only had bananas to feed her three-month-old baby since Sunday. "I need baby food as well ... no aid has come to us yet."
Scores of badly injured people lie in the corridors and on verandahs of the only operating hospital in Banda Aceh. Patients have no water to drink and have only dry packed noodles to eat.
Saripah, 60, who could not hang on to her six-year-old granddaughter in the tsunami, came to the hospital yesterday for medicine. She was turned away. Outside was a 16-year-old girl who lost an entire family. She had been told there was nowhere to treat her leg wound. Nurses say there are thousands like them.
Survivors and rescue workers bring the dead to Lambaro, a village a few kilometres outside the city, and lay them under plastic sheets near a roundabout in the hope that relatives will come and identify them.
But the threat of disease and Muslim tradition that the dead be buried within 24 hours have prompted mass burials.
About 1500 victims, many of them children, were buried after a funeral on Monday night. There are so many bodies - officials say the death toll in Banda Aceh alone may be as high as 10,000 - that an excavator is digging graves on a two-hectare plot of land near the village.
Indonesian officials fear that communities and islands off the west coast of Sumatra may have been even harder hit.
Shortages of food, water and medicines in Banda Aceh are already causing anger among the Acehnese. Indra Utama, a community leader in the city, says the military must provide more urgent aid. "Where is the military?" he asks. "They're just taking care of their families. There is no war in Aceh now, why don't they help pick up the bodies in the street?"
However, the Indonesian military has started flying medical crews and badly needed emergency supplies into the area in Hercules and any other available aircraft from Medan. It admits much more is needed. At an emergency aid centre at the Banda Aceh parliament only biscuits and drinking water had arrived yesterday afternoon.
Brian Williams, who has lived on Simeulue since 2002, yesterday flew into Medan from Sydney with his wife, Dewi.
He is desperate to contact the island, where he runs a surfing and fishing tour business, but communications are down.
He believes the main town, Sinabang, has been "wiped out".
Mr Williams plans to make the 16-hour trip to Simeulue on a boat laden with Australian aid. "I just want to make sure they're all right and get them some help."
I gave to http://www.worldvision.org. I hear they are very reputable. I don't know if you are a Hugh Hewitt fan, but he also recommends them.
See post #59.
Have you ever read any line by line audit of how, where and who got the aid? There is ZERO accountability, and that is why we have the "Oil for Food" example.
If you wish to throw money down a black hole, or if you wish to give money that may well end up helping to build a bomb to kill Americans, that is your problem.
I say it is idiotic to give one cent to any international charity. If every American gave nothing, the government will STILL take our tax dollars and give it to terrorists, who were supposed to give it to the needy.
Let me ask you this: let's say an earthquake struck Iraq. You then give money to the Red Cross. The Red Cross gives money that gets to the Sunni Triangle "leaders". No matter how much death and destruction you see in Iraq, this "humanitarian assistance" $$$ would be used to build more roadside bombs that will kill more American soldiers. It would NOT be used for Iraqi homeless.
Do you think those running Sri Lanka will do anything different? What about in Indonesia? There are more terrorists in Indonesia than there are in Iraq.
It is your money. If you want to fund terrorists or line the pockets of dictators, that is your choice.
Attacks on the Boy Scouts and the increase in anti-gun laws caused me to divert almost a thousand dollars a year from charitable contributions to direct support for organizations which share and can help protect my values.
If Arnold wants to help survivors of this disaster, I propose that he shut down the gun registry in Kalifornia and divert the money saved anywhere he chooses. Until that happens, I will continue to use my resources to protect my own survival.
I saw a piece by a writer just today who asked "why is it that we gave Floridians low interest loans after the hurricanes, but we give cash dollar grants to foreigners after this tsunami?"
As to your second point, it is not "punishing" the victims if you fail to give to charity. The money you give will not get to the victims. You need to understand this. It will feed dictators Swiss bank accounts, but it will not get to the victims.
This writer also stated that "Indonesia said that they are unable to reach many islands in remote areas. How is it that your dollars can reach these people if the Indonesian government can't even reach them?"
Think!
Floridians should be used to hurricanes. Hence, no freebies for them.
This disaster is hitting people in which you don't expect an 9.0 earthquake every year.
That is the difference.
I don't see it as actually giving money to the people in Indonesia. I would give my money to the Red Cross or some other organization, that organization would buy food and other supplies, or send medical personnel over there. The money is spent here--the goods bought by my money are sent there.
Thanks for some sound logic. Nice to see an open thinker and a right thinker here.
You would get a kick out of post #65 (in response to post #64). Ckeck out that "logic" for a good laugh.
In my opinion, there is nothing "right-thinking" about selfish behavior. I sure hope your family is never devastated by a natural disaster and then you need charitable assistance. I have plenty of money--I can share it with organizations that have the ability to go over there and help. I cannot physically go over there so I will do the next best thing--send someone in my place with goods and services that I have paid for.
You think so. You sound like a good person at heart, so you want to believe that your money will directly help some victims.
People like you who continue to feed charities make it possible for the American government to continue to give away over $1 trillion dollars in "charity" every year.
The waste and corruption will go on as long as "good hearts" like you continue to be suckered.
So I suppose we are to ignore the devastation in Southeast Asia? I AM a good person at heart and will donate what I have excess of to people who need it immediately for such a horrific disaster. I will NOT donate my money to people who can and should help themselves. This is not that type of situation. However, I will do my research first.
Your "thinking" is twisted, cwiz24.
It is not "selfish", it is the ability to see through the smokescreen.
I resent the annual $1 trillion dollars of forced "charitiable" giving (wealth transfer of taxpayers to nontaxpayers). THis money could be used to fund disaster relief--instead, it is wasted.
I am appalled we give money to the PLO terrorists and terrorists of many nations.
I know dman well that money for tsunami "victims" will not reach the "victims". Most will go to corrupt officials or be lost in "administrative expense".
I know clearly that much "charitable giving" gets into the hands of terrorists who build bombs that kill Americans.
I (we) am/are not "selfish". We are astute observers of reality. You are in lala land.
For instance, in my local area, the Rotary Club collected for flood victims of the September flooding. They promised that 100% of our donations would go to help flood victims, because all relief efforts were directed and delivered by volunteers.
Why are you donating to an organization that has turned their backs on our military for many years, and charged them for simple things such as coffee and donuts? My husband has been the victim of the Red Cross, so I am not just repeating rumors.
Florida hurricane victims (AMERICANS) were offered low interest loans, but foreigners in Sri Lanks will be given cash grants--that SHOULD appall you but it doesn't.
America and other governments will assist these people whether you give money or not. If you think your giving to a charity will somehow help, you are wrong. You do not understand the depth of corruption that is in most charities.
If you can rest easy knowing that some Americans have been killed by weapons and terrorists attacks funded through various "charities", then go ahead. I feel sorry for you.
You place blind trust that all these people in these charities are saints. There are no checks, there are no audits, there is no report on how the money was distrubuted. The level of skimming and corruption in internatioanl relief agencies would shock you--it does not shock me.
Go ahead. Feel sorry for me. I couldn't care less.
No, I feel much better that I will not contribute to organizations that are anti-American.
Annual Report? Ha! I would love to see the Annual Report for the "Food for Oil" Program.
Remember, the United Nations ran the Food for Oil. Are you saying you trust the Red Cross Auditors any better than you trust the United Nations? The Red Cross (International Red Cross) can be as anti-American as any organization.
You miss the big picture in Posts #59 and #62. You have no answer for the key points raised.
Go ahead and throw you money away, or worse, have your money used to kill Americans.
From whence comes the helplessness of the people in that part of the world? How much did that part of the world send to help in Florida?
The rest of the world is allowed to behave like American liberals, blaming the evils of the world on American freedom and excusing themselves from the necessity to plan for the future and take responsibility.
I consider myself to be at war with liberals here in Kalifornia and I have nothing to spare for other battles. My right to keep and bear arms is under attack. Won't you send me some cash to fight? Or don't you care enough about my freedom?
Are you accusing me of giving money to terrorists?
Really?
You could care less that Florida hurricane victims were offered "low interest rate loans" after their natural disaster, but foreigners will be given cash grants???
You could care less that the people in charge who will be responsible for distributing this money are thugs and dictators?
You have not responsed to Sri Lanka's demand that Israel relief workers not show up on their soil!!! Yet, you think money going to these people will be used properly?
And you don't want me to feel sorry for you? But I do! I feel real sorry for an Amerian who helps feed international terrorists but somehow thinks that is being "good-hearted".
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