Like so many countries around the world, Australia is assisting with the current emergency situation in Indonesia. This support is not only happening in Indonesia.  It is also happening in so many other places as well such as Thailand, India and Sri Lanka. The future is very bleak for many of the affected areas and for the thousands of people who have survived the disasters. In Indonesia the areas in the northern part of Sumatra, especially in Aceh, have been affected terribly. It is hard to even imagine how people in those areas will ever recover from their horrific ordeal and the aftermath.

Australia boosts aid to $800m - Thursday, January 6, 2005 
JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced Wednesday his country would donate an additional billion Australian dollars ($764.5 million) to a partnership with Indonesia for rehabilitation in the wake of the tsunami disaster. The aid package will be made up of $A500 million in grants and $A500 million in concessional loans. The money is in addition to the $A60 million ($45.5 million) already pledged by Australia to help tsunami victims.  The grants will be used for short term restoration projects such as rebuilding schools and the loans for longer term development projects, Howard told media in Jakarta.

“It is a program of long-term, sustained cooperation and capacity building,” Howard said.

The Australian leader is in Indonesia for Thursday's regional summit on the catastrophe. The money would be distributed over five years, Howard said, and would add to Australia's existing development program with Indonesia, which already includes $A800 million ($611.6 million) over five years.

“While there will naturally be a clear focus on the areas devastated by the tsunami, all areas of Indonesia will be eligible for assistance under the partnership,” the prime minister said.

Howard said the aid package would place relations between Australia and Indonesia on “an even firmer footing”.

Commercial stations offer radio sets
January 11, 2005 - 10:02AM

Commercial radio is aiming to give practical assistance to tsunami-stricken areas. Australian commercial radio stations have joined forces to send about 50,000 portable radios to countries hit by the December 26 tsunami disaster. Commercial Radio Australia chief executive Joan Warner said the AM/FM radios would help restore communications in tsunami-stricken areas in Indonesia and other Asian countries.

Batteries, broadcasting equipment and transmitters would also be sent to survivors and broadcasters affected by the disaster. Ms Warner said the first batch of 5,000 radios would be shipped to Indonesia in a week, with the rest to be sent in the next four to five weeks. Australian commercial radio operators also offered to send several engineers to help set up temporary broadcasting facilities in areas devastated by the tsunami.

“Indonesia's public broadcasters have said more than 30 of their employees are missing or feared dead, and many broadcasting facilities were severely damaged during the disaster,” Ms Warner said in a statement.

“Helping to restore radio communications to affected areas is a practical way the Australian industry can contribute to relief efforts and will provide a channel for authorities to communicate vital information about water, food and medical aid.”

Ms Warner said the Asia Pacific Broadcast Union (ABU), which represents 130 radio and TV broadcasters in 54 countries, was coordinating Commercial Radio Australia's aid effort. The ABU has asked all its members to donate radios and broadcast equipment for Indonesia's Aceh province, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

Healing hands tend to Banda Aceh's wounded
By Lindsay Murdoch and Matthew Moore - The Age, Melbourne
Banda Aceh, January 10, 2005

It was just a tent amid the debris of a disaster. But Australian Army doctors yesterday treated their first patient at a mobile ward the army has set up in the muddy grounds of Banda Aceh biggest's hospital - destroyed by the tsunami with almost all of its patients killed. The patient Sarkawi, 45, was carried on a stretcher into the tent suffering a foot injury. “The injury could be life-threatening if not treated,” said Warrant Officer First Class Mark Campbell. The mobile hospital has nine doctors backed by 130 Australian soldiers and 31 others from New Zealand. Scores of bodies including those of children were removed from the wards in the hospital only several days ago. The Australians expect to move their medical operation from the tents into the wards within days.

However, as the much-welcomed Australian military field hospital opened for work, the huge outpouring of aid from around the world forced the World Health Organisation in Aceh to issue a plea to other governments to stop sending field hospitals here, because there will be nothing for them to do.

But despite the request, hospitals are still on their way to Aceh where at least 100,000 people died and countless others were injured in the tsunami. The Indonesian minister co-ordinating the relief effort in Banda Aceh, Alwi Shihab, said the WHO had asked Germany - which has already set up a field hospital - to turn around a hospital ship fitted with a dental surgery and two operating theatres, but it was still on its way.

“We don't want them to come over from a far distance just to have a very limited number of patients . . . (but) they insisted on coming,” Mr Shihab said.

The co-ordinator of the WHO in Aceh, Ronald Waldman from Columbia University, urged no more field hospitals be dispatched. “I've told WHO in Geneva we do not need more field hospitals,” Dr Waldman told The Age. The Australians expect to move their medical operation from the tents into the wards with days.

Dr Waldman said the new Australian field hospital and the existing German field hospital were sufficient. 
Singapore has provided a hospital in Meulaboh, Denmark one for the specialised treatment of complex orthopedic cases and the French were now deploying one. Jordan, Malaysia, Britain and the Red Cross also planned to send hospitals that Dr Waldman said would not be utilised.

“There's no question the hospitals were needed. But there's no question also that after we reach capacity, we have to get on with other things instead of worrying about where to place more and more and more field hospitals which are going to be used to five or 10 per cent of their capacity," he said.

The world had been “incredibly generous” responding to the crisis in Aceh, but the wrong sort of aid was now being dispatched, Dr Waldman said.

With many injuries already attended to, the challenge now is to keep alive and healthy the hundreds of the thousands of people who have lost their housing, and this requires clean water, sanitation and food, not more medical facilities.

31 December 2004
AUSTRALIAN MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS - ALEXANDER DOWNER
$25 million to meet Urgent Health Challenge posed by Indian Ocean Disaster

As new information provides a clearer picture of the full extent of the Indian Ocean disaster Australia will continue to increase its support for the international relief effort. The enormity of this tragedy continues to grow. In Indonesia, estimates place the number of dead at 80,000 and the number of people who have lost their homes at more than one million. There are also reports of disease affecting significant numbers of survivors.

The Australian Government will contribute a further $25 million, which brings our total contribution to $60 million. This funding will support immediate action to deal with urgent public health concerns, including disease control, access to clean water and basic medicines. The greater part of the additional funds will be used for relief operations in Indonesia 's devastated Aceh province. 

The new funding will be allocated as follows:
1.  Urgent public health measures focusing on preventative health and water and sanitation. This funding will also support deployment of Australian health workers, water supply and sanitation technicians and equipment -  $7,500,000

2.  Supporting international organisations such as UNICEF, WHO and IOM, as well as local Islamic and women's organisation. Funds will be used for food and shelter, preventing and controlling communicable diseases and handling displaced persons - $7,500,00

3.  To fund logistics support in isolated areas, for example by small aircraft and boats, including through IOM and the World Food Programme (WFP) - $5 million 

Ordinary Australians helping as well - total tops $40 million in less than a week The four biggest Australian aid organisations have raised more than $41 million in less than a week, with the Australian Red Cross attracting almost half that amount. Starting the week with a target of $8.5 million, the figure reached more than $20 million by 5pm yesterday.Donations to many organisations started slowly, but began to flow more freely by mid-week. World Vision Australia has raised $9 million, CARE Australia attracted $7.5 million and Oxfam Community Aid Abroad $5 million. Between 11.30am and 1pm yesterday CARE Australia received 6100 calls from people wishing to donate. The organisation has now raised $7.5 million. The group's total includes many corporate donations, among them $1 million from the Pratt Foundation, led by the Visy Industries chairman, Richard Pratt, and $250,000 each from Qantas, Australia Post and Woodside Petroleum. "The new year is the ideal time for the corporate community to resolve to follow the example already set by the outpouring of support from the Australian people,"   Mr Pratt said. The amount donated to non-government agencies is about two thirds of the Federal Government's tsunami relief spending, which was raised to a total of $60 million yesterday. Aid agencies have been overwhelmed by the generosity of the Australian public, and phone lines have been constantly busy. Donations by individuals of up to $20,000 each have been made.

Fears Australian tsunami toll will rise - 22:07 AEDT Sat. Jan 1 2005
Prime Minister John Howard will lead an Australian delegation to an emergency tsunami summit in Jakarta as the death toll from the Indian Ocean disaster continues to rise. Nearly 120 Australians have been confirmed or are feared dead. The overall death toll from last Sunday's massive killer waves edged past 126,000 and the United Nations has warned it could reach 150,000. Around 100,000 Indonesians alone are believed to have been killed from the tsunami as it hit the western coast of Sumatra, closest to the epicentre.

The latest official Australian death toll is 11 but authorities hold grave fears for 107 people who were believed to be in the path of the tsunami. Another 950 Australians in the tsunami-affected areas have not been accounted for. The prime minister expressed on behalf of all Australians a sense of despair and sympathy for those who were waiting to find out what happened to their loved ones - and for those who will never know.

"My thoughts are very much with Australians who are still anxiously awaiting news of their loved ones and we can only begin to imagine their agony as each day goes by and they haven't heard. The greatest contribution we can make is to restore conditions of reasonable habitation in the countries themselves," he said.

Schoolchildren feel insult and injury from tsunami
Apriadi Gunawan, 
The Jakarta Post, North Aceh

Muhfarizal looked sad when his friends went to school while he stayed at a refugee camp in a field at Cut Meutia hospital in North Aceh. The 11-year-old sixth grader of SDN 5 Blang Cut elementary school missed school and stayed with his parents who now live at the refugee camp. Badly wanting to go back to school, the son of M. Yunus, did not know when he could join his friends as all of his books and uniforms were destroyed in the massive tsunami.

“I don't know when I can go back to school because all of my clothes and books vanished in the tsunami,” he said softly.

In Lhokseumawe, students and teachers of SMP 2 junior high school were in deep sorrow of losing their friend, Yunita Nanda, in the disaster. Mustafa, Yunita's father, came to the school on Wednesday and told them of the sad news. He said that when the tsunami hit Banda Aceh, the second-year student was staying at her uncle's house while her parents were staying at a hotel.

"There's no news of anyone from the (Yunita's uncle) house. We have tried to look for them but nothing. They could be dead,” Mustafa said.

Mustafa went to the school to return the money that Yunita was holding as she was the treasurer of her class.

“I came to return the money. My daughter was the treasurer of her class and in charge of the money,” he said.

The SMP 2 principal, Ramli Ismail, said so far, only one of his students died in the disaster, while 45 have to live in shelters after losing their homes in the quake-triggered disaster. Other children are luckier than Muhfarizal and Yunita. Triyani, a third-year student of SMP I Samudra junior high school, showed up for her examination wearing ordinary clothes. Just like Muhfarizal, all of her school textbooks and uniforms were destroyed when the tsunami hit the area. Triyani did not have to stay in the shelter as her house in Samudra district in North Aceh was not destroyed by the giant tidal waves. She was able to sit for the examination. Many other children showed up at schools wearing anything they could find.

"At first, I felt ashamed, but my mother insisted that I go to school and sit for the examination," said Triyani after her examination.

Rika, a third-year accounting student at SMK III Peusong Lhokseumawe, had no other choice but to go to school without her uniform.

"What can I do? All of my books are gone. It's also hard to study at the shelter. So I will just try to do my best for the test," Rika said. The local examination started on Monday and finished next week.

North Aceh Regent Teuku Alamsyah Banta said the administration would help students who were unable to sit for examinations and would hold the examination again.

"The examination will be held at the end of this month at the latest," he said.

He added that the massive disaster, which in North Aceh mostly took the lives of women and children, was understandable if some children could not attend schools or examinations. However, he did not have detailed data on the number of school aged children who were victims of the disaster. The administration is currently being assisted by dozens of university students from the country's various provinces to provide detailed information on the victims, including their ages. According to data, over 1,800 people died and almost 700 are missing in North Aceh alone.

"We predict that the number of school aged children is high, but we're still working hard to get the exact number," he said. 

At least 1,000 teachers missing in Aceh, 50% of schools destroyed

JAKARTA (Antara): At least 1,000 teachers have been reported missing in Aceh and over 50 percent of school buildings devastated by last week's tsunamis, an official said on Wednesday.

"Provisional data shows that about 1,000 teachers are missing and approximately 140,000 elementary school students and 20,000 junior high school students have been left with nowhere to study," Director General of Elementary and Secondary Education at the Ministry of National Education Indra Jati Sidi said.

Indra said that by Jan. 20, emergency education facilities would be ready. He explained that, based on initial data, 914 elementary school buildings, 155 junior high school buildings, 67 senior school buildings and 15 vocational schools were devastated by the tsunamis. Due to the lack of facilities, the government has erected 2,000 tents and deployed 1,000 teachers from North Sumatra and nearby areas to support the emergency learning activities, he said.

"The emergency schools will be set up in 95 locations near the refugee camps," he added. (**)

Tsunami victims tell of their fight for survival
A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post

Australians ease disease fears with water
January 3, 2005 - 4:51PM AAP
Hundreds of desperate Acehnese lined up for lifesaving clean water today when Australian army engineers distributed supplies in the tsunami-hit city. The engineers from Darwin have set up a mobile water treatment and purification plant, easing fears of disease. Guarded by Indonesian troops, they handed out five-litre water bladders from the back of a trailer. The demand for fresh water is so great the Australian site has been surrounded by barbed wire and armed Indonesian soldiers stand guard around the perimeter.

The commander of Australia's military medical team already in Banda Aceh, Greg Norman, said the water was being distributed in 15 places in Banda Aceh by the international aid agency Oxfam.

"We are also talking to the Americans about getting some extra plants in here, because fresh water is crucial to heading off a disease outbreak," he said.

He said members of a 90-strong Australian medical team, including surgeons and intensive care specialists, would also reach the area within days. They would probably help staff a multinational medical team based in the city's main public hospital, which until now has been used as a makeshift morgue. "The German army is sending around 100 medical staff and so are the Mexicans," he said. "They will be able to help our guys, but first the hospital has to be cleared of the dead. It's still pretty messy in there."

Doctors adapt to tough conditions 
By Matthew Moore
Banda Aceh
January 6, 2005

An Australian medical team is adapting to challenging conditions as it helps tsunami victims. Haggard, dehydrated survivors are flooding Indonesia's disaster zone as the global relief operation to help 5 million people in tsunami-stricken regions faces new challenges. Helicopters ferrying survivors to medical help in Banda Aceh faced another bottleneck, this time of their own creation - overcrowded hospitals.

About a dozen people lay on stretchers on the footpath outside Fakina Hospital in Banda Aceh, a provincial capital on Indonesia's hard-hit Sumatra island. Many of the hospital's rooms had no power. Walls were flecked with blood and doctors had run out of stands for intravenous fluid bags, hanging them from cords across the ceiling.

Among the problems facing doctors trying to cope with Aceh's tsunami victims, Brisbane surgeon Peter Sharwood had a pretty simple request.

"We'd like some surgical instruments, some surgical gowns and some masks, because we still have none of them. We need the gowns because that's what protects us."

Dr Sharwood is a member of the 28-strong Australian team that has spent the past week working in the only two hospitals in Banda Aceh that are still able to treat the massive number of injuries. It was the first time Australia has sent such a civilian surgical team offshore in an emergency, and the anaesthetist responsible for logistics, Dr Ken Harrison, said it was not possible to get these items before the Australian Government jet took off from Richmond air base.

When they arrived in Banda Aceh, they found problems they had not expected. There was no one to help them unload 18 tonnes of equipment so they did it themselves with a couple of members of the NSW Fire Brigade and the aircraft crew.

"The physical work was a massive effort," said Dr Harrison. "Now we call ourselves the doctors and stackers union."

Then there were no beds at the airport, but the fire brigade had tents which they all slept in while they waited to get to town. They discovered another problem, the cries of patients treated by the Indonesian colleagues who, Dr Alan Garner from Careflight said were "not keen on anaesthetics".

The doctors are treating a lot of massive fractures and infections, a result they say, of the equivalent of immersion in a washing machine full of bricks, trees and polluted water. There were no critical care patients; they had already died by the time the Australians arrived last Thursday. Instead they have done a lot of amputations to deal with advanced infections. While children who survived devastation along the Indian Ocean were already receiving makeshift help to cope with the psychological trauma of losing relatives, aid agencies warned that they and other victims would need special attention.

Surfing operators use their own money to help islanders
by Philip Cornford, January 6
Australian surf safari operators in Sumatra have created their own tsunami relief effort, with five boatloads of food and medical supplies on the way to remote islands and three more to follow.

The impetus came from Chris "Scuzz" Scurrah, 30, from Victoria, and his American partner, Christina Fowler, 36, who spent $50,000 - "every cent we've got" - to launch the program. So far they have been promised more than $1million by international surf wear companies.

Three days ago, Mr Scurrah and his University of Sydney medical student sister, Alyssa, 26, delivered the first boatload of food to the island of Nias, 127 kilometres from Sumatra, where Surfaid International estimates 272 were killed and another 20,000 were victims of tsunami damage.

Since then, four other boats financed by Australian charter operators have sailed from the Sumatran port of Padang, one carrying medical supplies, five doctors and a team of nurses, and three loaded with rice, vegetable oil and other food purchased by Ms Fowler.

Yesterday, Ms Fowler loaded a cargo boat with 60 tonnes of diesel fuel, and two Australian-owned charter boats were standing by to transport a team of 15 doctors from Australia, New Zealand and the US dispatched by Surfaid International, which runs a medical relief project in the Mentawai islands.

"We emptied our bank account, then we started buying on credit," said Ms Fowler, from Springfield, Illinois. "These people are our neighbours, we're looking after people we know and like. We're not worried about the money. We know it will all come back to us."

The operation is run from the Hotel Batang Arau, leased by Mr Scurrah and Ms Fowler for seven years and headquarters for their charter operation, Sumatran Surfariis.

"They're a remarkable couple who didn't sit around talking about it but got stuck in without waiting for anyone to back them," said Martin Daly, 47, originally from Pittwater, who has been in Padang for 20 years and runs the biggest surf charter operation, Indies Trader.

Mr Daly and a former Bondi surfer, John McGroder, of Sumatra Surf Charters, both supplied boats free of charge.

Quiksilver Australia has given $500,000, Quiksilver International $130,000 and Billabong $500,000. Ms Fowler said the Bali relief organisation Idep had promised $50,000. Mr Daly said the retired Gold Coast real estate magnate Brian White, 63, had pledged $100,000 from estate agents. He said the Australian boats would stay at Nias to support the medical teams.

Healing hands tend to Banda Aceh's wounded
By Lindsay Murdoch and Matthew Moore - The Age, Melbourne
Banda Aceh, January 10, 2005

It was just a tent amid the debris of a disaster. But Australian Army doctors yesterday treated their first patient at a mobile ward the army has set up in the muddy grounds of Banda Aceh biggest's hospital - destroyed by the tsunami with almost all of its patients killed. The patient Sarkawi, 45, was carried on a stretcher into the tent suffering a foot injury. “The injury could be life-threatening if not treated,” said Warrant Officer First Class Mark Campbell. The mobile hospital has nine doctors backed by 130 Australian soldiers and 31 others from New Zealand. Scores of bodies including those of children were removed from the wards in the hospital only several days ago. The Australians expect to move their medical operation from the tents into the wards within days.

However, as the much-welcomed Australian military field hospital opened for work, the huge outpouring of aid from around the world forced the World Health Organisation in Aceh to issue a plea to other governments to stop sending field hospitals here, because there will be nothing for them to do.

But despite the request, hospitals are still on their way to Aceh where at least 100,000 people died and countless others were injured in the tsunami. The Indonesian minister co-ordinating the relief effort in Banda Aceh, Alwi Shihab, said the WHO had asked Germany - which has already set up a field hospital - to turn around a hospital ship fitted with a dental surgery and two operating theatres, but it was still on its way.

“We don't want them to come over from a far distance just to have a very limited number of patients . . . (but) they insisted on coming,” Mr Shihab said.

The co-ordinator of the WHO in Aceh, Ronald Waldman from Columbia University, urged no more field hospitals be dispatched. “I've told WHO in Geneva we do not need more field hospitals,” Dr Waldman told The Age. The Australians expect to move their medical operation from the tents into the wards with days.

Dr Waldman said the new Australian field hospital and the existing German field hospital were sufficient. 
Singapore has provided a hospital in Meulaboh, Denmark one for the specialised treatment of complex orthopedic cases and the French were now deploying one. Jordan, Malaysia, Britain and the Red Cross also planned to send hospitals that Dr Waldman said would not be utilised.

“There's no question the hospitals were needed. But there's no question also that after we reach capacity, we have to get on with other things instead of worrying about where to place more and more and more field hospitals which are going to be used to five or 10 per cent of their capacity," he said.

The world had been “incredibly generous” responding to the crisis in Aceh, but the wrong sort of aid was now being dispatched, Dr Waldman said.

With many injuries already attended to, the challenge now is to keep alive and healthy the hundreds of the thousands of people who have lost their housing, and this requires clean water, sanitation and food, not more medical facilities.

31 December 2004
AUSTRALIAN MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS - ALEXANDER DOWNER
$25 million to meet Urgent Health Challenge posed by Indian Ocean Disaster

As new information provides a clearer picture of the full extent of the Indian Ocean disaster Australia will continue to increase its support for the international relief effort. The enormity of this tragedy continues to grow. In Indonesia, estimates place the number of dead at 80,000 and the number of people who have lost their homes at more than one million. There are also reports of disease affecting significant numbers of survivors.

The Australian Government will contribute a further $25 million, which brings our total contribution to $60 million. This funding will support immediate action to deal with urgent public health concerns, including disease control, access to clean water and basic medicines. The greater part of the additional funds will be used for relief operations in Indonesia 's devastated Aceh province. 

The new funding will be allocated as follows:
1.  Urgent public health measures focusing on preventative health and water and sanitation. This funding will also support deployment of Australian health workers, water supply and sanitation technicians and equipment -  $7,500,000

2.  Supporting international organisations such as UNICEF, WHO and IOM, as well as local Islamic and women's organisation. Funds will be used for food and shelter, preventing and controlling communicable diseases and handling displaced persons - $7,500,00

3.  To fund logistics support in isolated areas, for example by small aircraft and boats, including through IOM and the First. Lt. Dwimawan, who was being treated at the Teuku Umar military resort hospital at the time of disaster.The army officer, who was suffering from malaria and typhus and had been in the hospital for the previous 12 days, was told by his doctor to sunbathe to aid his recovery on Meulaboh's beach, which is situated next to the military hospital.

On that Sunday morning, while sunbathing, Dwimawan saw couples and families spending a perfect holiday on the beach. Suddenly, the earth shook. The earthquake was felt for about nine minutes. The sea receded for a distance of about two kilometers, prompting locals to pick up fish on the exposed seabed. Others even took pictures of the unique scene that they had never encountered before. Soon, Dwimawan saw a large wave forming on the horizon and people started moving onshore. The first wave hit an embankment near the military hospital, and alerted him that bigger waves might follow. He ran into the hospital to grab his belongings but it was too late. The second wave, much bigger, swept in and water quickly flooded the hospital. He swam away and managed to climb onto the roof of a nearby house. He then waited for the next wave. One thing was becoming clear to him: the water was getting higher with every wave. At some point, when he was moving to another house on higher ground, he managed to grab hold of a woman and her daughter, guiding them to a two-story house that was also occupied by dozens of other people.

"The only thing in my mind was to get as far away as possible from the shore," he recalled.

He said he had to be very careful when swimming or running to higher ground since every new wave brought with it house debris, motorcycles, boats and even a large palm oil tank. He finally reached the West Aceh council building where the water was about chest high. After the water had subsided, he walked to the West Aceh district military command, some three kilometers from the shore, where a number of other people had also taken shelter.

"I reached the district military office at about 2 p.m. and there I saw many people who were beginning to search for their families," said Dwimawan.

Sgt. Maj. Karyono, who was patrolling a beach area near Tjut Nyak Dhien Airport in the Kuala district, some 20 kilometers from Meulaboh, said the tsunami was horrible.

"The wave was as high as a coconut tree," he said.

He said that after learning that a tsunami had hit the area, p; World Food Programme (WFP) - $5 million 

Ordinary Australians helping as well - total tops $40 million in less than a week The four biggest Australian aid organisations have raised more than $41 million in less than a week, with the Australian Red Cross attracting almost half that amount. Starting the week with a target of $8.5 million, the figure reached more than $20 million by 5pm yesterday.Donations to many organisations started slowly, but began to flow more freely by mid-week. World Vision Australia has raised $9 million, CARE Australia attracted $7.5 million and Oxfam Community Aid Abroad $5 million. Between 11.30am and 1pm yesterday CARE Australia received 6100 calls from people wishing to donate. The organisation has now raised $7.5 million. The group's total includes many corporate donations, among them $1 million from the Pratt Foundation, led by the Visy Industries chairman, Richard Pratt, and $250,000 each from Qantas, Australia Post and Woodside Petroleum. "The new year is the ideal time for the corporate community to resolve to follow the example already set by the outpouring of support from the Australian people,"   Mr Pratt said. The amount donated to non-government agencies is about two thirds of the Federal Government's tsunami relief spending, which was raised to a total of $60 million yesterday. Aid agencies have been overwhelmed by the generosity of the Australian public, and phone lines have been constantly busy. Donations by individuals of up to $20,000 each have been made.

Fears Australian tsunami toll will rise - 22:07 AEDT Sat. Jan 1 2005
Prime Minister John Howard will lead an Australian delegation to an emergency tsunami summit in Jakarta as the death toll from the Indian Ocean disaster continues to rise. Nearly 120 Australians have been confirmed or are feared dead. The overall death toll from last Sunday's massive killer waves edged past 126,000 and the Unhe quickly ran further away from the shore and picked up a little boy playing in the area. A wave came suddenly and he had to carry the boy in one hand while swimming.

"The boy was heavy, moreover I was wearing a military uniform. I was almost dead. I was traumatized. I'd rather engage in gunfights than be hit by a tsunami," he said. 

... and one more from the Telegraph, London
Jan 4^th The Sydney Morning Herald

With a badly damaged leg, Meutia was camped on the floor of her younger brother's house in Meulaboh on Thursday. When she felt the earthquake on Sunday she was concerned, but not too alarmed. Although her village, Cot Kembang, lies on the west coast of Aceh, only 100 kilometres from the quake's epicentre, the initial effects were not devastating. The ground shook violently, a few walls in the village collapsed and cracks appeared in the house floor.

But little did Meutia, 50, know that within hours she would be carried out to sea and 100 kilometres up the coast by waves twice the height of her house, and that she would spend a day and a night in the ocean. Half an hour after the quake, a fast-moving tide brought waves more than 2 metres high pounding her house. "Everyone yelled: 'The sea is flooding us, the sea is coming', " she said.

Meutia, her two grandchildren and children ran to the highest building they could find - the local mosque. But as quickly as it came, the sea suddenly retreated, leaving behind a 800-metre-wide strip of exposed sea bed covered with hundreds of flapping fish. Fearing more flooding, Meutia and her family waited in the mosque. Then another wave unlike the others came.

"It was huge, as high as the tops of the coconut trees, and it came so fast and then crashed down on the mosque. It was all destroyed - cement, wood, everything - and we were washed about, left and right. We couldn't stop ourselves. I had two grandchildren. I tried to hold on - but I couldn't hold them both." Her daughter, who was with her, also drowned as they were whirled around by the tsunami. Meutia clung to a timber beam, holding her five-year-old grandchild.

She held on tightly to her grandchild and the beam until they signalled to a fishing boat. It was then she discovered that she had been carried to Gunung Gruteh, a town more 100 kilometres from Meulaboh. Huddled with her were 30 others, most of whom had lost every member of their family. Outside the house, hundreds wandered the sodden streets trying to find relatives.

Bodies littered the Indonesian town days after the earthquake unleashed the tsunami that, according to conservative estimates, killed one fifth of the 50,000 population.

"There are lots of bodies everywhere, maybe trapped in buildings or under the mud or the trees. But we just bury one or two bodies where we can," said Nurjamin Samsinar. "We might even dig a little hole and bury them here," he said, pointing at the mosque's dirt forecourt.

Meulaboh is believed to have suffered the highest number of deaths per capita of any sizeable settlement struck by the tsunami. Some estimate that up to 40,000 from Meulaboh and its surrounds may have perished. Many of those killed in Sunday's tsunami have been quickly buried by people such as Mr Samsinar, a motorcycle repair shop owner. He said he was concerned about the danger to the city's water supplies with rotting corpsited Nations has warned it could reach 150,000. Around 100,000 Indonesians alone are believed to have been killed from the tsunami as it hit the western coast of Sumatra, closest to the epicentre.

The latest official Australian death toll is 11 but authorities hold grave fears for 107 people who were believed to be in the path of the tsunami. Another 950 Australians in the tsunami-affected areas have not been accounted for. The prime minister expressed on behalf of all Australians a sense of despair and sympathy for those who were waiting to find out what happened to their loved ones - and for those who will never know.

"My thoughts are very much with Australians who are still anxiously awaiting news of their loved ones and we can only begin to imagine their agony as each day goes by and they haven't heard. The greatest contribution we can make is to restore conditions of reasonable habitation in the countries themselves," he said.

Schoolchildren feel insult and injury from tsunami
Apriadi Gunawan, 
The Jakarta Post, North Aceh

Muhfarizal looked sad when his friends went to school while he stayed at a refugee camp in a field at Cut Meutia hospital in North Aceh. The 11-year-old sixth grader of SDN 5 Blang Cut elementary school missed school and stayed with his parents who now live at the refugee camp. Badly wanting to go back to school, the son of M. Yunus, did not know when he could join his friends as all of his books and uniforms were destroyed in the massive tsunami.

“I don't know when I can go back to school because all of my clothes and books vanished in the tsunami,” he said softly.

In Lhokseumawe, students and teachers of SMP 2 junior high school were in deep sorrow of losing their friend, Yunita Nanda, in the disaster. Mustafa, Yunita's father, came to the school on Wednesday and told them of the sad news. He said that when the tsunami hit Banda Aceh, the second-year student was staying at her uncle's house while her parents were staying at a hotel.

"There's no news of anyone from the (Yunita's uncle) house. We have tried to look for them but nothing. They could be dead,” Mustafa said.

Mustafa went to the school to return the money that Yunita was holding as she was the treasurer of her class.

“I came to return the money. My daughter was the treasurer of her class and in charge of the money,” he said.

The SMP 2 principal, Ramli Ismail, said so far, only one of his students died in the disaster, while 45 have to live in shelters after losing their homes in the quake-triggered disaster. Other children are luckier than Muhfarizal and Yunita. Triyani, a third-year student of SMP I Samudra junior high school, showed up for her examination wearing ordinary clothes. Just like Muhfarizal, all of her school textbooks and uniforms were destroyed when the tsunami hit the area. Triyani did not have to stay in the shelter as her house in Samudra district in North Aceh was not destroyed by the giant tidal waves. She was able to sit for the examination. Many other children showed up at schools wearing anything they could find.

"At first, I felt ashamed, but my mother insisted that I go to school and sit for the examination," said Triyani after her examination.

Rika, a third-year accounting student at SMK III Peusong Lhokseumawe, had no other choice but to go to school without her uniform.

"What can I do? All of my books are gone. It's also hard to study at the shelter. So I will just try to do my best for the test," Rika said. The local examination started on Monday and finished next week.

North Aceh Regent Teuku Alamsyah Banta said the administration would help students who were unable to sit for examinations and would hold the examination again.

"The examination will be held at the end of this month at the latest," he said.

He added that the massive disaster, which in North Aceh mostly took the lives of women and children, was understandable if some children could not attend schools or examinations. However, he did not have detailed data on the number of school aged children who were victims of the disaster. The administration is currently being assisted by dozens of university students from the country's various provinces to provide detailed information on the victims, including their ages. According to data, over 1,800 people died and almost 700 are missing in North Aceh alone.

"We predict that the number of school aged children is high, but we're still working hard to get the exact number," he said. 

At least 1,000 teachers missing in Aceh, 50% of schools destroyed

JAKARTA (Antara): At least 1,000 teachers have been reported missing in Aceh and over 50 percent of school buildings devastated by last week's tsunamis, an official said on Wednesday.

"Provisional data shows that about 1,000 teachers are missing and approximately 140,000 elementary school students and 20,000 junior high school students have been left with nowhere to study," Director General of Elementary and Secondary Education at the Ministry of National Education Indra Jati Sidi said.

Indra said that by Jan. 20, emergency education facilities would be ready. He explained that, based on initial data, 914 elementary school buildings, 155 junior high school buildings, 67 senior school buildings and 15 vocational schools were devastated by the tsunamis. Due to the lack of facilities, the government has erected 2,000 tents and deployed 1,000 teachers from North Sumatra and nearby areas to support the emergency learning activities, he said.

"The emergency schools will be set up in 95 locations near the refugee camps," he added. (**)

Tsunami victims tell of their fight for survival
A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post
Young Ichsan Yusdarli was preparing his fishing net on a beach in Kuala district, Nagan Raya regency, some 20 kilometers from Meulaboh, on that fateful Sunday morning.

As the 14-year-old was tidying up his net, he felt the earth suddenly shake as the area was rocked by powerful earthquake. The junior high school student fell to the ground. He saw the sea recede for a distance of one or two kilometers, and he saw fish struggling to survive on the now exposed seabed.Confused, Ichsan quickly grabbed some fish. However, far on the horizon, he saw something that he had never seen before.

"I saw three tall, black men coming out of a palace and they were approaching fast. I was scared. I ran as fast as I could to the mainland and headed to the nearest mosque for safety," recalled Ichsan, an eyewitness and survivor of the deadly tsunami.

A similar experience was shared by a military officer First. Lt. Dwimawan, who was being treated at the Teuku Umar military resort hospital at the time of disaster.The army officer, who was suffering from malaria and typhus and had been in the hospital for the previous 12 days, was told by his doctor to sunbathe to aid his recovery on Meulaboh's beach, which is situated next to the military hospital.

On that Sunday morning, while sunbathing, Dwimawan saw couples and families spending a perfect holiday on the beach. Suddenly, the earth shook. The earthquake was felt for about nine minutes. The sea receded for a distance of about two kilometers, prompting locals to pick up fish on the exposed seabed. Others even took pictures of the unique scene that they had never encountered before. Soon, Dwimawan saw a large wave forming on the horizon and people started moving onshore. The first wave hit an embankment near the military hospital, and alerted him that bigger waves might follow. He ran into the hospital to grab his belongings but it was too late. The second wave, much bigger, swept in and water quickly flooded the hospital. He swam away and managed to climb onto the roof of a nearby house. He then waited for the next wave. One thing was becoming clear to him: the water was getting higher with every wave. At some point, when he was moving to another house on higher ground, he managed to grab hold of a woman and her daughter, guiding them to a two-story house that was also occupied by dozens of other people.

"The only thing in my mind was to get as far away as possible from the shore," he recalled.

He said he had to be very careful when swimming or running to higher ground since every new wave brought with it house debris, motorcycles, boats and even a large palm oil tank. He finally reached the West Aceh council building where the water was about chest high. After the water had subsided, he walked to the West Aceh district military command, some three kilometers from the shore, where a number of other people had also taken shelter.

"I reached the district military office at about 2 p.m. and there I saw many people who were beginning to search for their families," said Dwimawan.

Sgt. Maj. Karyono, who was patrolling a beach area near Tjut Nyak Dhien Airport in the Kuala district, some 20 kilometers from Meulaboh, said the tsunami was horrible.

"The wave was as high as a coconut tree," he said.

He said that after learning that a tsunami had hit the area, es left lying around. Hundreds are believed to have been carried out to sea and, unlike Meutia, have not returned, so their bodies may have washed up far from Meulaboh or will have been buried in tonnes of mud.

Soldiers sent into Meulaboh on Wednesday reportedly buried 3000 bodies. Most were not identified, photographed or fingerprinted. Even at the hospital, doctors said they were unsure how many bodies they had collected. Seventy per cent of buildings in Meulaboh have been destroyed, leaving tens of thousands homeless, said to Teuku Achmad Dadi, the district chief running the town's aid and missing person's centre. With no electricity or telephone lines, and the closest city 100 kilometres away, Meulaboh has received almost no aid. Several injured survivors queuing for the hospital's meagre medical supplies mimed eating and held out their hands.

"Please help us; give us food," one man said.

On Wednesday the Indonesian Navy dropped off some food and medical supplies, but that seems to have had little effect in a city on the verge of starvation.

Vanished: villages, bridges swept away - January 1, 2005
The Washington Post 

Airborne military patrols scouring the most inaccessible sections of Aceh province have discovered that entire swathes of land have been inundated and roads, villages and bridges have vanished. Officials now estimate that more than 100,000 people may have perished in the region, and they have described the scene as catastrophic. The toll is likely to climb even higher because so many affected areas are still out of the reach of search and rescue operations.

"The scale of devastation is huge, bigger than imagined," said Emil Agustiono, a government official helping co-ordinate the Aceh relief effort.

In Meulaboh, south-east of the provincial capital Banda Aceh in north Sumatra, rescuers reported that lagoons had formed where communities had disappeared. Officials feared that 40,000 of the 120,000 residents of Meulaboh and the area around it could have died. The district is about 96 kilometres from the epicentre of Sunday's undersea earthquake. The force of the tsunami swept the sea to the foot of mountains 1.5 kilometres inland, according to those who surveyed the area. Mangled cars litter streets and fishing boats are strewn on top of other debris. The city's maroon-domed mosque remains standing.

The first survivors were airlifted from Meulaboh to Banda Aceh late on Thursday. One woman, Epayani, 31, said the tsunami surged over the town moments after the earth tremors stopped. "I heard the sound of the wave," said Epayani, who uses only one name. "It was very loud. Imagine hearing the sound of a volcano erupting."

And while governments and international agencies work on an unprecedented tsunami recovery effort, in Aceh basic needs are still barely being met. Indonesia announced yesterday it would host an international tsunami summit next Thursday, aimed at garnering more emergency aid for the region and to plan reconstruction needs. Distribution centres are being established at Medan on Sumatra, south of Aceh, and at U Tapao, a Thai air base used by the US during the Vietnam War. The Indonesian Health Ministry reported it expects further increases in the death toll as officials struggle with the lack of infrastructure in Aceh province.

At least 500,000 people were displaced and 100,000 homes destroyed in Aceh, officials said.A major highway to towns on the west coast is impassable, and there is no access by land. Many local government officials were killed in the disaster, and authorities said others were missing or too traumatised to function. Officials said the Jakarta Government would send 300 workers from various ministries to replace them and re-establish government services.

Oliver Hall, head of the United Nations disaster assessment and co-ordination team in Indonesia, said local officials were "clearly in a state of great shock" and that "there's huge devastation in Banda Aceh and along the west coast".

"There's no extra water available," he added, warning that volunteers must bring their own provisions to the region. "There's no communication equipment available. There's no extra food available. It's a wasteland."

Mr Agustiono said: "In Meulaboh at night, it is completely dark, and the electrical grid will take three months to fully restore. In Calong, a town north of Meulaboh, only 5000 of 15,000 people were reported to have survived," he said.

In Banda Aceh, hungry crowds jostled aid workers who tried to deliver biscuits to relieve hunger. Some drivers dared not stop.

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