Anger turns to despair for Indon quake survivors

The Straits Times, March 9, 2007


BUKIT TINGGI - Living in a squalid tent following earthquakes in Indonesia's Sumatra, Ms Seri Hartati says she may be forced to beg to feed her five children with no signs of financial help from the government.

Anger has turned to despair for some survivors of this week's quakes in West Sumatra province, many of whom were huddled in crowded tents with little food and few amenities.

They were also uncertain about their future after the quakes left them without jobs or money.

'I have no house, my husband is jobless and I have to feed my five children,' said 45-year-old Ms Hartati, one of 100 survivors packed in a tent about the size of a basketball court.

'I may have to rely on handouts. We have no savings,' she said, holding one of her small children.

West Sumatra was hit by a 6.4 magnitude quake and another measuring 6.3 on Tuesday that badly damaged 4,000 buildings and left thousands homeless.

An official at the National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Management in Jakarta said on Friday the quakes killed 72 people and seriously injured 504.

No blankets or toilets
Ms Hartati's aged parents, her brother, her sister-in-law and their six-month-old baby boy are also taking shelter under the blue tent. Her father, a 69-year-old former soldier, Mr Ripo, suffers from a heart problem and asthma.

Wearing an overcoat, Mr Ripo, said the government did not even supply blankets to them. 'There are also no toilets here, but there's electricity. And it gets chilly here at night.'

Outside the tent on Thursday evening, some women were cooking dinner - a simple meal of plain rice and instant noodles.

The victims' houses, many sitting on the edge of a cliff, had cracks in the walls. Some have been declared unsafe by the authorities.

At another evacuation centre in Bukit Tinggi, one of the hardest-hit towns, survivors said some supplies meant for them may have been diverted elsewhere.

'We received just two boxes of noodles today, hardly enough to feed 50 people here,' said a 52-year-old labourer named Mr Pian. 'We have not seen any infant milk, diapers and blankets.'

At night, they sleep on straw mats on a badminton court covered by an orange tent.

'I have no money since there's no work since the quake and on Thursday we had to bury my five-year-old nephew who died in the disaster.' Others said no doctors had visited them.

'There have been several cases of fever, flu and cough among the children,' said one elderly woman at a centre housing some 50 children, many of them running around with bare feet.

'No one has been immunised,' she said. -- REUTERS