Indonesia: Tsunami lessons help speed aid response to Java quake

By Eric Unmacht

Jakarta/Yogyakarta_(dpa) _ Private cars, ambulances and even buggy-style Indonesian bicycles delivered the sick and injured to overwhelmed hospitals Monday in Yogyakarta.

Hospital staff were worried about infections, as hospitals entered their third day of unsanitary conditions and gravely injured patients continued to languish in hallways and parking lots.

Doctors said they were running low on supplies and hoped the promised medicine and equipment from organizations like the Red Cross and USAID would arrive soon.

"We have only enough natural gas to last the day," said a hospital spokesman at Muhammadiyah Hospital in Yogyakarta, which was treating 858 patients.

Despite the scenes of devastation that still characterize most of the areas hit by Saturday's 6.2 quake on Java, there were signs that aid had finally begun to flow into the devastated region along roads and from airports.

While UNICEF airlifted collapsible water tanks, tarpaulins, family tents, cooking sets, and recreation kits for children, the World Food Programme began distributing tons of high-energy biscuits to the worst-hit areas of Bantul and Klaten.

A senior epidemiologist for the World Health Organization was arriving to lead the monitoring of the threat of measles and diarrhea and the International Organization for Migration began loading its trucks in Yogyakarta with tons of food, water and medical supplies to be distributed to the worst-hit areas.

"I expect we will have 30 trucks operating by the end of the day today, some of which will transport supplies to the district capitals and others which will be used to distribute these items to the villages," said IOM logistics expert Ronnie Bala, a veteran of the emergency response in Aceh and Nias, in a statement.

"It is clear that the government agencies have learned many lessons from responding to the tsunami, and they understand the importance of coordination and how to deliver materials in a timely manner," he added.

Citing lessons learned from the Asian tsunami, key differences with the Aceh disaster and preparations for an eruption from the nearby rumbling volcano Mount Merapi, many aid workers were expecting a speedy response to the recent quake on Java island.

Despite the devastation caused by Saturday morning's 6.2 magnitude quake that has left over 5,000 people dead and tens of thousands homeless, aid workers were optimistic that the response to Indonesia's latest disaster would be swift.

"There was already infrastructure, personnel, expertise on the ground and rolling," Pujiono, the regional emergency advisor for UNOCHA, the organization that coordinates humanitarian efforts, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "It's definitely speeding up the emergency response."

After the tsunami struck Aceh, leaving nearly 170,000 people dead, aid agencies and the government were often criticized for their response to the disaster as being too slow, bureacratic and often focused too much on assessments and not enough on action.

But besides the obvious difference between the scales of the disasters in Aceh and Java, UNICEF representative John Budd pointed out other key differences that might allow aid agencies to respond better in Central Java.

The immediate resources available near the disaster centre in Java, the most densely populated island on earth, has been crucial, Budd said. Aceh is a remote province at the tip of Sumatra, and before the tsunami had been largely cut off from aid organizations by the government's military offensive against Acehnese rebels.

The destruction in Yogyakarta was also very focused in location, according to Budd, with most of the destruction in a 30-kilometer area. The devastation in Aceh stretched across hundreds of kilometers.

Another major difference was the extent of the destruction of government infrastructure and personnel that play a crucial role in reconstruction.

"Government leaders were killed, offices demolished, electricity destroyed (in Aceh)," Budd told dpa. "The provincial capital wasn't able to coordinate. That is not happening here. There is a functioning, working provincial capital now. Internet, telephones, all that, we've got it."

Some point to the difference in action of the central government, which had just taken office before the tsunami and seemed shocked and somewhat paralyzed after the disaster.

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono flew to the quake area on Sunday, set up a temporary office in Yogyakarta with cabinet ministers and was touring the badly-hit area of Bantul on Monday.

Vice President Kalla declared a state of emergency for three months, and announced the government was allocating about one trillion rupiah (131.67 million US dollars) from the state budget and international aid, and aimed to complete reconstruction of about 35,000 flattened houses within a year.

Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X said in order to help speed up the pace of aid, he would bypass local officials, who in Indonesia are often accused of corruption, and give the relief assistance directly to the victims.

"As of mid-day today (Monday), I have decided to distribute aid directly to the scene in the quake-hit areas. It will no longer be via district or mayoralty offices," Hamengkubuwono told Antara. "The bureaucratic procedures were making it slow."

However, for tens of thousands of victims set to stay another night under tents, tarps and in makeshift shelters, aid was still not coming fast enough.

"We have nothing," said Suahip Hadi in Bantul district. dpa mc eu jh