Helicopters bring help to shattered province

HELP finally came from the sky yesterday for Indonesian villages washed flat by the tsunami a week ago, but no amount of aid could stop the loss of life.

Starving people besieged US and Indonesian military helicopters carrying food and clean water that managed to land for the first time along Sumatra’s north-west coast.

More than half of the 129,817 known victims of the killer waves perished there.

“I can’t count how many bodies I have seen here,” said Zurhan, a bulldozer driver trying to clear Banda Aceh’s main parade ground, who wore a wool sweater over his head to filter out the stench.

“Look at the garbage. I’m sure there are many more there.”

UN officials said it could be two more weeks before some stricken communities were reached, giving dehydration, disease and hunger time to add their own toll.

UNICEF said reports were coming in of children starting to die of pneumonia in the area, where officials said so many were dead in one city it would be abandoned as a ghost town.

In places near Banda Aceh, capital of north Sumatra’s Aceh province, wild scenes meant aid deliveries had to be aborted.

“A few helicopters have tried to land in the coastal villages outside of Banda Aceh but mobs on the ground desperate for the supplies prevented them from landing,” the UN World Food Programme said.

In Sri Lanka, which lost some 30,000 citizens, nature twisted the knife as torrential rains flooded refugee camps.

“We already lost our homes. We came here, then the rains came and took away our bundles, everything we had left,” said GK Sambasivam, aged 65, dozens of whose relatives are missing.

The US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, now anchored off Indonesia’s Sumatra island, boosted aid operations.

“A major change has been the arrival of the American ship with helicopters which have been able to reach the west coast,” said Michael Elmquist, head of UN disaster relief in Indonesia.

“The logistical situation is looking a lot better than it did a couple of days ago. Things are improving slowly.”

Captain Larry Burt, commander of a helicopter air wing on the Lincoln, said he had seen bodies floating 20 miles out to sea.

His flights are part of the world’s largest post-war aid operation, with e1.5 billion pledged so far, battling a logistical nightmare to deliver aid to some 5 million people.

“The carnage is of a scale that defies comprehension,” said US President George Bush, who also sent 1,500 troops to help in Sri Lanka.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is due to visit Indonesia on Thursday, where he will probably issue a world appeal for more relief at an international aid conference.

Forty countries lost nationals in addition to the 13 directly hit as far away as East Africa. India lost 12,700 and the 5,000 killed in Thailand included many tourists, mainly European.

UN health officials say disease could kill maybe 50,000 more.

More than 100,000 people are living in temporary shelters and camps in Indonesia alone, many suffering from diarrhoea, fever, respiratory infections, headaches and stomach problems.

In Banda Aceh, capital of north Sumatra’s Aceh province, tsunami water was only now draining off to reveal the full extent of the horrific destruction and yet more bodies to count.

Fires burn around the clock to clear mounds of wooden debris, but the smoke cannot hide the smell of death pervading the city that was home to more than 300,000 people.

At least there, people tried to restore normality, which Mr Annan said could take a decade after the “largest disaster we have had to deal with.”