Survivors fight to stay alive

Reduced to fighting over wild bananas and coconuts after a tsunami ravaged their homes, survivors jostled for supplies as the first ship carrying aid docked near the remote West Aceh town of Calang today.

Junaidah, 48, a villager who lost her daughter and three other relatives in the tsunami disaster, said she walked five miles to receive urgently needed clothes, food and medicine.

“The refugees in the hills were fighting for bananas. We just cannot wait anymore,” said Junaidah, one of about 2,000 villagers who greeted the arrival of the Indonesian military ship.

After the tsunami, Junaidah, who uses one name, took refuge in the hills and used anything she could find for shelter. Residents couldn’t seek assistance from elsewhere because bridges collapsed and roads were swallowed when the tsunami struck.

Calang lies about 30 miles north of Meulaboh, one of the first towns hit by the tsunami that is estimated to have killed at least 150,000 people across south Asia. Local officials say nearly 400 died in Calang and some 4,000 were injured.

Food aid was air-dropped on Calang on Monday – the first to reach the town since the tsunami.

Today, tsunami victims clambered over the wreckage of their homes to plead for more supplies. Indonesian marines held them back as they fought, begged and clamoured for clothes, water and rice.

“If you keep quiet, I’ll give it to you,” an Indonesian marine barked as he tried to parry the outstretched hands.

A US Navy helicopter circled above, dropping rice and other supplies from the ship.

Djahri, the relief coordinator, said tents were the most urgently needed item because some 32,000 people have been left homeless by the disaster.

Grateful as she was for the food, Junaidah said she just wants to flee the flattened town, whose streets are now a barren landscape of mud and silt littered with coconut husks.

“I need to get out. I need to find out what happened to my family,” she said.