Tsunami death toll up, fear of epidemics

More than 70,000 people previously listed as missing in Indonesia are dead, the nation’s health ministry said, putting the worldwide tsunami death toll above 220,000 today, though the numbers still had to be confirmed.

The US, meanwhile, planned to scale down its military relief operations in Indonesia’s devastated Aceh province by the end of February, as a UN official said the world’s quick response to the catastrophe dramatically shortened the emergency phase of aid efforts.

The December 26 tsunami ravaged coastlines across 11 countries in southern Asia and as far as eastern Africa, devouring villages and ripping children from their parents’ arms.

Aid has poured into affected countries in an unprecedented global relief effort, and the UN praised the world’s response even as it cautioned that longer-term reconstruction aid would be needed as well.

“Usually we say the emergency phase is from three to six months. In this case, it will be much shorter. It may be only two months in nearly all places other than Aceh,” said UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland.

“Why is it so quick? It’s been the most effective response ever,” he said in an interview at a disaster conference in Kobe, Japan.

Meanwhile, stretched medical teams in the disaster’s epicentre of Aceh were trying to prevent outbreaks of measles, malaria, diarrhoea and other diseases.

They are “straining to stay ahead of a wide range of threats to a severely weakened, still disoriented and beleaguered population”, said Bob Dietz, the World Health Organisation spokesman in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh. “I still sense a precarious situation.”

But food aid has reached most of the tsunami victims in need, and focus was shifting to making sure they get healthy diets, including canned fish, cooking oil with added vitamin A and fortified biscuits, aid workers said.

Eager to show Indonesia will use international aid responsibly, and take a firm stand against corruption, foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda said the government had recently appointed the accounting firm Ernst & Young to track donations.

Foreign governments and international agencies have pledged some $4bn (€3.1bn) in aid to the region. Indonesia, regularly listed as one the world’s most corrupt countries, is expected to get the largest chunk.

“There is no need to be suspicious of Indonesia’s management of funds,” Wirayuda said. “It is in our interest that the money is managed in a transparent and accountable way.”