Signs of Recovery on Shores Battered by Tsunami
Date: 14-Jan-05
Country: INDONESIA
Author: Jeff Franks and Karima Anjani
Fears receded that diseases spread by contaminated water and other infections could kill as many people as the more than 150,000 who died in the freak waves on Dec. 26. Markets reopened and fishermen nervously cast their nets in the sea again.
But strains were visible in the unprecedented, much-vaunted global rescue effort.
Indonesia defended its controversial restrictions on the movement of foreign aid workers in northern Sumatran province of Aceh, the region worst hit by the earthquake but also racked by a decades-old separatist conflict.
Indonesian leaders sent out mixed signals in response to Western governments' interim freeze of debts owed by countries hit by the tsunami, while Sri Lanka said it might not go far enough.
The World Health Organisation said initial fears of epidemics were easing as most survivors now had access either to clean water or to water purification tablets.
"The risk of large numbers of fatalities from disease is beginning to fade... I do not think we are looking at potential death from disease to match the tsunami," spokesman Iain Simpson said.
Sicknesses spread by mosquitoes such as malaria were still a worry, as was the overall health of tens of thousands of people in outlying areas of Aceh where information was scarce, he added.
Indonesia said on Thursday restrictions on aid workers in Aceh were for their own safety, and voiced readiness to sit down with Aceh rebels to seek a ceasefire.
In Banda Aceh, officials said about 80 foreigners working for aid groups and media companies had already sought the official approval needed to work beyond the provincial capital and the other main city, Meulaboh.
"If someone is shot from a United Nations agency, the whole United Nations agency will withdraw," chief social welfare minister and Aceh chief administrator Alwi Shihab told reporters.
"Who will be responsible if a foreigner is kidnapped? The responsible party is us."
Jakarta has long been edgy about a foreign presence in Aceh, where separatists have fought the army for three decades for a homeland on Sumatra island's northern tip.
The rebels insist foreign aid workers are safe from them and have offered a ceasefire to help reconstruction efforts. Each side accuses the other, however, of starting clashes which threaten the distribution of aid.
MASS BURIALS
In a grim sign of progress, Aceh Vice Governor Azwar Abubakar said that by Thursday relief workers had buried 75,500 bodies from the disaster.
More markets opened in the provincial capital Banda Aceh, where excavators cleared debris and bodies from the streets.
To the west, across 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of ocean, fishermen in the Sri Lankan coastal town of Beruwela cast their nets for the first time since the tsunami, saying they had been too afraid to go down to the sea before.
Of the 158,000 killed across Asia by the disaster, more than 100,000 were in Aceh. More than 30,000 died in Sri Lanka, 15,000 in India and 5,300 in Thailand.
In Berlin, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told a news conference he welcomed the presence of foreign troops helping relief efforts.
Australia, the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, China, Spain, Pakistan, Japan and Switzerland all have forces in Aceh.
"You can rest assured that we welcome even... foreign troops. Their presence is based on our request," said Wirajuda.
On Wednesday, the Indonesian government had said all foreign troops should leave the country by the end of March.
After meeting Wirajuda, German Economy Minister Wolfgang Clement said there was a "great reticence" in Indonesia over the debt moratorium announced by creditor nations.
He said Indonesia was sensitive about its credit rating and did not want to do anything which called into question its ability to repay debts.
The 19 members of the Paris Club of sovereign creditors have agreed to an initial three-mo