Tsunami Toll Tops 175,000, New Threat Warning
2 hours, 19 minutes ago World - Reuters
By Simon Gardner
GALLE, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - Asia's tsunami death toll soared past 175,000 Monday as Sri Lanka confirmed thousands more dead, while fears re-emerged over the safety of aid workers in Indonesia's shattered Aceh province.
Denmark said it had information "imminent" terror attacks were planned against aid workers in Aceh, where U.S. and other foreign troops have joined relief teams clearing rubble from the Dec. 26 disaster which killed 115,000 in that province alone.
"We have received information from sources abroad that somebody would be planning an attack today," Danish Foreign Ministry official Niels Erik Andersen told Danish radio.
Indonesia's foreign minister dismissed the report as "unfounded rumor." But it reignited fears that aid workers might become political targets in Indonesia, which has seen both a separatist rebellion in Aceh and deadly bomb attacks targeting Westerners blamed on an Islamic group linked to al Qaeda.
U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz urged political opponents in both Indonesia and Sri Lanka -- facing a separatist rebellion of its own -- to put aside their differences and concentrate on relief work.
"Hopefully they will realize on all sides that the stakes that they are fighting for are relatively trivial," he said on arriving in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan officials said another 7,275 people were now known to have died in the Dec. 26 catastrophe, taking the national total to 38,195. The jump was not due to the sudden discovery of more bodies, but rather a backlog of figures from remote areas.
In a quick visit to a small village near Galle, in southern Sri Lanka, Wolfowitz clambered over rubble to reach a group of women waiting outside an elementary school.
"We are very sorry about what happened. The whole world wants to help you, my country especially," said Wolfowitz, who is touring the countries worst hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami.
Sri Lanka announced a reconstruction drive to build 15 new towns on its southern and eastern coasts. The government will help people rebuild in safe areas, or simply construct new towns.
"We were not prepared at all ... to face a disaster like this," said President Chandrika Kumaratunga. "The people of this country faced it effectively, they are in a position to rebuild."
Some Sri Lankans were already rebuilding, defying a government ban to put up houses and hotels close to the shore.
"I'm worried about my family but I'm also worried about the future of my children. This is my business. How else will I protect and feed my children?" said Ranjith Premakumara, 28, rebuilding a guest house just 30 meters (yards) from the beach in the southern town of Paiyagala South.
HOPE FOR ACEH
Relief work rumbled on in Indonesia's Aceh, and one senior international aid official said the province was rebounding so well from the disaster that emergency assistance could wind up fairly quickly.
"I think we are fortunate that things are not as bad as we feared," said Patrick Webb, chief of nutrition at the United Nations (news - web sites)' World Food Program (WFP).
"Malnutrition is not widespread. Diseases are not rampant yet," he said in the Acehnese capital, Banda Aceh.
"They are fortunate that there has been this massive response, which will make recovering a lot faster than it ever has got a chance of in Darfur for example, or Afghanistan (news - web sites)."
In Banda Aceh, monsoon rains flooded tsunami-scarred streets as overloaded drainage ditches ceased working. While the half of the city that took the worst damage from the wave remains largely closed, shopkeepers who did open reported good business.
"Even if it happens again, it's just fate. We'll face it. All of our customers were happy to see us open," said Shugino, 49, sitting on a plastic chair in front of his restaurant.
Jakarta officials promised to overhaul the country's relief program amid fears mismanagement and corruption might divert some of the aid dollars pledged by donors around the world.
Information Minister Sofyan Djalil said the reorganization would include a "credible" oversight scheme to monitor the huge sums earmarked for Indonesia, long ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
Indonesia is expected to receive the bulk of more than $7 billion from governments, corporations and individuals pledged for tsunami aid.
BODIES AND GRIEF
For many of those affected, however, the tsunami remained a story of bodies and grief.
In Thailand, Prime Minister Goran Persson of Sweden -- which lost hundreds of people -- visited a Buddhist temple turned mortuary with his Norwegian and Finnish counterparts, Kjell Magne Bondevik and Matti Vanhanen.
"I'm impressed and I'm also extremely humbled because they're doing a very difficult job here under difficult circumstances," Persson said.
The temple houses hundreds of corpses from nearby Khao Lak resort which forensics experts are trying to identify, a crucial step for families left without a body to grieve over.
Thailand saw more than 5,300 people killed in the tsunami, half of them foreign tourists, and tens of thousands of bodies around the region may never be recovered.
In Europe, families struggled in legal limbo as they seek to unlock bank accounts, release assets and ensure life insurance is paid for those lost in the disaster.
Carina Fabretat, who works with Swedes affected by the tsunami, said official death registration was important even for people who had accepted that their loved ones were gone.
"They need to end it by getting a death certificate," she said. "Until they have a name on a piece of paper they still have hopes."
175,000
Moderators: Alyrium Denryle, Edi, K. A. Pital
175,000
Lest we forget
Wow, this is quite a way to look at it:
"Even if it happens again, it's just fate. We'll face it. All of our customers were happy to see us open," said Shugino, 49, sitting on a plastic chair in front of his restaurant.
"On the infrequent occasions when I have been called upon in a formal place to play the bongo drums, the introducer never seems to find it necessary to mention that I also do theoretical physics." -Richard Feynman
I know foreign PM's and such bitching about what isn't being done to help, particularly by the US (or not helping enough), but I think it is indicative that much of the world is at war, recovering from one or worrying about one. I honestly see most nations worrying about their own problems, be that war, terror or whatnot. Sorry to be the cynic.
Really, it's just miserable.
On the bright side, as mentioned in other threads on this topic, individual citizens' donations are having some impact though. (as long as they're not misappropriated *sigh...)
Really, it's just miserable.
On the bright side, as mentioned in other threads on this topic, individual citizens' donations are having some impact though. (as long as they're not misappropriated *sigh...)
