Number of missing in Aceh revised down<\/p>\n
Jerry Norton, Reuters\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
Officials here have slashed by 60 percent their estimate of the
\nnumber of people missing in Aceh province after the Dec. 26
\nearthquake and tsunami, because of better data collection.<\/p>\n
According to the latest numbers, 37,063 are now listed as
\nmissing from 93,458 early this week.<\/p>\n
A government disaster center statement issued late on Thursday
\ngave a count of 126,915 for those killed by the quake and
\ntsunami, almost 200 more than in a statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The change in the missing figure largely reflects
\nidentification of people who had been listed as missing but were
\nactually among those displaced when the quake and the tsunami it
\ntriggered destroyed their homes, a spokesman for the government's
\ndisaster coordinating operation said on Friday.<\/p>\n
The spokesman from Indo Pacific, which handles media relations
\nfor the relief effort, said since March 26 there had been a
\nconcerted effort to gather and collate identification details of
\npeople displaced by the disaster.<\/p>\n
Displaced persons \"now have to start giving their details and
\nregister their contact details ... and that's why the number of
\nmissing people has dropped significantly,\" said the spokesman,
\nwho declined to be named.<\/p>\n
More than 500,000 people were displaced by the disaster.
\nThough many now live in camps run by government or aid
\norganizations, others stay in ramshackle communities of tents and
\nshacks on hillsides or in forests, or staying with relatives and
\nfriends.<\/p>\n
For weeks, data updates have said \"it is believed that some of
\nthose previously thought missing are confirmed dead, are among
\nthe IDPs\" (displaced persons), or have left Aceh province\".<\/p>\n
Since December's Indian Ocean quake sent a tsunami crashing
\nonto the shores of Aceh in Indonesia's far northwest, smashing to
\nbits homes and buildings, estimates of the missing and dead
\nvaried widely, especially in the first few weeks after the
\ndisaster.<\/p>\n
The government then switched to a conservative approach in its
\ncount of the dead, listing only the number of bodies recovered
\nand buried. It has been less clear about how it arrived at
\nestimates of the missing.<\/p>",
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