Tsunami death toll hits 166,320<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Health raised the country's death toll from the
\nDec. 26 tsunami to 166,320 on Wednesday, pushing the total number
\nof people killed in the disaster around the region above 225,000.<\/p>\n
A Health Ministry statement said the new figure was based on
\nthe latest reports from the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra,
\nwhich were directly in the path of the killer tsunami spawned by
\na magnitude 9 earthquake the day after Christmas.<\/p>\n
The new figure put the global death toll from the tsunami
\ndisaster at 226,566, although this number continues to rise as
\nmore deaths are reported around the region.<\/p>\n
Doti Indrasanto, a director in the ministry's health affairs
\ndepartment, said the sharp increase came after tens of thousands
\nof people previously listed as missing were confirmed dead by
\nofficials on the ground.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Health had previously given a figure of 95,000
\ndead, while the Ministry of Social Affairs had put the death toll
\nat about 115,000 and said on Tuesday it would stop giving new
\nupdates.<\/p>\n
Officials concede that, given the extent of the disaster,
\nexact numbers for Indonesia's death toll are likely to remain
\nunclear and perhaps may never be known.<\/p>\n
Indrasanto said that Health Ministry statistics had previously
\nlisted 77,000 people as missing. Now the ministry says only 6,245
\npeople are missing.<\/p>\n
"We have cross-checked this information and it is correct,"
\nIndrasanto told Reuters.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Health also said there were about 617,000
\nrefugees in the country because of the tsunami, an increase of
\nabout 12,000 on its previous figure. --Reuters<\/p>",
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