Eighteen people still missing after tidal waves
JAKARTA (JP): Rescue workers yesterday were searching for 18 people who have remained missing since last Friday's tidal waves that have already left 201 dead and wrought uncounted destruction in East Java.
The calamity, triggered by a powerful earth quake in the Indian Ocean, befalling four regencies along the southeast coast of Java drew waves of sympathy from home and abroad.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin was the first head of state to send a consolatory telegram to President Soeharto, which also left untold damage to public facilities.
Jiang said he and all the Chinese people were shocked to learn the number of casualties and the scale of damage that the tidal waves wrought to the areas, according to a statement by the Chinese embassy in Jakarta.
The East Java Red Cross has supplied 2.5 tons of rice, 10 boxes of noodles, Rp 500,000 (US$232) in cash and second hand clothes, Antara reported.
Survivors are badly in need of food, clothing and medicine. Many of them have moved to safer ground with few belongings since most lost everything when the waves struck their homes as they slept on Friday.
The provincial government has sent in Rp 10 million in cash and the navy 1.5 tons of rice. Relief aid was also streaming in from various provinces.
In Jakarta, Minister of Social Services Inten Soeweno's call for businessmen to spare their money for the victims was answered by timber tycoon Bob Hasan, who immediately wrote a check of Rp 1 billion.
The chairman of the Indonesian Forest Society, warned non- governmental organizations against making an issue of rehabilitation activities in the affected areas for their benefits.
Drastic course
In the worst hit Banyuwangi regency, local government spokesman Mas'ud Imra said that 1,189 people were injured, many seriously. They are now being treated at local health centers.
The government however refrained from decreeing a national disaster in the same way it avoided taking such a course in the last two major natural disasters in the country over the past two years.
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Azwar Anas, who visited the stricken area on Sunday, said there was no need to take such a drastic course.
"It's a major disaster but we don't see any reason to declare it a national disaster," Azwar said in Surabaya upon his return from Banyuwangi.
An earthquake in Lampung, last February killed 200 people and destroyed substantial public facilities, such as roads, bridges and irrigation systems.
Tidal waves that swept Flores Island in East Nusa Tenggara in December 1992 killed over 2,000 people.
In both cases, the government resisted public pressures to declare a national disaster, a move which its proponents argued would have facilitated government aid and relief operations.
The tidal wave that struck Banyuwangi for about five minutes had destroyed most fishing facilities and practically paralyzed economic activities along the shore lines.
As the victims were counting their losses, officials in Banyuwangi asked them to consider moving to an outer island under the state-sponsored transmigration program.
"The opportunity is wide open," said MP Widiyono who heads the local office of transmigration.
In Tulungagung, where the tidal waves caused relatively small losses in property, victims were reported to have begun rebuilding yesterday.
Tulungagung regency spokesman Bangun Harmanto put the total loss in the area at Rp 104 million.(pan)