Eighteen people still missing after tidal waves

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)