Embassies told no foreigners among victims of tidal wave
Embassies told no foreigners among victims of tidal wave
JAKARTA (JP): The American and Australian embassies in Jakarta
yesterday received assurances that none of their citizens were
killed by the tidal waves which swept across villages in
southeast Java.
An official of the Banyuwangi regency, where the tidal waves
claimed the lives of 202 people, said that there were no
foreigners among the dead.
Wati, the official, recalled there were two Australians who
were injured but she did not know whether they had now left the
area or not.
John Milne, Public Affairs Chancellor of the Australian
Embassy in Jakarta, said that all Australians who were in the
area at the time survived. "No deaths are reported and all
surfers have been accounted for," he told The Jakarta Post.
He said the 19 Australians, 15 of whom were surfers on a G-
Land surfing tour, were staying at Plengkung village at the time
the tidal wave hit the area.
U.S. Embassy Press Attache Pamela Smith said she had not heard
of any Americans found dead in the incident. "We don't think
so...but we have sent some people to check out and they were told
that no Americans died in the incident," she said.
The embassy has not received further information, she said.
An earlier report by the Kedaulatan Rakyat daily, quoted by
this paper yesterday, suggested that 19 Americans and Australians
from among 31 who were staying at Plengkung, had been missing
since the tidal waves struck the area.
A Reuter dispatch from Canberra also quoted a foreign ministry
official as saying that 15 Australians had been in the area but
that they are all accounted for.
The surfers were part of a team sponsored by a clothing
company that was filming a promotional video. One of them was
Richard Marsh, a professional surfer ranked 16th in the world,
who is back in Sydney.
The Antara news agency reported yesterday that the disaster
has so far claimed the lives of 211 people in all of East Java
with Banyuwangi the worst affected. Nineteen people were still
unaccounted for, 2,228 were injured.
Search for the missing people is now focused on the coastline
and the Marines have sent a unit to help with the effort.
Red Cross
Meanwhile, E.B. Anderson, an official from the Geneva-based
Federation of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent
yesterday visited the stricken area, accompanied by Chairman of
the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Soesanto Mangoensadjito.
PMI said in a statement that 60 personnel from its branches in
Banyuwangi and Jember have already opened a public kitchen, a
first-aid post and have evacuated and searched for victims.
Meanwhile, an earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale
jolted Lampung, a province in southern Sumatra, but there were no
immediate reports of damage or casualties, officials said.
Siswojo of the Meteorological and Geophysics Agency said the
quake's epicenter was about 160 km southwest of Bandar Lampung in
the Indian Ocean.
He said there were no reports of tidal waves after the tremor
that occurred at around one o'clock in the morning.
The tidal waves in Banyuwangi last week followed an earthquake
measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale. (prs/pwn)