'Rainbow Warrior' joins Aceh relief

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Part of the vast relief operation in Aceh is centered on Meulaboh, the town worst hit by the tsunami that submerged most of the west coast area, isolating survivors from assistance.

Joining other relief workers in Meulaboh, such as those from Singapore, the Doctors without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontiers, or MSF) organization is also establishing a base in this town where a third of its 120,000 population is feared to have perished.

Working with environmental organization Greenpeace, the Rainbow Warrior vessel departed Singapore on Monday with an MSF team and is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday in Medan, North Sumatra.

The ship will become MSF's logistic center.

MSF's head of mission in Jakarta, Sabine Rens, who has just arrived back from Aceh, said that there were many traumatized survivors on the west coast, many with wounds needing immediate treatment, "They need everything."

"We're trying to provide everything in one go," she told The Jakarta Post on Monday, referring among others to medical consultations involving both physicians and psychologists, and provision of water.

Currently the MSF team comprises 58 staff that includes 38 Indonesians working in Banda Aceh and other areas. It is also providing assistance at the Sigli Hospital in the Greater Aceh area. To help overcome sanitation problems MSF is helping to provide clean water and sanitation facilities through their mobile clinics.

On Monday MSF workers spent the night at the Lamno and Lampe Ngo villages on the west coast, which is currently hosting some 14,000 refugees.

"Eighty percent of the population is missing", a release from MSF said, quoting survivors. In Lamno almost all the wells have been contaminated with salt water, MSF said.