'Rainbow Warrior' joins Aceh relief

'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.