INDONESIA: FOREIGN EMERGENCY AID ARRIVES FOR ACEH PROVINCE ONCE CLOSED TO FOREIGN AID WORKERS BECAUSE OF SEPARATIST INSURGENCY

Record ID: 648521

  • Title: INDONESIA: FOREIGN EMERGENCY AID ARRIVES FOR ACEH PROVINCE ONCE CLOSED TO FOREIGN AID WORKERS BECAUSE OF SEPARATIST INSURGENCY
  • Date: 31st December 2004
  • Summary: (W3) JAKARTA, INDONESIA (DECEMBER 30, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. SLV MILITARY AIRPORT; HERCULES TRANSPORT PLANES ON TARMAC 0.10 2. MV CREW FROM AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE WITH BOXES OF EMERGENCY AID; SLV SINGAPORE AIR FORCE HERCULES 0.24 3. SLV UNLOADING OF EMERGENCY AID; MV INDONESIAN TROOPS CARRYING TARPAULINS INTO PLANE; CLOSE-UP SCUBA GEAR AND EMERGENCY SUPPLIES ON TARMAC; SLV HERCULES BEING LOADED (6 SHOTS) 1.02 4. SCU SINGAPOREAN AIR FORCE PERSONNEL UNLOADING AID; SCU BADGE OF SINGAPOREAN AIR FORCE READING "DEPENDABLE"; SLV MORE LOADING (5 SHOTS) 1.30 5. SLV HERCULES TAXIING ON RUNWAY (3 SHOTS) 1.50 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 15th January 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JAKARTA, INDONESIA
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Reuters ID: LVA5W3HDOD9G1XKZVAZYQ14J8LY7
  • Story Text: Foreign emergency aid arrives for Indonesia's Aceh,
    a province once closed to foreign aid workers because of a
    separatist insurgency.

    Emergency supplies from Singapore, New Zealand and
    Australia began arriving for Indonesia's stricken Aceh
    province on Thursday (December 30, 2004), where more than 45,000
    people are feared dead after an earthquake and huge tsunami
    wave.

    Hercules planes from the air forces of the three
    countries arrived in the capital Jakarta, awaiting
    clearance to enter the stricken province.

    Countries around the world sent rescue teams, food and
    millions of dollars in aid to the hardest-hit nations of
    Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand to cope with the
    aftermath of the strongest earthquake in 40 years.

    As the world pledged 220 million U.S. dollars (USD) in
    cash and sent an international flotilla of ships and
    aircraft with hundreds of tonnes of supplies, history's
    biggest relief operation battled with the enormity of the
    task.

    The World Health Organisation estimated that as many as
    5 million people are not able to access basic necessities
    needed to survive.

    Contaminated water, ruptured sewage systems and
    mosquito-borne diseases now threaten those who survived
    Sunday's (December 26) monster wave, triggered by a 9.0
    magnitude underwater quake off the coast of the Indonesian
    island of Sumatra.

    The United Nations said it was preparing to issue what
    could be its largest appeal for donations in its history to
    cope with its biggest and costliest relief effort.

    Foreign aid workers have received the go-ahead from
    Jakarta to move staff into Aceh, a province of about four
    million people on the northern tip of Sumatra island, where
    a separatist rebellion has simmered since 1976.

    Aceh, some 1,700 km (1,000 miles) northwest of Jakarta
    and just 150 km (90 miles) from the quake's epicentre, is
    under civilian emergency rule as part of efforts to quell
    the separatist insurgency.

    Foreign aid workers had previously been barred from the
    province on security grounds. Authorities said the key
    areas targetted were health, food, water and sanitation as
    fears of epidemics within days across the region mount.

    The overall death toll in Asia surged past 80,000 on
    Thursday (December 30), four days after a wall of water up
    to 10 metres (33 ft) high spread out across the Indian
    Ocean.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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