United Nations agencies called on Monday for field hospitals, medicines and tents to be rushed to Indonesia within days as the global relief effort to help tens of thousands of earthquake victims gathered pace.
In Geneva, UN and Red Cross agencies met to try to coordinate the huge mobilisation, which has drawn contributions from Beijing to Washington, London to Sydney.
Food, medical supplies and makeshift shelters, along with doctors, nurses and technical experts, were pouring towards the stricken region on Indonesia’s main island of Java.
But, as survivors braced for a third night in the open in pelting rain and the injured spilled out of overcrowded hospitals, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called for better coordination.
“Good coordination is needed,” he told a news conference in Yogyakarta, the main city in the disaster zone. “We have to improve coordination, both between the government and the regions, from one region and another, and coordination with foreign parties and non-governmental organisations.”
Volunteers and foreign rescue teams started distributing emergency rations, clean drinking water, tents and hygiene kits.
More than 5Â 100 people were killed, many thousands more injured and as many as 200Â 000 left homeless when the 6,3-magnitude quake struck on Saturday.
“Our priorities are very much in health, hygiene and water,” UN Children’s Fund spokesperson John Budd told Agence France-Presse.
Elisabeth Byrs, a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian coordination office, which coordinated the Geneva meeting, said the Red Cross was ready to deliver 10Â 000 tents. But “more will be needed”, she warned.
“The most urgent needs to be delivered within three days are three field hospitals, with a capacity of 100 beds each, medical supplies, mostly for orthopaedic treatment, generators, tents and shelter items,” she told AFP.
The UN has set up a coordination centre at Yogyakarta airport to organise the flow of help.
International agencies have maintained a heavy presence in Indonesia since the December 2004 quake and tsunami left 168Â 000 dead in Aceh province.
That relief effort, the world’s biggest ever, was sharply criticised after inappropriate supplies were flown in and bottlenecks hampered delivery.
The UN’s top emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, said he expected the aid effort to be faster now, partly because the zone was easier to reach than Aceh.
“This time I think it’s going to be easier because Java is not as remote as Aceh,” he told CNN. “I think it will start quicker.”
The UN’s World Food Programme has begun distributing emergency food rations in the worst-hit districts, enough to feed 20Â 000 people for seven days, while the International Organisation for Migration is handing out 35-tonnes of food, water and medicines.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies jointly appealed for $9,79-million.
The relief operation moved forward with the reopening of Yogyakarta airport, which had been damaged. Five aid flights arrived late on Sunday and more were en route on Monday.
Among aid promises so far have been $5,5-million from Britain, $5-million plus food, medical aid and tents from Saudi Arabia, $4-million each from Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, $3,8-million from the European Union, $2,5-million from the United States and $2-million from China.
Japan, which has already sent two medical teams and donated about $10-million, as well as emergency supplies including tents, generators, blankets and water purifiers, agreed to deploy its military to help.
Australia also sent medical teams and supplies. Prime Minister John Howard promised additional aid on top of an initial $3-million donation to the International Red Cross.
France also despatched doctors and technical experts — a 40-strong rescue team left late on Sunday on a flight carrying relief.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Paris was ready to send an emergency hospital and more specialists were taking off on Monday.
The United Arab Emirates sent a 39-strong rescue team, including specialists armed with hi-tech equipment.
Pakistan — engaged in its own massive reconstruction effort after a quake last October claimed more than 73Â 000 people — sent tents, blankets, food and medicines. — AFP