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Quake victims need rapid relief

Once again, tragedy stricken Indonesia needs a quick outpouring of international aid. Last month's 6.3 magnitude earthquake killed at least 6,234 and injured 30,000. Another 200,000 to 500,000 - half of them children - are homeless. Emergency supplies have trickled in, but there is a vast shortage of everything: food, tents, medicines, doctors and nurses, trucks, generators, stoves, you name it. The international community needs to step up, and Indonesia needs to open up to effectively respond to this disaster.

Indonesia's government is better organized than it was in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and quicker to demonstrate it recognizes the pain its citizens are enduring. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono even made a show of sleeping the first night in a tent with survivors at the quake's epicenter on the southern coast of Java. But the government needs to follow that gesture with moves enabling relief workers to reach the victims and deliver aid. Indonesia needlessly worsened the suffering after the tsunami by restricting the movement of foreigners rushing in to help. Yudhoyono sent the right message this time by bemoaning the "lack of coordination" and calling for officials to be "more agile." That should at least encourage aid organizations to put more feet on the ground.

The $19-million in aid pledged immediately from the United States, Europe, China and Japan is a start. But much more is needed to treat the injured, provide drinking and bathing water and contain the public health crises stemming from widespread homelessness and injury. The United States, United Nations and Germany have the right priority in dispatching mobile medical teams. The United Nations said $100-million was urgently needed. The rapid flow of money after the tsunami was key to south Asia's recovery effort. That same model needs to apply this time.

[Last modified June 3, 2006, 06:17:44]