Aid starts to flow for quake survivors

YOGYAKARTA - International relief efforts picked up for survivors of the earthquake that killed more than 5400 people on Indonesia's Java island, with more than 20 countries now involved.

Planes carrying vital supplies from abroad reached the stricken region and the airport in Yogyakarta re-opened to commercial traffic despite a heavily damaged terminal.

The patient load subsided at hospitals in Yogyakarta but corridors were still crowded with the injured.

Relatives fanned them with pieces of cardboard to keep them cool in the stale, unpleasant air.

Suparjinah, waiting for her unnamed 4-week-old daughter's injuries to be checked, said the girl had been struck by debris when the family's house fell in as the quake struck.

"I'm very shocked. I was scared when the earthquake happened. My house collapsed and my neighbour died," she said.

Children and the elderly, who had a harder time scrambling from houses as they collapsed, were disproportionately represented among the dead and injured.

In the hard-hit rural area outside the city, Jumadi and his two teenage boys begged for money from motorists.

"Our village has many victims, houses are all destroyed and we have not received aid from the Government. This is [all] we can do. What else can we do," he said as his sons held up carton boxes containing some rupiah.

The quake's official death toll has reached 5427, according to the Government, and it has left more than 130,000 homeless by one estimate, many without shelter and short of food.

In one example of the effort being made to deal with the crisis, a plane carrying a 40-member Chinese medical team and five tonnes of medical supplies landed at Solo, 60km north of Yogyakarta province.

Government and aid groups say shelter and clean water are key.

The United Nations is shipping three 100-bed field hospitals, tents, medical supplies and generators this week, and UN officials say more than 20 countries have now responded to Indonesia's call for help.

The Government has set aside relief funds of 100 billion rupiah ($10.9 million) from now till August.

A year of reconstruction and rehabilitation will begin after August, costing the Government 1.1 trillion rupiah.

Vice-President Jusuf Kalla has said survivors will be given 200,000 rupiah ($33) each for clothes and household items, and families will get 12kg of rice.

People will also be compensated for damaged homes.

Up to 35,000 buildings in and around Yogyakarta were destroyed.

Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said doctors and medicines were being sent to affected areas to prevent outbreaks of diseases such as measles and malaria.

- REUTERS