Indonesia quake not overwhelming disaster: UN

Yogyakarta (Indonesia), May 31: The Indonesian earthquake is not an overwhelming disaster for the government and the United Nations will play a support role rather than take the lead in aid efforts, a U N official said today.

Nearly 6,000 people were killed and some 130,000 made homeless when the magnitude 6.3 quake struck on Saturday, flattening whole villages south of the ancient royal city of Yogyakarta, 440 kilometres east of Jakarta.

U N quake team leader Charlie Higgins said many international aid agencies already working in the northern Indonesian province of Aceh, where the December 2004 tsunami left 170,000 dead or missing, had been able to divert resources to meet the immediate needs of the Java earthquake victims.

''But the role here is very different to Aceh. This is not an overwhelming disaster for the authorities, certainly not at a national level, but not even at a provincial level. So it's a question of (the U N) supporting, very much, their lead,'' he told Reuters in an interview.

Higgins said it was important that international agencies were able to return to their existing programmes in Aceh after the initial earthquake emergency phase, so that this latest disaster does not become ''another extra load''.

''For national authorities their concern will be to see that longer term they have the resources needed to move people from a situation of dependency on relief to one of dependent recovery,'' Higgins said.

With tens of thousands homeless, Higgins said the priorities at the moment were delivering shelter and water and ensuring there is adequate sanitation, but he said there was no immediate concern about disease.

''It's not typically of a concern in an earthquake. It's more of a concern in a highly developed area, where everybody relies on piped water and mains sewerage systems. Those don't exist in most of the areas here that are affected,'' he said.

''As long as the population is relatively dispersed then the chances of a real public health crisis emerging are pretty limited.'' Higgins said the United Nations would meet the government by this weekend to help it with a housing and recovery plan. He said at the moment only a third of the emergency shelter needs of survivors could be met.

''The important thing at this stage is that everyone should be accessed and I have heard that there are areas that possibly have not been accessed yet ... But I would expect within a couple of days all areas would have been reached,'' he said, adding that the medical needs of survivors had already been met.

Some survivors have complained about lack of aid and Higgins said there would be gaps in the delivery of relief, but there was enough ''coming down the pipeline''.

''There is probably still a need for more capacity to deliver things, but it's not likely to be the sort of heavy moving type trucks. It's likely to be the last point of distribution that is the weakest, actually to the level of the person who needs it,'' he said.

''Yes, it's not as quick as it could be. Yes, basically there is some possibility of short-term hardship, but basically everyone will receive the assistance they need.''

REUTERS

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