From: ze@carson.u.washington.edu (Jose Magalhaes)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.portuguese
Subject: Indonesia Earquake Appeal - fwd message
Date: 15 Dec 92 18:48:57 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

From: rrk@hoqaa.att.com
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 12:55 EST
Subject: Indonesia Earthquake Appeal


**** Help  Flores Earthquake Victims *****

         in the name of East Timor


Flores is the island just west of Timor, and shares its Catholic religion 
and some of its Portuguese colonial history. The earthquake and tidal waves 
this week killed many times as many people as the massacre at Santa Cruz 
Cemetery last year. Reports put the earthquake death toll at up to 4,000. We 
need to support the survivors of both tragedies.

The East Timor Action Network/US is encouraging people to donate to the 
victims of the earthquake to show that although we oppose Indonesian 
government policy, we support the people of Indonesia. ETAN/US will accept 
contributions and forward them to an appropriate Indonesian non-governmental 
organization for the victims of the Flores catastrophe.

Tax-deductible checks to "WESPAC Foundation/Flores" should be mailed to
     East Timor Action Network/US
     P.O. Box 1182
     White Plains, NY 10602 USA
     Phone 914-428-7299   Fax 914-428-7383   
     Email cscheiner@igc.apc.org

We also encourage contributions directly to relief organizations, but by 
channeling it through ETAN (we will not take any of this money), you can 
help the people of East Timor as well as those of Flores. Below are extracts 
from news reports and appeals.

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Flores A Vast Cemetery

(Maumere, Reuter, December 14. By Menuk Suwondo)

A killer earthquake triggered treetop-high tidal waves that ripped infants 
from their mothers' arms and turned parts of Indonesia's "Isle of Flowers" 
into a cemetery, survivors said on Monday.

At least 1,226 people are confirmed dead and hundreds are missing after the 
quake, which measured 6.8 on the Richter scale, hit Flores island in eastern 
Indonesia on Saturday.

On Maumere's outskirts, survivors said tidal waves swamped their fishing 
village three times and swept many of the hamlet's 2,000 residents away in a 
hot gush of water. "The second wave was as high as a coconut tree," 
fisherman Patamu, 30, said. "The waves were hot, like lava."

Patamu, his wife and two children were swept out of their hut by the waves 
and thrown onto a hill where he joined other survivors to put up crude tents 
for cover. The hot waves of death took a 10-day-old girl named Marina out of 
her mother's arms. Miraculously, she was pulled from the swirling waters by 
a neighbour and restored to her mother.

Others were not so lucky. Observers on an aircraft passing over Babi island 
saw no signs of life among the fishing colonies ringing its once-pristine, 
now-mud-fouled beaches.

Johannes Uda, a teacher in a vocational school in Maumere, suddenly felt his 
legs giving way under him about midday on Saturday.

"I then saw everyone on the streets suddenly also going on their knees. I 
then realised it was an earthquake." Stumps of walls, with iron girders 
sticking out, and roads with deep cracks testify to the fury of the 
earthquake.

Tents have been put up outside the hospital to treat patients afraid of 
entering because of cracks in the walls. Lines are forming in the town at 
food distribution centres. Even drinking water is scarce at these centres.

Few cars are on the streets and people walk about in a daze, many searching 
desperately for their families. "I don't even know if they are alive," said 
a man pausing in his tearful search for his two children.

Rescue teams who searched the island for victims on Monday feared an 
epidemic among survivors. "We are badly in need of medicine, tents and 
volunteer relief workers," said Herman Gadidjou, aide to East Nusa Tenggara 
governor Hendrikus Fernandez.

Fernandez said the tents and medicine were needed to protect people from 
diseases like pneumonia, respiratory diseases and gastroenteritis, with the 
onset of the rainy season.

President Suharto ordered the navy on Monday to help in relief operations. 
Troops and civilians are also expected to boost the ranks of the rescue 
workers.

The tragedy was the latest to hit the earthquake-prone region. A series of 
tremors hit eastern Indonesia last year, killing at least 22 people and 
badly damaging property. The last major earthquake to hit the country was 
also in the east, in Irian Jaya in 1989. The quake triggered landslides that 
killed 97 people.

Until midday on Saturday, Flores was known mainly for its colourful Roman 
Catholic religious festivals, its coral and its flowers.

Now most of the flowers around Maumere have vanished. Only a few purple 
bougainvillea poke up from the rubble and dark brown mud.

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Toll Could be 4000 Deaths

(UPI, Jakarta, December 14)  Aftershocks rumbled through Indonesia's ravaged 
Flores island and nearby smaller islands Monday, rocking the region where 
more than 2,000 people have been confirmed killed by a devastat- ing weekend 
earthquake and accompanying tidal waves.

H. Fernandez, governor of East Nusa Tenggara province, Monday cited 1,584 
deaths in a report to the central government in Jakarta.

Hours later, officials confirmed 600 additional deaths on a tiny island 
located just off Flores island. One official said the islet had been "sunk 
for a short period of time" by the tidal wave that "swept and flattened 
everything ..." The Suara Pembaruan newspaper meanwhile reported the death 
toll could climb as high as 4,000.

"It even could be higher, as there still are many bodies and missing people 
to be found by rescue teams," one official told the newspaper. "The bodies 
were being found under scattered debris or after being wiped away by the 
tidal wave."

In another development, military commanders said soldiers would be deployed 
to Flores island - some 1,175 miles east of Jakarta - to rebuild destroyed 
houses. Officials have estimated about 40,000 residents were left homeless 
when their houses collapsed in the quake or were swept off by the sea.

Two aftershocks shook the Flores town of Maumere Monday morning, triggering 
more panic among people whose homes collapsed and are now living in plastic 
tents, the official news agency Antara said.

Rab Sukamto, director of the government-sponsored geology directorate, 
warned survivors "to remain on alert" for aftershocks. He said officials 
were sent to Flores with equipment to survey the source of the tremor and 
check for signs of more seismic activity.

The initial quake, which registered 6.8 on the Richter scale, shook islands 
in East Nusa Tenggara province shortly after noon Saturday, triggering tidal 
waves and collapsing thousands of houses, shops and government buildings. 
The quake was the most harmful in Indonesian history, an official said.

"I saw everywhere only scattered debris," said one villager who just 
returned home from outside the town of Maumere on Flores island. "It looks 
like just after a war." One official said more than 90 percent of buildings 
in Maumere were destroyed, forcing the homeless to move into plastic tents. 
Rescue workers continued searching for more victims under the debris of 
collapsed buildings.

The quake triggered a 80-foot tidal wave and sent sea waters as far as 1,000 
feet inland, sweeping houses and other buildings in Maumere and on the two 
islands on the northern coast area.

Landslides also occurred in several place on Flores, which is home to more 
than 1 million residents, mostly Catholics.

President Suharto on Monday expressed condolences to the families of the 
victims and ordered on officials "to immediately to begin planning the 
reconstruction of public facilities, such as schools and public hospitals."

State Secretary Murdiono told reporters that Suharto also called for 
immediate efforts to begin distributing supplies of food, clean water and 
medicine in the affected areas.

One survivor, Mohammad Salahu, told Jakarta's Kompas newspaper he saw about 
50 bodies stuck on trees on the tiny inundated island off Flores.

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Flores Quake Relief Effort

>From Alex Wijoyo, via PeaceNet

You may have heard from the news media that recently an earthquake has hit 
severely the Island of Flores, East Indonesia. The exact death toll rises 
day by day.

The Paroki-net, meaning "Parish-net" - a network for Indonesian students 
abroad, mostly Catholic, but is also open to Indonesian students of other 
religions - is making an appeal for money to help relieving the suffering 
people in Flores.

The Paroki-net (paroki@uiuc.edu) can channel your contribution. Checks or 
money order can be sent to the Paroki-net's Relief Effort Committee:      
     Mr. Teddy Setya      
     3307 Powelton Apt 3F      
     Philadelphia, PA 19104  USA

For accounting purpose, we ask you to report your contribution to: Mr. 
Parulian Sihotang (internet address: pxs29@po.cwru.edu). He will record your 
contribution and send you an acknowledgment upon receipt.

Thank you for your kind help.
     Sincerely, Alex Soesilo Wijoyo, S.J.
     West Side Jesuit Community
     220 West 98 St. Apt 4E, New York, NY 10025, USA
     aw@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu  (212) 678-1741 (Voice)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.portuguese