Anti-malaria spraying begins in Aceh
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-14 20:52

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Masked workers with mosquito-killing spray guns began moving through refugee camps Friday in tsunami-battered Aceh province, trying to prevent an outbreak of malaria. Indonesia, meanwhile, said it is pursuing a permanent truce with rebels in the area, the worst-hit by the disaster.

Tsunami survivors walk among debris from the quake-triggered tsunami in Banda Aceh on the Indonesian island of Sumatra on January 14, 2005. [Reuters]

While the threat of cholera and dysentery is diminishing because clean water is reaching tsunami survivors in Indonesia, the danger of malaria and dengue fever epidemics is increasing, according to the leader of anti-malaria efforts in the region.

"Short-term, we're trying to prevent an epidemic," said Richard Allan, director of the Mentor Initiative, a public health group that fights malaria epidemics. "And it may already be too late."

The death toll from the Dec. 26 earthquake-triggered tsunami in 11 countries has topped 157,000. Two-thirds of the deaths occurred here in Indonesia's Aceh province.

Allan warns that 100,000 more people could die of malaria around Aceh if quick action isn't taken. A successful spraying effort would drastically minimize that risk.

The pools of salt water created by the tsunami have been diluted by seasonal rains into a brackish water, creating the perfect breeding ground for mosquitos.

A fumigation operation started Friday with a small team of sprayers planning to cover up to eight refugee camps around the provincial capital of Banda Aceh. The main spraying effort won't begin for at least two days, because most of the insecticide has been held up by bureaucratic delays in Jakarta, he said.

Poor health and tsunami-related stress has weakened the immune systems of the displaced people, leaving them abnormally susceptible to mosquito-borne illness, said Allan.

Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla, visiting Banda Aceh, said his government is working on a full truce with rebels who have been fighting off and on for an independent homeland in northern Sumatra for 30 years.

Exiled rebel leaders in Sweden called a unilateral cease-fire the day of the tsunami and have in recent days called for peace talks.

"We are not going for a cease-fire. We are making it permanently and we are working for that," said Kalla, who did not say whether negotiations already were underway.

Despite the talk about a cease-fire, the Indonesian government has insisted that foreign aid workers in Aceh be accompanied by army escorts — a move that relief groups say will hinder their work.

In Sri Lanka, more than 25,000 people displaced by the Dec. 26 tsunami left relief camps in the past 24 hours to return to rebuild their villages, the United Nations' refugee agency said Friday.

"Some want to return because their houses were partially damaged and some want to return to where their house was to be sure that they are recognized" as the owner, said Neil Wright, an official with the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees.

U.S. helicopters flew into eastern Sri Lanka Friday, ferrying some 30 tons of relief materials, including fresh fruits and vegetables.

"We're concentrating on the eastern areas where many people were stranded after their roads and bridges were destroyed," said Sri Lankan Wing Commander Senaka Dharmawardene, who is in charge of coordinating aid in the eastern region. "(The Americans) have been very helpful."

The tsunami killed 31,000 people in Sri Lanka and rendered 800,000 people homeless. Wright said more than 425,000 still remain in refugee camps.

Indonesia is sensitive over foreign involvement in the humanitarian effort, especially that of foreign troops, and reiterated Friday that it wants foreign troops out of the country by late March. However, the United States, which has thousands of forces in the region, said it has not been given any such deadline.

Foreign troops also have been flying helicopter aid missions to otherwise inaccessible areas and running field hospitals. Aid organizations warn that injured survivors living in hard-to-reach areas remain untreated nearly three weeks after the disaster.

A team of medical experts flown into Paya Seumantok, a village in Aceh, on Friday said many people had sustained wounds, lacerations and compound fractures.

"Untreated, a lot of the wounds had become horribly infected," Joel Salinikio of U.S.-based International Rescue Committee said in a release.

In India, aid workers complained that government officials were hampering their travel to the federally run Andaman and Nicobar islands — where 55,000 people are living in relief camps — and seizing their supplies for their own use.

One district official, who has since been recalled, took thousands of gallons of mineral water intended for tsunami victims and used it to bathe, said Basudev Dass, joint secretary of the Indian Cross Society.

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