The last dead bodies

Even until now, 17 days after the calamity there are still many dead bodies. Yesterday five of us from AMURT went to collect the corpses as thiswas declared to be the top-most priority of the relief operation. Since theage of the corpses were already more than two weeks old, their condition nowis completely rotten. It makes it more difficult for us to evacuate themsince their limbs are easily falling apart and many of them are under atree, rock, mud or building. With this kind of work the government hasprovided us with very minimum equipment-- they gave us very thin gloveswhich easily break while evacuating the corpse. The same case also with the mask-it's just like a thin layer of tissue which is useless since the smellis so strong and penetrating it is as if we are not using anything. It made one of our volunteers vomit when he started this work. Anyway after much pressure from many volunteer groups including AMURT, the government has provided us with better equipment which we received yesterday. I felt that the government is overwhelmed by the extent of the crisis.



Dada Dinakara, Banda Aceh, Indonesia