Rescue Choppers Cheered in Aceh

Rescue choppers cheered in Aceh, children suffer
03 Jan 2005 11:31:22 GMTSource: Reuters(Adds detail on life returning to normal in Banda Aceh)
By Dean Yates and Tomi Soetjipto
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Jan 3 (Reuters) - U.S. helicopters shuttled the injured and the homeless, many of them children, out of some of the worst-hit parts of tsunami-devastated Aceh province on Monday, as reports surfaced of trafficking in orphans from the disaster.
Pilots skimmed low over flattened villages and jungles on the west coast of Sumatra island looking for signs of life, touching down briefly to collect the badly injured and fling out packages of food and water.
"They were ecstatic as we flew in. They were blowing us kisses. I think they were really amazed to see us, although some of the children seemed a bit spooked," U.S. Seahawk pilot Lt. Cmdr. Joel Moss told Reuters after his second mission.
"Yesterday was the best day of flying ever in my career. My mission is normally combat and search and rescue. We are picking up people, giving out food. I could do this for a year. None of us wants to go home."
Pilots described ragged columns of people trudging up the coast towards the provincial capital Banda Aceh, while others camped out above the high-water line.
Some had reached a village about 10 km (6 miles) inland where Moss said a huge 'H' had been laid out on the ground to guide rescuers, and about 400 people rushed out of the trees as they landed.
"All the villagers started coming out of the woodwork, telling us they needed help. They said there were a lot more wounded people further inland up in the mountains," he said.
Aid workers say some of the worst affected by the Dec. 26 quake and tsunami were children, who account for a large portion of the nearly 100,000 Indonesians killed.
Many of those who survived have lost their entire families.
CHILD TRAFFICKING
Indonesian officials said meanwhile that they had launched an investigation into unconfirmed reports of child trafficking in the wake of the disaster that wiped whole towns off the map.
"We cannot say that it has happened, because at the moment it is a chaotic situation. However, the ministry will investigate as we cannot tolerate such a thing," said Makmur Sunusi, a social ministry official.
The health ministry on Monday raised the Indonesian death toll by more than 13,000 to 94,081, eight days after massive waves swept across parts of Aceh province's coastal plain.
Banda Aceh airport was a hive of activity, with huge military transport planes taking off and landing, and choppers disgorging survivors.
A sea of tents with fluttering flags marking the bases for aid organisations, foreign military and U.N. agencies greeted stunned villagers, many of whom had never flown before.
"Without that helicopter we would still be walking. They saved us," Zainuddin, a 25-year-old farmer, told Reuters.
He had welts on his hands and feet and said his small village had been wiped out by the tsunami, along with four others nearby.
At villages where the injured were collected, dozens of starving survivors rushed to landing choppers, forcing air crews to fend them off and pilots to occasionally abort landings.
Returning from one flight, Jim Schulz, a photographer from U.S. magazine Stars & Stripes, said people were wrestling each other for food and running off with it after grabbing a box.
"It was an absolute mob," he said.
In Banda Aceh city, where as many as 30,000 of the pre-tsunami population of 300,000 are feared dead, there were signs of life returning to normal with a few street markets and even banks reopening and power and water restored in areas that had not been hit directly by the killer waves.
In one area, two elephants were put to work clearing rubble in the search for survivors and the dead.
The stench of death hung heavily in the air with thousands of corpses still littering the rubble of destroyed homes, shops and other businesses, adding to fears of disease. (Additional reporting by Muklis Ali in Jakarta)