Ian Timberlake, Bantul – Desperate Indonesian quake survivors were still waiting for aid despite pledges help would come fast, as the rising activity of a nearby volcano fuelled fears of an eruption.
The death toll from Saturday's quake in Central Java province rose past 5,400, but the most urgent task was to get help to 200,000 rain-soaked victims, many of whom huddled under makeshift tents for a third night. Hopes appeared all but lost of finding any more survivors in the ruins after Saturday's 6.3-magnitude temblor.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited survivors camping out near the damaged Prambanan Hindu temple complex and pledged that food and medical aid would reach them soon "We are giving priority to the victims – those who are injured, the sick, those who need surgery and also refugees who lost their homes and other belongings," he told reporters at the compound, a UNESCO heritage site.
"We are prioritising the medical treatments to save as many lives as possible," the president added later as he toured a makeshift camp in hard-hit Klaten district east of ancient Yogyakarta city.
The Indonesian army deployed at least 2,000 soldiers to assist with relief efforts, Army Chief General Joko Santoso said.
Australia ordered more than 80 disaster experts and medical personnel to the worst hit areas around Yogyakarta, in what Foreign Minister Alexander Downer characterised as part of "a hugely expanded emergency response".
The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) expected to ferry in more than 40 tons of supplies on Tuesday, including seven tons of emergency rations and four portable warehouses to store food, spokesman Barry Came told AFP. Shipments also included tents, blankets, portable water treatment units and generators as aid flowed in from around the world.
The UN set up a coordination centre at Yogyakarta airport to organise the flow of help. But some victims grumbled relief was too slow and too meagre.
In Klaten and throughout badly-damaged Bantul district, beggars held cardboard boxes daubed with the words, "Asking for aid". "If we don't, how do we get money?" asked Budi, 18, whose box was empty as he waited for donations with a handful of other young men.
"Yesterday we got 40,000 rupiah (4.35 US dollars)," which villagers spent on cooking oil and food, said Wawan, 28, adding that government aid of three packets of instant noodles per family was not enough.
But the beggars slowed relief efforts as they put chairs, oil drums and stones in the road to slow drivers and ask for money. A stream of aid trucks was caught in a major traffic jam on the main highway, stretching some 10 kilometres (six miles), the Detikcom online news service reported.
Hospitals were anxiously waiting for more medical staff and supplies to treat the thousands of injured who overflowed from their wards, raising fears of the spread of disease in the wet and poor sanitary conditions.
Indonesia has struggled to cope with the scale of the disaster, as Yudhoyono acknowledged Monday. The social affairs ministry said 5,427 were confirmed to have died in the quake with some 20,000 injured. The Red Cross said 200,000 were homeless.
Adding to concerns was increased volcanic activity at Mount Merapi, to the north of Yogyakarta, which belched heat clouds and sent trails of lava running down its slopes, heightening fears of an eruption. Plumes of smoke rose some 900 metres (3,000 feet) into the air – nearly double the height of the previous day – and the area remained on high alert.
Scientists have warned that although the magma flow which forms a dome at the peak appeared to be weakening, the structure may collapse and spew out millions of cubic metres of rock and lava.
"Theoretically as well as statistically, there is a very large possibility that tectonic activities trigger or increase volcanic activities," Syamsulrizal, who works at Indonesia's national vulcanology office, told AFP.
The quake was Indonesia's third major disaster in 18 months, following the tsunami that killed 168,000 in Sumatra and another quake that killed more than 600 people in Nias last year.