Indonesia's tsunami death toll is approximately 100,000: Vice President
6/1/2005 14:48
Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla told the on-going international
donor's conference Thursday that the country's death toll from the devastating
quake triggered tsunami is approximately 100,000.
Indonesia earlier put the
death toll at 94,200 coupled with thousands more missing along the coasts of
Sumatra island, the seriously hit area in the disaster on last Dec. 26.
At
the opening of the Special ASEAN Leaders' Meeting on Aftermath of Earthquake and
Tsunami, Kalla said so far up to 1 million people remain homeless on Sumatra and
1 million people have lost their livelihoods.
Indonesian President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono earlier the day called for unprecedented relief efforts for
the earthquake and tsunami hit countries.
"Our response to this unprecedented
catastrophe must be equally unprecedented," he said in an opening speech in the
capacity of chairman of the meeting.
The disaster "proves once again that
humanity is frail and vulnerable to the forces of our natural environment and it
proves that no nation can survive alone," he said.
He also called for more
help to children in the affected countries whose lives were heavily affected in
the disaster and urged for the creation of a tsunami warning system for the
Indian Ocean.
Leaders or their representatives of 26 countries and
international organizations are attend the one-day special meeting to discuss
the massive relief and reconstruction efforts for the earthquake and tsunami hit
countries.
Xinhua
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