Indonesia tells foreign rescue teams to leave disaster-hit city

INDONESIA yesterday told foreign aid workers that their help was not needed in disaster-ravaged Palu and they should go home, frustrating relief efforts after a quake-tsunami killed more than 2,000 people.

Foreign teams were told new rules barred them from searching for the dead in hard-hit parts of Palu, where thousands are still missing as a result of the twin disaster on Sept 28.

Indonesia initially refused international help but Joko Widodo, the president, reluctantly agreed to allow overseas aid once the picture became clearer on Sulawesi island.

Foreign aid poured into the ravaged city of Palu where authorities believe 5,000 people could be missing and 200,000 survivors need food, water and other life-saving supplies.

But yesterday, urban search and rescue (USAR) teams were prevented from accessing parts of Palu, where thousands are believed to be buried underneath rubble.

Ahmed Bham, from Gift of the Givers, a South African charity. was told new rules barred search teams from playing any part in retrieving the dead.

They were told “‘all foreign USAR teams should make their way back to their countries. They don’t need them in Indonesia’”, he said.

“‘We’ve got experienced search and rescue teams here in Indonesia with really specialised equipment. I’d like to use them’.”

Their 27-strong team arrived in Palu three days ago from Johannesburg, but days of delay frustrated their wish to join the search for the dead.

“A lot of days were wasted where we could have assisted and used our expertise and skill,” Mr Bham said.

“It was just like, ‘you can’t work here, you can’t do this, you can’t do that’. It’s something we haven’t experienced in other major disasters.”

Tim Costello, from the charity World Vision Australia, said that aid was reaching survivors but “it is still, for us who are used to these crises, too slow”.