Indonesians turn to Facebook in desperate hunt for loved ones
Distraught Indonesians in grim search for family members
JAKARTA: Indonesians desperate to trace loved ones missing in the earthquake and tsunami that struck the island of Sulawesi are turning to social media sites like Facebook to aid their search. With the scale of the disaster still unclear, telecommunications patchy and some areas still out of reach, families are posting photos, descriptions of lost family members and contact numbers in the hope of learning more.
“Have you seen any of my family members in these photographs?” asks one user on one Facebook group with 6,843 members. “I want to know if they are safe there. I haven’t got any information on them until this moment. Connection is still cut off. Let me know if you see them.” Others are trying to help friends still in Palu, the city believed to be the worst-affected.
“Please help, anybody in Palu and areas near the city. Family members of my friend are still missing until now,” says one post asking for information about a father, mother and a toddler living in the city. Some users share information about Palu residents who have been evacuated to a safe area. A September 29 post gave the names of some 53 citizens who have been evacuated to an office of PLN-Indonesia’s state-run electricity firm-along with a plea for help. “Evacuees here are in dire need of food, water and electricity generator,” the post said. Some Indonesians turned to the page simply to offer support.
A user who appears to be from Lombok-an Indonesian resort island hit by a series of major earthquakes in July and August-had a message of solidarity. “Your sorrow is ours. Your wailing is ours. Hopefully dead victims are buried in the most beautiful place. Our prayers are always with you,” said the post from Eddie Moodmakerzz. While many still hope for updates from missing relatives, some appear desperate enough to offer instructions should their corpses be found. “If someone locates her dead body, please do not bring her to the mass grave because we will pick her up,” said a Facebook post, mentioning the person’s name.
In grim search
Standing on white tiles smeared with blood, Baharuddin looks absently at the bodies strewn across a hospital courtyard in front of him in Palu, Indonesia. “I have one child, he’s missing,” the wiry 52-year-old said. “I last spoke to him before he went to school in the morning.” He is looking for one small body among these dozens of corpses lying in an open courtyard at the back of the medical centre, baking under Sulawesi’s fierce tropical sun. Only one building separates a triage area for the living from this makeshift morgue.
It is a mosaic of yellow, blue and black body bags punctuated only by hands reaching up in rigor mortis. This police hospital in Palu has become a focus point for shell-shocked residents hoping for news of loved ones after the 7.5 magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami on Friday. The official death toll stands at over 800, but everyone knows that figure will only continue to rise. In a police tent, people clutching photos and passports ask after relatives. Outside an elderly woman-her head covered in a t-shirt to ward of the stench-crouched in the dirt and sobbed.
By midday yesterday, 320 bodies had been through the centre, hospital authorities said, but a stream of ambulances, police and army vehicles unloaded corpses with alarming regularity. Many people returned day after day to undertake the grim task of looking through the bodies. Amamsyah, who was searching for four missing cousins, said he was desperate for news. “I’ve been here three times, everyday,” Amam, 28, who like many Indonesians only has one name, told AFP. “I hope I find them-I’m going to fight to find them.” But it is a race against time.
The Indonesian authorities announced yesterday that they would soon begin to dispose of the bodies, a desperate bid to prevent a catastrophic situation from getting even worse. “Today we will start the mass burial of the victims, to avoid the spread of disease,” said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management. —Agencies