A plane carrying a 44-member Chinese rescue team and five tons of medical supplies landed after midnight Tuesday at Adi Sucipto Airport in the central Java town of Solo where an earthquake has killed more than 5,000 people and left tens of thousands homeless.
The team, led by the China Seismological Bureau (CSB) deputy head Zhao Heping, is composed of rescuers, doctors and seismologists, according to a CSB statement.
A Chinese seismologist joined a five-member United Nations delegation dispatched to evaluate the extent of the disaster. They arrived in Indonesia prior to the rescue team's departure.
It is the fifth time China has sent rescue teams abroad to carry out international humanitarian work since 2003. The first team was sent after an earthquake in Algeria in May 2003.
Also on Monday the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) donated US$50,000 to its Indonesian counterparts.
The Chinese government has offered US$2 million to Indonesia and is considering providing more relief staff and materials.
Two embassy officials have been sent to assist any Chinese citizens in the area but there have been no reports of Chinese casualties, sources from the embassy in Jakarta said.
The earthquake measured 6.3 on the Richter Scale and the official death toll so far has been put at 5,136. The tremor early on Saturday was centered just off the Indian Ocean coast near Yogyakarta which is the former royal capital of Java. This is Indonesia's worst disaster since the 2004 tsunami.
Government figures stated that the number of injured was 2,155 but the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have said there were 20,000 injured and more than 130,000 homeless of which 40 percent were children.
Hospital lists of the dead carry the names of many children and older people who may have found it difficult to exit properties as they collapsed. Deaths among these two age groups appear to be disproportionately high among the victims.
The UNICEF said the first emergency airlift arrived early yesterday bringing water tanks, tents and tarpaulins to Yogyakarta.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released an emergency grant of US$50,000 for the second consecutive day to help the victims but said much more was needed to send additional food, medicine and other essential supplies.
Representatives of UN agencies as well as the international Red Cross and other aid organizations were meeting to coordinate a relief strategy before briefing donor governments on what types of assistance were needed. An emergency appeal by the global body is expected shortly.
The most urgent needs, according to UN officials actually on the ground, are generators, tents, three 100-bed field hospitals and medical supplies needed for treating broken limbs. Officials said they hoped to meet these requirements within three days.
(China Daily May 30, 2006)
