Quake aid trickles in

A member of a Taiwanese rescue team uses a sensor to detect any sign of life from rubbles of houses in Yogyakarta yesterday. The death toll from the earthquake that rocked Indonesia's main island of Java on May 27 has risen to 5,100. PHOTO: AFP

As the death toll from Saturday's quake passed 5,100, foreign rescue teams and international aid workers fanned out across the quake zone in central Java, distributing much-needed food, water, tents and tarpaulins.

But ongoing power cuts hampered rescue work, and fresh rains as night fell spelled more misery for some 200,000 people made homeless by the disaster. Some of them expressed anger that help was not reaching them more quickly.

"The government does not have any willingness to help," said Hariyantini, a housewife living in a village near the city of Yogyakarta.

On the roads to Bantul, the district hardest-hit by the 6.3-magnitude quake, and to Yogyakarta, desperate people clutched signs reading "please give aid" and held out buckets to collect money from passers-by.

Another sign read "Where is the pemkot?", or local government.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who visited quake survivors on Monday, acknowledged aid was slow to arrive.

"We have to manage this well. I ask the local governments to be more diligent and more active," he said.

His government declared a three-month state of emergency in the zone, where wooden beams from collapsed houses stuck up like toothpicks, and broken ceiling tiles and bricks littered the ground.

Survivors -- too terrified to return home as hundreds of aftershocks rattled the region -- hung out washing on lines strung between trees, or spread what little clothing they had left on blue tarpaulins they used for shelter.

Adding to their fear, Mount Merapi -- a volcano north of the quake's epicentre -- became increasingly active Monday, belching clouds of hot gas and ash as lava trails ran down its slopes.

Vice President Yusuf Kalla said the government had allocated 75 billion rupiah (eight million dollars) for emergency aid.

And the relief effort got a much-needed boost as Yogyakarta's damaged airport was reopened, allowing humanitarian aid flights to arrive.

More international rescuers landed in the devastated region, including a 20-strong search and rescue team from Taiwan and an 87-member Malaysian rescue team, which headed out of Bantul in a convoy.

"I heard there are no more bodies trapped in the rubble," team commander Ahmad Zailani told AFP, explaining that his team hoped to help construct temporary housing for survivors or clear some of the rubble.

Hospitals overwhelmed with five times their normal patient load begged for more medical staff and supplies to treat the thousands of injured who overflowed from their wards, raising fears of the spread of disease.

"Waste management in the hospitals is now critical. There is human waste everywhere. The situation is quite serious," said Unicef spokesman John Budd.