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'Cyclone Zoe buried 2 villages'
03/01/2003 08:59 - (SA)
Auckland - Solomon Islands authorities say they believe Cyclone Zoe buried at least two villages with a population of up to 700 when it devastated Tikopia Island, while criticism mounts about the slow pace of rescue efforts.
Six days after the cyclone ripped through Tikopia and nearby Anuta, no relief supplies have reached the remote Polynesian islands and no communication links have been established.
Although one patrol boat set off on Thursday night from the Solomons capital of Honiara and another two were due to leave on Friday, it was likely to be at least a week after the storm before anybody reached the islands.
Two of the vessels are Solomon Islands' patrol boats and the third craft has been hired by the Australian and New Zealand governments.
The vessels are carrying medical and shelter supplies and experts from international relief agencies, but there is no guarantee they can land at the harbourless islands, whose lagoons seem to have been destroyed in the cyclone.
About 3 000 people lived on the islands and two surveillance aircraft that had flown over them reported scenes of devastation.
An official with the Solomons National Disaster Management Office told the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation on Friday he believed two entire villages on Tikopia had been buried by sand.
The SMDC's Martin Karani told the radio station that, after carefully studying photographs taken by an Australian Hercules aircraft on Wednesday, he feared the villages of Ravenga and Namo had been virtually washed away.
Between 400 and 500 people were living in Ravenga and another 200 in Namo, said the radion network.
Nothing is known about the fate of the people in the two villages, which were built on a strip of land with a lake on one side and the sea on the other.
Government bankrupt after civil war
Although aircraft have flown over the islands, the rescue efforts have been criticised for being extraordinarily slow.
The Solomons government is severely hamstrung because it is bankrupt after a four-year civil war.
The effect of this was highlighted when policemen manning the two Solomons patrol boats did so only after demanding a special allowance.
Australia's high commissioner in the Solomons, Bob Davis, told an Australian television network he had taken up the issue with the Solomons government.
"There is, unfortunately, a growing history in the Solomon Islands of demands for extra allowances to undertake specific work and in relation to this particular response to the cyclone impact," he said.
However the governments of neighbouring Australia and New Zealand, with the resources and capabilities of providing much quicker relief efforts, have also been forced to defend themselves in cvonnection with their slow responses.
Australia's response was criticised on Friday after an official of aid agency AusAid said their assessment of aerial pictures suggested the situation was not as bad as believed and that there was no evidence of injuries or fatalities.
Leading Solomon's opposition politician Alfred Sasako said in a statement the AusAid statement was "insensitive and deeply insulting".
"How can you be so sure when you are flying at an altitude of between 500 feet (151m) and 1 000 feet?" he asked in reference to the height of the Australian surveillance aircraft.
A week's delay 'unacceptable'
In New Zealand, the Green Party's Keith Locke said delays showed an urgent need for co-ordination among Pacific countries in emergencies.
"It is not acceptable for Australia and New Zealand to wait days to send a surveillance plane.
"It's absurd that nearly a week after the cyclone we still don't know what casualties there are, nor the needs of the people."
And France, which has the closest naval base to Tikopia in New Caledonia, has been completely inactive with diplomatic sources saying there was deep confusion over liasing with Canberra and Wellington.
it was some other office's responsibility to make decisions on deploying French helicopter-equipped warships out of Noumea.
"We have not had any instructions," said one diplomatic source. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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