TS: The Misunderstood: Before the Dawn Faded - versus - M83: Before the Dawn Heals Us

America your belly's too big\\

Tsunami death toll rises to more than 147,000
Touring the devastation, Annan asks, ‘Where are the people?’The Associated Press
Updated: 8:24 p.m. ET Jan. 7, 2005BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan described the devastation on tsunami-battered Sumatra island Friday as the worst he had ever seen, and authorities raised Indonesia’s death toll by 7,000, bringing the overall total killed by the disaster to more than 147,000.

Twelve days after the tsunami hit, Annan and World Bank President James Wolfensohn flew over the island’s west coast and later drove around the shattered coastal town of Meulaboh, where families picked through piles of rubble six feet high.

“I have never seen such utter destruction mile after mile,” a shaken Annan told reporters. “You wonder where are the people? What has happened to them?”

Hardest hit was Sumatra, which was closest to the epicenter of the 9.0 magnitude quake and where officials on Friday counted about 7,000 more bodies — most of rhem in Meulaboh, which had been cut off by washed-out roads — raising Indonesia’s toll to 101,318.

That raised the overall death toll from the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami to 147,531.

Ahmad Yani Basuki,a spokesman for the Indonesian military, said the sharp increase was largely due to volunteers helping to recover bodies. “There was an incredible spike in the death toll,” Basuki said. “A good deal of it was from Meulaboh.”

Death toll ‘will be much bigger’
With tens of thousands of people still missing and threatened by disease from the powerful waves that hit 11 nations, the United Nations said the death toll would keep climbing.

“I think we have to be aware that very, very many of the victims have been swept away and many, many will not reappear,” U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said in New York. “The 150,000 dead figure is a very low figure. It will be much bigger.”

Click for related coverage
Live Vote: Do you think tourists should stay away from tsunami-hit countries or visit to help their economies?
Congress to weigh global tsunami system

Security concerns for foreign aid workers emerged. The South Korean government asked its aid workers, some of them affiliated with Christian groups, not to engage in religious activities that could provoke Islamic radicals.

And in an apparent sign that U.S. relief agencies want to keep a lower profile, several trucks delivering supplies from the U.S. Agency for International Development removed large banners marking the source of the shipments.

Japan ordered nearly 900 troops to help with relief efforts, ordering ground and naval forces to leave next week for Indonesia and Thailand. Tokyo already has deployed three ships, 40 air force personnel and several teams of medical, rescue and forensics experts.

Turning money into relief
Annan’s visit came after he attended a summit of world leaders Thursday in Jakarta on how to turn one of history’s largest aid packages — nearly $4 billion in pledges — into food for the hungry and shelter for the homeless. Before traveling to Sri Lanka to tour damage there, he urged nations to come up immediately with their promised aid and to break with past practices of pledging much and delivering little.

SLIDE SHOW

• After the tsunami: Jan. 7
Aid reaches beleaguered survivors in Asia as the grim task of burying the dead continues after the devastating tsunami.

Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Sri Lanka, where more than 30,000 people died, to inspect tsunami-devastated areas in the south and hold talks on relief efforts.

“I had a chance to witness the destruction firsthand, and only by seeing it on the ground can you really appreciate what it must have been like on that terrible day,” he said. “But I am impressed to see people cleaning up, helping their neighbors.”

While some areas in Thailand remained scenes of total devastation, other Thai resorts were looking to the future. Cleanup on several beaches was almost complete, and tour operators were eager to get back to business.

“It’s amazing how fast things have gone back to normal. The Thais have done a brilliant job of organizing disaster efforts and getting things cleaned up,” said Peter Elsey, 48, an English tourist who lives in Singapore and owns a house in Phuket.

Elsewhere in Thailand, however, officials said more than 500 migrant workers were being deported for looting tsunami-damaged buildings. Maj. Vachara Sangvorayothin said an “army of Burmese workers are on a stealing spree.”

Little threat from radical group
In Indonesia, some aid officials were reviewing their security precautions after the arrival of about 80 members of a radical Islamic group. The group, Laskar Mujahidin, which is accused of having taken part in Muslim-Christian fighting in another part of Indonesia from 1999 to 2001, has set up a relief camp, saying it was there only to help.

“We are not here to fight. We’ve come to help. We’ve got no problem with the foreigners as long as they have no hidden agenda,” said Salman Alfarizi, the group’s leader.

Basuki, the Indonesian spokesman, said the group was not seen as a threat. “There is no need to keep a special eye on them,” he said.

While armed guards have been posted at a U.N. compound in Banda Aceh, officials said they were part of normal security for such a relief operation. But a U.S. official in Aceh said U.S. forces helping the relief effort were aware of Laskar Mujahidin’s presence and were keeping a close eye on it.