SINGKIL OFFICIALS - PADANG BOATS ARE HELPING THE BANYAKS

Government disaster staff in the tiny south Aceh port of Singkil told foreign doctors that the Banyaks did not need more medical aid right now. Intrigued by this we checked with the Bupati's adjutant. He said: "Some boats from Padang are looking after the people and more are coming. We think the doctors arriving by land should go up to the north where things are very bad."

Captain Pili phoned in last night. He needed to talk. After a quick repair job to the bow, the Electric Lamb has been helping the village people retrieve corpses that are now drifting into the islands. They buried 38 people yesterday and it was ghastly work. Most troubling are the human heads that are turning up on the beaches at high tide.

Northerly winds are bringing with them a gruesome reminder of how vast this catastrophe is and how far we have to go before the communities in this shattered region can hope for anything like a normal life.


Electric Lamb was holed forward after hitting a log in the Banyaks
Photographed above in Sibolga after repairs were completed