Transcript
2 October 2009
Interview - ABC AM
Subjects: Sumatra, Indonesia
TONY EASTLEY: The death toll in Sumatra is starting to climb, the United Nations puts the figure at 1100, although the Government in Jakarta places it at 770.
Perhaps in an indication of the size of the disaster, Australia will be sending help to Indonesia today, to assist earthquake-affected Sumatra, officials are also trying to contact Australians who may have been in Padang when the earthquake struck.
The Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith, joins us from Perth on AM this morning, Stephen Smith, good morning. Indonesia has said it needs help, what will Australia be offering?
STEPHEN SMITH: What we've agreed overnight is in addition to emergency supplies such as tents, tarpaulins, mosquito nets, water purification tablets and the like. We already have those pre-positioned in Indonesia. We'll be sending today an urban search and rescue team that'll leave Australia this morning. That'll be a 44-person team and that'll obviously directly assist on the rescue and recovery operation.
As well, we're sending a 10-person Defence Force engineering assessment team. That'll leave Australia today as well and that will give engineering advice on the rescue effort with collapse of large buildings and the like.
I think this reflects the scale of the disaster and the fact that Indonesia has made it clear, once President Yudhoyono arrived back home yesterday, that the scale of this disaster is such that no one country can manage it alone.
TONY EASTLEY: Do you think it's an indication of the size of the disaster, that they are now asking for Australian help?
STEPHEN SMITH: Yes, I do, I think...
TONY EASTLEY: That it was under-estimated initially?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, not so much under-estimated, I think that given where it occurred, given it occurred eight o'clock at night, Australia time, so in the evening it just took some time for the comprehension to start sinking in. But now we know that we're dealing with a very large human disaster, and a human disaster that unfortunately, Australians may be caught up in.
TONY EASTLEY: The search and rescue, the 10-person engineers, the tents, the tarps, will they be all arriving there today, and if so, what time?
STEPHEN SMITH: We want the urban search and rescue team to leave Australia today, just as we want the engineering assessment team to leave Australia today. They'll go in the first instance to Jakarta, so it's more likely that they'll get to Padang tomorrow, rather than today. As well as the engineering assessment team, we'll be sending an AusAID team, to start doing the medium term, humanitarian assistance assessments...
TONY EASTLEY: Like other assistance, will they be flying out of Richmond Air Base?
STEPHEN SMITH: They'll be flying out of Amberley and out of Darwin, and they're currently scheduled to leave some time this morning.
TONY EASTLEY: Now Stephen Smith, you mentioned that you're concerned about Australians in Padang, why is that?
STEPHEN SMITH: We had 13 Australians registered with us, through our Smartraveller program. We've been able to make contact with all but four of those. So despite intensive efforts by our officials, including a group of officials now on the ground in Padang, there are four out of 13 registered Australians, whom we haven't been able to make contact with.
But not all Australians register and our Embassy, our officials, have been working very hard over the last 24 to 36 hours, to try and make a judgement about how many Australians we think may have been in the area, chasing up a range of sources.
We think there could be as many as 250 Australians in the general area. We've been able to make contact with nearly 140 of those. So potentially we've got more than 100 Australians in the area, who we can't account for.
Now I don't want to be alarmist. Our experience in the past is that very many of these people are either elsewhere, or are not in harm's way, they just haven't made contact with friends or family. But we're working very hard now to try and track these people down, just to eliminate the possibility of Australians being involved.
I do make the point that to this stage, we've got no evidence information that any Australian has either been injured or killed, as a result of this terrible tragedy. But there are potentially a number of Australians out there and we do need to, and want to, track them down.
TONY EASTLEY: And wherever anyone could hear you mentioning about this, anyone knows any Australians who have flown back, should contact the authorities?
STEPHEN SMITH: What people should do, if they are worried, or think or know that friends or family are in the Padang area, they should make direct contact with them, and then report that into authorities. If they can't make direct contact with them, they should do likewise, and they can use the 1300 number, which is the cost of a local call, 1300 555 135, and that will help our officers to start hopefully reducing the number of Australians who we think might be there.
TONY EASTLEY: Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith, thanks for joining us this morning on AM.
STEPHEN SMITH: Thanks, Tony, thank you.
[END]
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