Indonesia struggled to cope with the scale of the earthquake disaster, but help was slowly starting to arrive for thousands of homeless survivors and injured who have overwhelmed hospitals.
A state of emergency was declared as the death toll from Saturday's quake on the main island of Java rose to nearly 5,000, and exhausted emergency teams clawing through the rubble continued to find bodies which families buried in makeshift graves.
Power blackouts and heavy rain overnight hampered rescue work and heaped misery on some 200,000 people made homeless in the disaster, many of whom faced spending a third night out in the open under tarpaulins.
On the roads to Bantul, the district hardest-hit by the quake, and to the main city of Yogyakarta, desperate people clutched signs reading: "please give aid" and held out buckets to collect money from passers-by.
Wooden beams from collapsed houses stuck up from the ground 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 epicenter -- 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 declared a three-month emergency period in the quake zone and allocated 75 billion rupiah (eight million dollars) for emergency aid.
The relief effort, spearheaded by volunteers distributing food, water, tents and baby kits, was boosted 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 disease.
"Waste management in the hospitals is now critical. There is human waste everywhere. The situation is quite serious," said UNICEF spokesman John Budd.
Budd said that United Nations agencies were trying to encourage people to stay near their homes to prevent makeshift refugee camps from forming which would create sanitation and water problems.
At Yogyakarta's Sardjito hospital, patients lay on mats in dirty hallways and outside corridors with only thin sarongs to protect them from the rain.
"The first thing we need is nurses during this first week. We must have them," the hospital's disaster team chief Sutaryo told AFP.
Medical teams from around the world began flying into Java on Monday in response to the appeal, with Australia and Japan sending doctors and nurses in addition to large cash donations.
Paris-based aid charity Medecins sans Frontieres has deployed a surgical team in the quake zone, centred on the lush green farming belt south of the ancient city of Yogyakarta.
"We have to get to the outlying areas, where the dead and injured have not yet been counted," said Vincent Cauche, Indonesia coordinator for the non-governmental organization Medecins du Monde.
"We presume that the injured there have not had access to health care facilities, as their wounds have prevented them from travelling."
Pakistan, which is still coping with the aftermath of a devastating quake last October that killed 73,000 people, sent a special flight laden with tents, blankets, medicines and food.
The quake was Indonesia's third major disaster in 18 months, following the 2004 Asian tsunami catastrophe that killed 168,000 in Sumatra and another quake that killed more than 600 people in Nias in March last year.
PHOTO CAPTION
A child carried by her mother in Bantul, Yogyakarta province of Central Java.AFP
Indonesia Struggles to Cope as Quake Toll Nears 5,000
- Publish date:29/05/2006
- Section:WORLD HEADLINES