Sun, Jan 02, 2005 - Page 6 News List

Aftershocks rattle Indian archipelago

DESPERATE TIMES The survivors on the tsunami ravaged Nicobar and Andaman islands are not getting aid help as the threat of starvation grows

AP , PORT BLAIR, INDIA

Many villagers alleged relief was reaching the islands but was hoarded by local officials.

Relief operations on the remote archipelago -- which starts approximately 500km northwest of the quake's epicenter -- have been limited to Indian officials and local volunteers who have struggled to deliver tonnes of rations, clothes, bed sheets, oil, and other items, hampered by lack of transportation to the remote islands.

"We would like to be invited to join the relief effort, and to be part of any helicopter or boat trip to the area," an official with the Paris-based Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said at a news conference.

International humanitarian group Oxfam also requested entry. But Lieutenant Governor Ram Kapse, administrator of the federally governed territory, said no decision had been made. He said four Indian volunteer groups have been allowed to travel to the islands.

Sharath Babu, head of a group of amateur HAM radio operators, said his colleagues in the worst parts of Car Nicobar island reported "relief is not reaching the people. People are hungry."

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