Earthquake survivors beg for aid

JAMPRIP, Indonesia — Homeless earthquake survivors living in rice fields and makeshift shacks begged for food and water under a blazing sun Monday as Indonesia's death toll rose to more than 5,000.

Soldiers began delivering bags of rice to village chiefs in the mountainous quake zone on the island of Java, but survivors called the aid meager and slow. The United Nations planned a global appeal, saying relief money was running low.

"We have 300 families in this village and have only gotten two sacks of rice," said Lastri, 27, holding a 5-month-old. "It's not enough."

Indonesia's Social Affairs Ministry on Tuesday raised the death toll to 5,427.

Thousands of people, including children and the elderly, lined main roads in the area of Saturday's 6.3-magnitude quake, holding out whatever containers they could find to hold donations to buy rice, oil and candles.

"Please give me something, I'm hungry," 7-year-old Sari told passing drivers, standing beside a group of children carrying banners that read "We have not gotten any aid" and "Help us."

A plane chartered by the U.N. children's agency touched down near the disaster area, and the United States, which pledged $2.5 million, said 100 military doctors and nurses were en route with surgical, dental and other equipment.

But rough roads in mountainous central Java and new cracks in the runway at the region's main airport hampered delivery efforts.

In Jamprip, a village of 300 families, Edi Sutrisno, 37, helped unload aid from a military truck — two bags of rice, nine boxes of dried noodles and two boxes of bottled water.

"It's the first we've gotten since the quake," he said. "Of course it's not enough for all of us, not even for a day."

A group of teenagers raced up to a slowing truck and managed to steal supplies off the back, but their excitement was short-lived.

"I thought it was food, but it was just soap and toothbrushes," said Andi Marwanto, 16.

The government said an estimated 200,000 people were homeless, most living in improvised shacks close to their former homes or in shelters erected in rice fields. Hospitals overflowed with bloodied survivors. Power was still out in much of the quake region, which covers hundreds of square miles.