Officials said Saturday the death toll had climbed to 1,649 with more than a thousand feared still missing in the seaside city on Sulawesi island.

More than 82,000 military and civilian personnel, as well as volunteers, have descended on the devastated city, where relief groups say clean water and medical supplies are in short supply.

After days of delays, international aid has slowly begun trickling into the disaster zone where the UN says almost 200,000 people need humanitarian assistance.

But hopes of finding anyone alive a full eight days later have all but faded, as the search for survivors morphs into a grim gathering of the dead.

At the massive Balaroa government housing complex, where the sheer force of the quake turned the earth temporarily to mush, soldiers wearing masks to ward off the stench of death clambered over the giant mounds of mud, brick and cement.

Vast numbers of decomposing bodies could still be buried beneath this once-thriving neighbourhood, the search and rescue agency said.

Two soldiers who are part of the search emerged from a ditch with a body bag sagging in the middle but looking too light to be a corpse — they said they had found the heads of two adults and one child.

“There are no survivors here. We just find bodies, every day,” said Sergeant Syafaruddin, from an army unit in Makassar south of Palu, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

Health fears

At the flattened Hotel Roa-Roa — where early optimism that survivors might be found faded as the days wore on — rescuers reviewed CCTV footage to get a sense of where the doomed guests could be buried.

In Petobo — another village all but wiped off the map — teams struggled to extract bodies from the muck, often dislodging limbs loosened by decomposition after more than a week exposed to the elements.

The search for survivors has not officially been called off.

But security minister Wiranto said the government had been discussing with local leaders and religious figures as to when the worst-hit areas would be declared mass graves, and left untouched.

“We have to make a decision as to when the search for the dead will end. Then, we later must decide when the area will be designated a mass grave,” he told reporters late Friday.

Concerns are growing that decomposing bodies could pose a ticking time-bomb for public health.

“Most of the bodies we have found are not intact, and that poses a danger for the rescuers. We have to be very careful to avoid contamination,” Yusuf Latif, a spokesman for Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, told AFP from Palu.

“We have vaccinated our teams, but we need to be extra cautious.”

Thousands of survivors continued to stream out of Palu to nearby cities in the aftermath of the disaster.

Hospitals remain overstretched and short on staff and supplies.

In Karawana village, nurse Iyong Lamatowa can offer little more than antibiotics and painkillers to treat those flocking to a makeshift clinic with badly-infected wounds.

Project HOPE, a medical NGO, said only two of its 82 staff in Palu had reported for duty since the quake.

“We still don’t know the fate of the clinic doctors, nurses and technicians who usually staff the clinic,” the organisation said in a statement.

A floating hospital run by the Indonesian navy and docked in Palu has already assisted with the delivery of four babies.

One named her child Suharsi, after the ship that helped deliver her baby — the KRI Dr Soeharso.

Short supplies

Survivors have ransacked shops and supply trucks in the hunt for basic necessities, prompting security forces to round up dozens of suspected looters and warn that they will open fire on thieves.

Hundreds of people Saturday rushed a truck transporting gas cylinders for cooking while a supermarket that opened for business under military guard refused to allow people inside, instead passing goods through the door.

A convoy of five hundred trucks laden with donated food, cooking oil and other essentials was on its way to Palu, agriculture minister Amran Sulaiman said in the devastated city on Saturday.

“Palu’s ordeal is grief for all of us and that’s why everyone is lending a hand to help,” he said.

The United Nations said Friday it was seeking $50.5 million “for immediate relief” to help victims.

Getting vital supplies to the affected areas has proved hugely challenging, with the number of flights able to land at Palu’s small airport still limited, leaving aid workers facing gruelling overland journeys.

Oxfam had sent water treatment units and purification kits to Palu and Swiss aid teams on the ground were providing drinking water and emergency shelter, both said in statements Saturday.

Indonesia sits along the world’s most tectonically active region, and its 260 million people are vulnerable to earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.

The 38-year-old confronted a terrifying scene: the city of Palu was in ruins, its damaged hospitals overflowed with injured patients and doctors treated the wounded outside in the cracked, rubble-strewn streets.

“I was so worried after the earthquake,” she told AFP. “I had so much on my mind.”

But then a miracle arrived out of the blue in devastated Palu port — the KRI Dr Soeharso, an Indonesian naval ship, kitted out with a top-rate medical clinic.

Dinar was rushed aboard and safely delivered her fifth child on Friday, a week after the twin disaster levelled parts of the city on Sulawesi island, killing more than 1,500 people.

“I am so happy, and lucky this ship was here,” she said.

Dinar named her newborn daughter Suharsi — a feminine adaptation of Soeharso, after the ship where she gave birth.

The warship was moored in Bali, at the ready ahead of an International Monetary Fund conference slated for the holiday island next week.

But it charted a course for disaster-struck Sulawesi after Palu suffered a double blow on September 28 that wiped villages off the map and left the coastal city cripplingly short on doctors and medical supplies.

‘I had to help’

A local doctor stepped up to deliver Dinar’s baby, and three others so far born aboard the Soeharso since the quake, when an urgent call went out for an obstetrician.

Dr Sasono, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, packed up whatever belongings remained after the quake and prepared to flee Palu with his wife and two children when he heard the appeal.

“I saw so many people in need of help coming to the hospital so I abandoned plans to evacuate with my family and wanted to assist,” he said.

“Of course, I was afraid of staying back to help when there were still tremors.

“It was my first time helping deliver a baby aboard a ship.”

One of the children born aboard died shortly after birth — compounding a tragedy for the parents who survived the trauma of the quake.

“We bought baby clothes and everything. But God had a different plan,” said the mother, Kusniran.

For Huzria, who gave birth to a healthy child Sunday on the floating hospital, it was the second miracle in as many days.

She had been on the beach as the quake hit — and watched in horror as the ocean began bubbling and receding before it crested into the tsunami that roared towards the coastline.

Many were too slow and died on the sand.

But Huzria, aided by her husband, managed to hobble to safety, reaching a hilltop from where they could survey the destruction unfolding below.

“Now, I can breathe easily,” the 33-year-old told AFP. “I am so happy.”

But while the young insist that sex is an unavoidable topic at the month-long meeting of world bishops, the subject has a low profile in the gathering’s 70-page working document.

The text notes “the beauty and depth of affective and sex life” that can be “disfigured” by “early sexual activity, multiple sexual partners, digital pornography, exhibiting bodies online and sexual tourism”.

It admits that the Church is no longer the moral compass it once was: “Sociological studies show that many young Catholics do not follow Church teachings on sexual morals,” it says.

But the fact that it mentions, once, the term LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) was too much for Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, a member of the synod’s permanent committee.

“There is no such thing as an ‘LGBTQ Catholic’ or a ‘transgender Catholic’ or a ‘heterosexual Catholic’ — as if our sexual appetites defined who we are,” he told the meeting on Thursday.

The working document, which will be the basis for a final text, notes the existence of LGBT “who wish to benefit from greater closeness and experience greater care by the Church”.

But Chaput objected.

“‘LGBTQ’ and similar language should not be used in church documents, because using it suggests that these are real, autonomous groups, and the church simply doesn’t categorize people that way,” he argued.

‘Prism of pornography’

Auxiliary Bishop of Lyon Gobillard said he had spent the summer listening to what young people had to say.

“As this synod begins, it is essential to remember how important it is to be able to speak freely about sexuality, for our youths and seminarians to be educated so that they can educate,” he told the meeting of bishops and Pope Francis.

“Too often, young people discover sexuality through the prism of pornography or the embarrassed silence of (previous) generations,” he said in his four-minute address.

He called for a change in mentality that would see sexuality and celibacy discussed in schools and seminaries.

Even Pope Francis has approved of young lovers living together provided it leads to marriage.

“Sexuality is no longer a taboo within the Church but it’s still difficult to talk about it in simple terms,” Gobillard told journalists before the synod.

Dealing with the controversial topic is complicated by the presence of bishops from cultures with more or less conservative attitudes to sexuality, including some countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

An international seminar on youth in September 2017 in preparation for the synod invited French sexologist Therese Hargot to speak.

‘Disconnected from reality’

“We took part in a series of conferences on young people and political engagement, social engagement, migrants… but not a word on sexuality, friendship, love, not one discussion about love!” she said in a book of conversations with Gobillard.

“Love and whatever you want to do, do it!” she said.

The official response from an unnamed Vatican official during the 2017 seminar was not encouraging, she added.

“We decided not to discuss these subjects because we didn’t want them to take over our conversations and heighten simmering tensions between progressives and conservatives,” he told her.

“Moreover, as people of religion, sexuality isn’t our topic,” the official added.

“Is the Church really so disconnected from reality?” asked Hargot.

“Church discourse sounds like a litany of prohibitions. And then the over-mediatised acts of some (Church) representatives discredits it in the eyes of the average person,” she said.

There was as much anger as there was disappointment over the string of sex abuse scandals involving priests, she added.

“Either the Church decides to shut up about these things, or it should decide to get educated!” said Hargot.

Gobillard recalled that when he entered the seminary in 1989, his teachers recommended having a cold shower or going jogging to assuage sexual urges.

Things have changed in some countries, like France, he said.

“Today we discuss sexuality in our training of young priests,” he said. But he admitted there was still a lot of work to be done in other countries.

Vietnamese embassies in foreign countries yesterday opened the books of condolence for former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam Central Committee Đỗ Mười, who passed away on October 1.

At the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan, many Japanese officials and friends expressed their sympathies over the death of the former Party General Secretary.

Among the mourners were Speaker of the House of Representatives Tadamori Oshima, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Hirotaka Akamatsu, Deputy Foreign Minister Norikazu Suzuki, Mie prefecture’s Governor Eikei Suzuki, Special Advisor of the Japan-Việt Nam Parliamentary Friendship Alliance Tsutomu Takebe, and Việt Nam-Japan Special Ambassador Sugi Ryotaro.

The Ambassadors of Laos, Thailand, and Bulgaria to Japan also paid tribute to the former Party leader.

Addressing the ceremony, Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Nguyễn Quốc Cường highlighted the great contributions of the former Party chief to the revolutionary cause of the Vietnamese Party, State, and people.

The former Party leader set a bright example for generations of Vietnamese to follow, he said.

Writing in the funeral book, Deputy Foreign Minister Norikazu Suzuki lauded the former Party General Secretary for his contributions to Việt Nam’s development, as well as his work towards co-operative relations between the two countries.

Also on Friday, the Vietnamese Embassy in Thailand held a minute’s silence for former Party General Secretary Đỗ Mười.

Thailand’s former Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai was the first to write in the condolence book.

Representatives of overseas Vietnamese in Thailand, as well as ambassadors and representatives of diplomatic missions of Cuba, Singapore, Australia, and Laos paid their last respects to the former leader.

In the Republic of Korea (RoK), Deputy Foreign Minister Cho Hyun; Lee Jae-Hwi, a representative of the ruling Democratic Party; and Lý Thừa Vĩnh (Korean name Lee Seung Young), a representative of the Lý family, paid homage to the former Vietnamese Party chief.

Delegations of foreign embassies in the RoK, including Russia, Laos, Qatar, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Panama, Kazakhstan, the US, the UAE, Cambodia, and the Ivory Coast, also came to the ceremony.

The mourners extended their deep sympathies to the family of the former leader, as well as the Party, State, and people of Việt Nam. The ceremony will last until Saturday.

Việt Nam’s permanent mission to the United Nations held a ceremony to pay tribute to the former Party General Secretary on Thursday.

A minute’s silence was also held and incense offered in his memory. Ambassador Đặng Đình Quý, Head of the Permanent Delegation of Việt Nam to the UN, recalled contributions the leader made during more than 70 years serving the CPV and the country.

Overseas Vietnamese, foreign ambassadors and representatives from delegations to the UN, international organisations in New York and local officials came to the mission’s headquarters to pay respect to the former Vietnamese Party chief.

Leaders send condolences

Leaders of China, Laos, Cambodia have sent their condolences to leaders of the Vietnamese Party, State, Government, National Assembly and the family of former Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam (CPV) Central Committee Đỗ Mười over his passing.

In a message to Secretary of the CPV Central Committee Nguyễn Phú Trọng, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and President Xi Jinping hailed Đỗ Mười as an outstanding leader of the Vietnamese Party and State, a close comrade and friend of the Chinese Party and people, who dedicated his life to the cause of renewal and socialism building in Việt Nam and made important contributions to the ties between the two Parties and States.

He expressed his belief that under the firm leadership of the General Secretary, the CPV, Government and people of Việt Nam will turn sorrow into power, continuing to reap new achievements in the cause of building socialism. China pledges to unceasingly foster the China – Việt Nam traditional friendship, deepen mutually-beneficial co-operation and promote the healthy and stable development of bilateral comprehensive strategic co-operative partnership, the message says.

Expressing profound condolences to the CPV Central Committee, the National Assembly, the Government and the Việt Nam Fatherland Front Central Committee; the Central Committee of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, National Assembly, Government and Central Committee of the Lao Front for National Construction spoke highly of Đỗ Mười’s huge contributions to national liberation and development over his 80 years of revolutionary career.

The deceased was lauded for reinforcing great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the two Parties, States and peoples.

The Central Committee of the Cambodian People’s Party expressed their wish that Đỗ Mười will rest in peace in a message to the CPV General Secretary.

In a letter sent to CPVCC General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Raul Castro said he was saddened to learn of the death of the former Party chief.

As a close friend of Cuba, comrade Đỗ Mười had contributed to consolidating the friendship between the two countries, he said.

Raul Castro extended the deepest sympathies to Party General Secretary Trọng and former Party General Secretary Đỗ Mười’s family.

President of Cuba’s Council of State and Council of Ministers Miguel Diaz Canel also cabled condolence messages to Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and Acting President Đặng Thị Ngọc Thịnh.

The Government and people of Cuba always respected Đỗ Mười’s contributions to the development of the long-standing friendship between the two countries, he said.

Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi expressed her sympathy to PM Phúc while President Win Myint extended condolences to Acting President Thịnh.

They highly valued former Party General Secretary Đỗ Mười’s outstanding leadership and great contributions to advancing the political, economic and social position of Việt Nam in the regional and international arenas.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai sent messages of sympathy to PM Phúc and Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Phạm Bình Minh.

The Thai leaders praised the former Vietnamese Party chief’s great contributions to Việt Nam’s Đổi Mới (Reform) process, and laying a firm foundation for the strategic partnership between the two countries.

Other condolence messages came from Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, and President of Japan-Việt Nam Friendship Parliamentary Alliance and Secretary General of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan Toshihiro Nikai to PM Phúc and President of the Việt Nam-Japan Friendship Parliamentarians’ Group and head of the Party Central Committee’s Organisation Commission Phạm Minh Chính.

Deputy PM and FM Minh also received a message from Japanese Foreign Minister Kono Taro.

In their letters, the Japanese leader praised former General Secretary Đỗ Mười as a talented leader who significantly contributed to national development and promoting the Việt Nam-Japan relationship.

In a message to Party General Secretary Trọng, President of the Republic of Korea Moon Jae-in hailed former Party General Secretary Đỗ Mười for his great contributions to the relations between Việt Nam and the RoK, especially the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties

At the Security Council, where China holds one of five permanent veto-wielding seats, its statements remain bland, often recalling fundamentals of the United Nations Charter such as national sovereignty and principles of non-interference.

“In their interpretation, democracy is optional, as are human rights,” a European diplomat said.

Yet in peacekeeping missions or when jobs are available in the UN’s executive arm at the New York headquarters, Beijing is increasingly making its presence felt.

More than 2,500 Chinese military personnel wear UN blue helmets on peacekeeping missions in Libya, Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.

China has also “enormously increased” its voluntary financial contributions to the world body while the US under President Donald Trump has slashed its own financing, one diplomat said.

Funding reports and missions allows China to buy some “influence” and push its candidates into top positions, the diplomat added, adding that to have Chinese in multiple roles across the UN provides “a source of information and influence.”

Another diplomat, also speaking anonymously, said: “China is taking power at the United Nations.”

Spheres of influence

In 2017 and 2018, the Asian giant, which is economically expanding in Africa and elsewhere, became a key player on two major international crises: North Korea and Myanmar.

Under American pressure, Beijing imposed unprecedented economic sanctions against Pyongyang, but with the hope that an accord on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula will lead to the departure of about 30,000 US troops based in South Korea — China’s behind-the-scenes strategy in the region.

China meanwhile considers the crisis of Myanmar’s Muslim minority Rohingya, 700,000 of whom fled a military crackdown to Bangladesh, as a bilateral issue between those two countries, and succeeded in preventing any firm Security Council action.

– Power and erosion –

European diplomats have noted that China’s rise at the United Nations has come at a time when Beijing and Moscow are no longer automatically offering each other immediate reciprocal support.

When Moscow makes use of its veto power, China sometimes simply abstains.

Even in lower-profile situations, such as negotiating texts among the 15 Security Council members at the experts level, China is “present on all subjects,” one diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Beijing, for example, is now seeking to become chief author on texts about Afghanistan, replacing the Netherlands, which on January 1 will leave its non-permanent Security Council seat, several diplomats said.

The vast majority of UN resolutions still are written by the United States, Britain or France — a reflection of an older world order.

China, like Russia, is rarely the author, although it was in charge of the Somalia file in the past.

So how far will China go? Some say this is only the tip of the iceberg.

“For China, multipolarity is just one stop on the underground metro line,” one diplomatic source said.

For Beijing, it then sees a Group of Two — China and the US, and eventually, China will reign supreme, a diplomat said.

“They are long-term players. They don’t want to create a commotion,” another diplomatic source said.

The United States has imposed $250 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods and Trump has gone so far as alleging that Beijing is interfering in the November midterm elections in hopes of helping defeat his Republican Party due to his tough trade stance.

Speaking to a US think tank last week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi dismissed fears that his country was seeking to overtake the US as the pre-eminent world power.

Concluding that China is about to seek hegemony, he said, is “a serious strategic misjudgment.”

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s visit to Paris Monday and Tuesday will be his first to Europe following a trip to the United States where he met with President Donald Trump in May.

The high-profile visits are seen as rewards for the Central Asian country’s steps towards more openness following the death of Mirziyoyev’s long-reigning authoritarian predecessor Islam Karimov in 2016.

An Uzbek foreign ministry spokesman told AFP that the visa waiver for French citizens covers a period of 30 days and came into force on Friday.

He said that France is the first EU member whose nationals would be able to benefit from the visa waiver.

The former Soviet republic of 32 million people is seeking to improve its ties with the West as part of Mirziyoyev’s drive to attract foreign investment after decades of isolation.

Uzbekistan, which is highly dependent on commodity exports and suffers from deep poverty in its provinces, has also made developing tourism a priority, undoing a number of repressive policies hampering the sector.

Among the restrictions scrapped was a ban on photography in the capital Tashkent’s ornate metro stations which had seen unsuspecting tourists detained by police in the past.

In December 2016, an executive order eased or cancelled visa requirements for 27 developed countries but was promptly reversed a month later — before actually coming into force — reportedly due to security fears.

Uzbekistan offers visa-free entry to nationals of Turkey, Israel, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan, in addition to long-standing reciprocal visa-free entry for citizens of most former Soviet countries.

Already in overtime, a meeting of the 195-nation Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Incheon, South Korea is vetting a major report that traces pathways for limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

Most of these scenarios involve a sharp reduction in the use of fossil fuels — Saudi Arabia’s key export.

“We are very concerned that a single country is threatening to hold up adoption of the IPCC Special Report if scientific findings are not changed or deleted according to its demands,” said an informed observer who asked not to be named.

The source, along with two other persons with direct knowledge of the situation, identified the country as Saudi Arabia.

“This has become a battle between Saudi Arabia, a rich oil producer, and small island states threatened with extinction,” said another participant at the meeting who also requested anonymity.

“The report hangs in the balance,” the meeting’s chair said Saturday — a day after talks were due to end — before convening an emergency huddle of the IPCC’s half-dozen vice chairs, according to someone in the room.

A email to Saudi officials seeking comment was not answered, and delegates at the closed-door meeting were not accessible.

‘Running interference’

The underlying 500-page report being reviewed in Incheon — based on 6,000 peer reviewed studies — is a collaborative effort of the world’s top climate scientists.

Under the IPCC’s consensus rules, all countries must sign off on the language of a 20-page Summary for Policymakers, designed to provide leaders with objective, science-based information.

At issue is a passage in the summary stating that voluntary national commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, annexed to the 2015 Paris climate treaty, will fail to limit warming to 1.5C.

The pledges would at best yield a 3C world by century’s end, far above the 2C cap mandated by the Paris Agreement.

These so-called “nationally determined contributions” run from 2020 to 2030 for most countries, including Saudi Arabia, and to 2025 for a few others.

The passage goes on to note that capping global warming under 1.5C “can only be achieved if global CO2 emissions start to decline well before 2030.”

As a consequence, scientists and climate activists have called on countries to ratchet up their carbon-cutting pledges as soon as possible.

In case of an impasse, the chairs of an IPCC meeting can override an objection from one or a few countries, recording the objection in a footnote.

“It’s quite rare that a government will be willing to have their name on the bottom of the page with an asterisk,” Jonathan Lynn, head of communications for the IPCC, said last week.

“We do everything we can to avoid it.”

Saudi Arabia has a long track record of raising questions and objections within UN climate forums.

During the week-long talks in Incheon, “the Saudis have been running interference across the board, on main and minor issues,” a participant in the meeting said.

Officials said Saturday the death toll had climbed to 1,649 with more than a thousand maybe still missing in the seaside city on Sulawesi island, after the region was hit by a powerful quake and a wall of water.

Hopes of finding anyone alive a full eight days since the disaster have all but faded, though the search has not been officially called off.

There are fears that vast numbers of decomposing bodies could still be buried beneath Petobo and Balaroa — two areas virtually wiped off the map.

“Most of the bodies we have found are not intact, and that poses a danger for the rescuers. We have to be very careful to avoid contamination,” Yusuf Latif, a spokesman for Indonesia’s search and rescue effort, told AFP from Palu.

“We have vaccinated our teams, but we need to be extra cautious.”

Security minister Wiranto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said eventually the worst-hit areas would have to be declared mass graves and left untouched.

“We have to make a decision as to when the search for the dead will end. Then, we later must decide when the area will be designated a mass grave,” he told reporters late Friday.

‘Just bodies’

At the massive Balaroa government housing complex, where the sheer force of the quake turned the earth temporarily to mush, soldiers wearing masks to ward off the stench of death clambered over the giant mounds of mud, brick and cement.

The troops peeking under collapsed walls and peeling back corrugated sheets did not have to look hard.

Sergeant Syafaruddin, from an army unit in Makassar south of Palu, asked for a body bag to be brought to a spot near where the remnants of an Islamic school now stands.

Two of his soldiers emerge from the ditch with the bag sagging in the middle but looking too light to be a corpse — they said they had found the heads of two adults and one child.

“There are no survivors here. We just find bodies, every day,” said Syafaruddin.

At the flattened Hotel Roa-Roa — where early optimism that survivors might be found faded as the days wore on — rescuers reviewed CCTV footage to get a sense of where the doomed guests could be buried.

Short supplies

Thousands of survivors continued to stream out of Palu to nearby cities in the aftermath of the disaster.

Hospitals remain overstretched and short on staff and supplies.

In Karawana village, nurse Iyong Lamatowa can offer little more than antibiotics and pain killers to treat those flocking to a makeshift clinic with badly-infected wounds.

Project HOPE, a medical NGO, said only two of its 82 staff in Palu had reported for duty since the quake.

“We still don’t know the fate of the clinic doctors, nurses and technicians who usually staff the clinic,” the organisation said in a statement.

A floating hospital run by the Indonesian navy and docked in Palu has already assisted with the delivery of four babies, local media reported.

Survivors have ransacked shops and supply trucks in the hunt for basic necessities, prompting security forces to round up dozens of suspected looters and warn that they will open fire on thieves.

Hundreds of people Saturday rushed a truck carrying gas cylinders for cooking, with long and desperate queues quickly forming.

One supermarket that opened its doors refused to allow people inside, instead passing goods through the door as armed troops stood watch.

A convoy of five hundred trucks laden with donated food, cooking oil and other essentials was on its way to Palu, agriculture minister Amran Sulaiman said in the devastated city on Saturday.

“Palu’s ordeal is the grief for all of us and that’s why everyone is lending a hand to help,” he said.

Aid trickles in

The United Nations said Friday it was seeking $50.5 million “for immediate relief” to help victims of the devastating quake and tsunami in Indonesia.

After days of delays, international aid is slowly making its way to the disaster zone, where the UN says almost 200,000 people need humanitarian assistance.

Getting vital supplies to the affected areas has proved hugely challenging, with the number of flights able to land at Palu’s small airport still limited, leaving aid workers facing gruelling overland journeys.

Oxfam had sent water treatment units and purification kits to Palu and Swiss aid teams on the ground were providing drinking water and emergency shelter, both said in statements Saturday.

Indonesia sits along the world’s most tectonically active region, and its 260 million people are vulnerable to earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.

Eight days after a quake-tsunami disaster erased parts of Palu on Sulawesi island, this is no longer a search for the living, but a collection of the dead.

They don’t have to look very hard.

Sergeant Syafaruddin, from an army unit in Makassar south of Palu, asks for a body bag.

He is standing near the remnants of an Islamic school, and two of his soldiers have emerged from the ditch with a body bag sagging in the middle.

The load is too light for a corpse — they say they found just the heads of two adults and a child.

“There are no survivors here. We just find bodies, everyday,” says Syafaruddin, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

There are no signs of life peeking from beneath this devastation in Balaroa, where a vast government housing complex was all but swallowed when the sheer force of the quake turned the earth into mud.

There are fears that vast numbers of decomposing bodies could still be buried beneath this once-thriving neighbourhood, perhaps 1,000 or more.

The twin disasters are already known to have killed more than 1,500 people, and counting.

Past life

Desperate to find any sign of 11 missing relatives, Rahmat Riadi spots a photograph amid the rubble, then another, and another.

He finds the torn pages of a family photo album — perhaps the only trace of loved ones he will ever recover.

None of Riadi’s still-missing family has been seen since the disaster carved a path of destruction through Palu.

His sister Hermawati points to a spot amid the carnage. She thinks their home once stood there — she can only guess its position from a familiar tree. There is nothing else recognisable left in the vast wasteland of debris.

The area is strewn with shards of her past life — a shoe, some text books, a smashed cup, a set of measuring spoons.

Around her, troops in camouflage fatigues and floppy hats to shield them from the unyielding tropical sun clamber past in wellington boots.

They start digging afresh, but it is not long before they need to call in a digger.

It swoops a few times and with almost no effort brings up the body of a long-haired woman buried in mud.

In Petobo, another hard-hit district in Palu, the mud is hardening as the days pass by, frustrating an already herculean effort to find the dead entombed below.

Teams struggle to extract bodies from the muck, often dislodging limbs loosened by decomposition after more than a week exposed to the elements.

They must drag the bodies hundreds of metres to waiting trucks, unable to traverse the morass, as authorities up in the hills of Palu bury hundreds of other bodies.

Many will never be found. The government plans to declare the worst-hit zones as mass graves, the victims forever entombed in mud.

Meng Hongwei, 64, was last seen leaving for China in late September from the Interpol headquarters in Lyon, southeast France, a source close to the enquiry told AFP. His wife has since reported him missing.

It is the latest high-profile disappearance in China, where a number of top government officials, billionaire business magnates and even an A-list celebrity have vanished for weeks or months at a time.

Beijing has so far said nothing on Meng’s case. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a request for comment from AFP.

But news of his absence was swiftly followed by speculation that Meng — who also serves as a vice-minister of China’s Ministry of Public Security — had been swept up in Beijing’s secretive anti-corruption campaign.

Citing an anonymous source, the South China Morning Post said authorities from the country’s disciplinary commission had snatched Meng upon arrival in Beijing.

China’s recently established National Supervisory Commission holds sweeping powers to investigate the country’s public servants with few requirements for transparency.

While the law requires authorities to inform family members of a detention, it makes exceptions for cases involving national security, terrorism, or concerns over destruction of evidence or witness tampering.

People have been known to disappear into the commission’s custody for weeks or even months without a word.

Interpol has also kept quiet on Meng’s whereabouts.

“This is a matter for the relevant authorities in both France and China,” the police agency said on Twitter, adding it would make no further comment.

Anti-corruption?

It is not clear why Meng — the first Chinese president of Interpol — would be under investigation.

Chinese president Xi Jinping has presided over a popular anti-graft drive since coming to power in 2012 that has punished more than one million officials, with critics comparing it to a political purge.

Meng rose up the ranks of the country’s domestic security apparatus when it was under the leadership of Zhou Yongkang, a rival to Xi and the highest-ranking official to be brought down on corruption charges.

Zhou — who was sentenced to life in prison in 2014 — was subsequently accused of conspiring to seize state power and authorities have continued working to root out his influence.

He appointed Meng vice security minister in 2004.

In the role Meng has been entrusted with a number of sensitive portfolios, including heading up the country’s counter-terrorism division, which saw him in charge of the response to several major incidents in China’s fractious western region of Xinjiang.

Critics of Meng’s 2016 election to Interpol’s presidency said he would use the position to help China target dissidents abroad under the guise of pursuing corrupt officials.

Interpol has downplayed the concerns, saying the president has little influence over the organisation’s day-to-day operations, which are handled by secretary-general Juergen Stock, a German.

The Chinese effort to track down corrupt officials abroad, known as Operation Fox Hunt, has led to claims in some countries that Chinese law-enforcement agents have been operating covertly on their soil without the approval or consent of local authorities.

China currently has 44 outstanding red notices, mostly related to murder, intentional injury and drug smuggling, according to Interpol’s web site.

During Meng’s tenure, Interpol issued a red notice for fugitive Chinese billionaire real estate tycoon Guo Wengui, who threatened to reveal corruption at the country’s highest levels.

Authorities in China and Hong Kong have accused Guo, who resides in the United States, of laundering billions of dollars among other crimes.