Png Toll Unknown

Illawarra Mercury

Saturday July 25, 1998

VANIMO.- Relief workers sealed off the most devastated areas of Papua New Guinea's West Sepik coast yesterday, to allow hundreds and perhaps thousands of unrecovered bodies - victims of a series of tidal waves a week ago - to decompose.

The official death count stands at more than 1300, but 6000 people are missing and feared dead, while 2500 to 3500 survivors have been accounted for.

But thwarted by impenetrable mangrove swamps, authorities decided to abandon the attempt to retrieve bodies and will seal off the area around Sissano Lagoon. The decision means the true death toll from the July 17 tsunami disaster may never be known.

Lieutenant Colonel Rod West, commander of the Australian army relief efforts, said the worst-affected areas would be turned into permanent graveyards.

``Some of these bodies are very much deteriorated," he said. ``The plan is to seal the areas and let nature takes its course - the natural flushing of the lagoon and the crocodiles and sharks."

New aftershocks from the undersea quake that set off the three tidal waves last week further added to the worries of residents of the north-west coast. Seismologists warned yesterday there is a 50 per cent chance of more tremor activity.

The seas off PNG's north coast are usually calm, but boats yesterday reported swells of up to 4m.

Small tremors - called ``guria" in the local Pidgin language - are common on the island and authorities said the latest ones posed no danger of tidal surges like those that hit last week.

Andrew Kumbakor, a PNG parliamentarian, said the area around the Sissano Lagoon would be declared a ``contaminated, restricted area" because of the threat of disease from decomposing bodies.