The death toll in the devastated province of Aceh in Indonesia could eventually climb as high as 150,000 people, a local official said Wednesday. "We have already buried over 90,000 people, and our estimation is that it could rise as high as 150,000," said Dr Haniff Asmara, assistant to the governor in social assistance said. Indonesia's Ministry of Social Affairs said Sunday that their latest estimate for the death toll in Aceh province and elsewhere in northern Sumatra is 115,000 people, with some 700,000 made homeless. More than three weeks after the devastating quake and tsunami, around 2,000 badly decomposed bodies per day are still being pulled from the sludge and ruins in Banda Aceh and the devastated west coast, according to local officials. Although international and Indonesian aid continues to pour into the crippled province, distribution remains a serious problem, because of destroyed infrastructure and separatist rebel activities, Dr Asmara said. "Along the west coast, at least 30 bridges have been washed away," he said. For nearly 30 years, the Indonesian government has been fighting separatist rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). 12,000 people have been killed so far, and the government has said that movement restrictions are in place to protect aid workers from GAM attacks. --more 1153 Local Time 0853 GMT
