Wedding Amid The Rubble

IslamOnline.net & News Agencies

PARAK BURUK, Indonesia – Despite destruction engulfing the quake-hit western Indonesian island, Linda Wati is still preparing for her wedding.

"Our wedding will continue as planned on Friday,” Wati, 25, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Friday, October 2.

“We're expecting about 40 guests. I consider this a challenge from God."

Wati was just two days from her wedding when a 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck bustling port city of Padang, capital of Sumatra Island, on Wednesday.

"We were making final preparations for my wedding when the quake hit Padang," said Wati.

"My cousins were decorating the house and building a platform to host the musicians when the quake happened."

The United Nations estimates that 1,100 have died in the disaster, while the government puts the death toll at 777, but the figure is expected to rise as many more are still trapped under the rubble.

Wati’s house was destroyed in the quake and she is living with her family in a teetering shell.

“I consider this a challenge from God," Wati said.

"We have to demolish the house and rebuild again. I'm not angry with God. I think it's a test of our will."

A massive 9.1-magnitude quake off Aceh in northern Sumatra triggered the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 220,000.

Plead for Help

Wati’s neighbours are now sleeping on the stage that had been set up for the wedding band.

"My kids can't sleep,” said Erfayulis, who is spending the night with her family on Wati’s stage.

“We're getting attacked by mosquitoes. And my gut feeling says another big quake will hit Padang."

The Indonesian mother pleaded for world countries to help.

"We're asking for the government and neighbouring countries for aid. Give us materials to rebuild our homes and give us food."

The Indonesian government on Friday renewed calls for foreign aid to the quake victims.

"Our main problem is that there are a lot of victims still trapped in the rubble. We are struggling to pull them out," Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari told reporters.

"We need help from foreign countries for evacuation efforts. We need them to provide skilled rescuers with equipment."

Several countries have already pledged aid, but efforts to organise a full-scale rescue operation are being hampered by blocked roads, broken power lines, and patchy communication networks.

"We don't have proper equipment. We don't even have dogs," said Suryadi Soedarmo, a surgeon from an emergency ambulance service in the capital Jakarta who arrived with 10 experts trained to enter collapsed structures.

"The command and control is also bad. It will jeopardise our rescue efforts."

Many quake-hit families are still waiting for help.

"We're living in fear of another bigger quake angry that no aid has come,” said Ernalis, a 40-year-old resident of Parak Buruk on the edge of Padang.

“We're hungry and we're traumatised."

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Obama Keeps Israel'’s Nukes Secret

CAIRO — In contradiction with his calls for nuclear-free world, US President Barack Obama has given Israel guarantees to maintain its nuclear ambiguity policy to skip international inspection of its nuclear facilities. "What this means is that the president gave commitments that politically he had no choice but to give regarding Israel's nuclear program," a Senate staffer told the Washington Times Friday, October 2, on condition of anonymity.

US official said Obama gave Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu during their first meeting in May guarantees that he will keep a four-decade-old secret understanding between the US and Israel over its nuclear program.

(Under this agreement,) the United States passively accepting Israel's nuclear weapons status as long as Israel does not unveil publicly its capability or test a weapon," said Avner Cohen, Israeli writer specialized in the history of the Israeli nuclear program.

The guarantees contradict with Obama’s call for establishing a nuclear-free world.

Terming them the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War, Obama last April called for a world without nuclear weapons.

But Netanyahu affirmed he got the guarantees from Obama to exclude Israel from his calls.

"I want to remind you that in my first meeting with President Obama in Washington I received from him, and I asked to receive from him, an itemized list of the strategic understandings that have existed for many years between Israel and the United States on that issue," Netanyahu has told Israeli Channel 2.

"It was not for naught that I requested, and it was not for naught that I received that document."

Israel is believed to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East, with experts saying it has no less than 200 nuclear warheads.

Israel has long declined to confirm or deny having nuclear bomb as part of a strategic ambiguity policy.

A declassified British documents has showed London helped Israel obtain its nuclear bomb 40 years ago.

Double Standards

The Senate staffer said this agreement puts Obama's nuclear-free world calls into question.

"However, it calls into question virtually every part of the president's non-proliferation agenda," he told the Times.

"The president gave Israel an NPT treaty get out of jail free card."

US intelligence agencies routinely omit Israel from semiannual reports to Congress identifying countries developing weapons of mass destruction to protect it from any economic or military sanctions.

David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, said that Obama has made too much concessions to Israel.

"One hopes that the price for such concessions is Israeli agreement to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty and an acceptance of the long-term goal of a Middle East weapons-of-mass-destruction-free zone," he said.

"Otherwise, the Obama administration paid too much, given its focus on a world free of nuclear weapons."

Source: IslamOnline

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