Indonesia gives up trying to precisely count its disaster dead
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-12-31 21:02

JAKARTA - Indonesia has given up trying to issue precise figures for the tens of thousands of people killed in an earthquake and tsunami at the weekend, the health minister said.

Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said her officials would from now on give only general estimates since the death toll was too large to provide an exact tally, the state Antara news agency said.

They would wait until all data has been collected before issuing a precise final account, she said.

Data regularly issued by her ministry on the death toll had often failed to match data obtained by other institutions, so there was too great a margin of error to deal in exact running tallies, she said.

The ministry said earlier the final casualty number from Sunday's catastrophe would likely reach up to 100,000. Its last confirmed figure was 79,940.

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