Rescue workers scoured the rubble of devastated communities on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island on Thursday, the last day of the search for victims of a 7.5 magnitude quake and tsunami that killed more than 2,000 people two weeks ago.
If any reminder were needed of Indonesia’s treacherous tectonics, a magnitude 6 quake struck off Indonesia’s Java and Bali islands early on Thursday, killing three people in Java, damaging buildings and sparking panic.
The annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank are being held this week on Bali and attended by more than 19,000 delegates and other guests, including ministers, central bank heads and some country leaders.
On the west coast of Sulawesi, hundreds of kilometres northeast of Bali, the official death toll from the earthquake and tsunami that struck the seaside city of Palu on September 28 stood at 2,045.
Some 10,000 rescuers toiled for a final day as relatives of the missing clung to their last hopes that the bodies of their loved ones could be found and given a proper burial.
“I don’t have any tears left, all I want is to find them,” said Ahmad, 43, a farmer who was waiting near a pile of debris that used to be home…
