PRESIDENT APPRECIATES ACEH QUAKE MANAGEMENT

Jakarta, April 7 (ANTARA) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has expressed high appreciation to all parties who have done their best to make an emergency response to the magnitude-7.2 earthquake that hit Aceh on Wednesday morning.

The President's appreciation was addressed among others to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), the Aceh and North Sumatra provincial governments.

"I am grateful to the BNPB, Aceh government, and North Sumatra government for their emergency responses to the 7.2 earthquake which jolted Aceh province on Wednesday morning," the head of state said at Halim Perdanakusuma airport before leaving for Hanoi, Vietnam, to attend an ASEAN Summit.

The president said he had received reports from the Aceh and North Sumatra governors that the Wednesday morning earthquake did not have the potential of triggering tsunami and had not caused any significant material damage.

"And we are grateful that the situation in Aceh has returned to normal," the head of state said, adding that the system, as well as Disaster Mitigation Swift Reaction Team in the effort to overcome the quake impact had run well.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) had reported that the 7.2 earthquake was centered at 2.30 degree northern latitude and 96.87 degree eastern longitude at a depth of 34 km, or some 75 km southeast of Sinabang.

BMKG also recorded several aftershocks at 5.26 am local time with a magnitude of 5.1 on the Richter scale centered at 60 km southeast of Sinabang, and at 5.28 am with a magnitude of 5.2 on the Richter scale some 3.2 km northeast of Gunung Sitoli, North Sumatra.

People in Padang, West Sumatra, and in Dumai, Rokan Hilir in Riau province also felt the magnitude of the earthquake which rocked Aceh province.

In December 2004, people in Sumatra, especially in Aceh province, were traumatized when the magnitude 8.9 earthquake off the coast of Aceh province triggered the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed at least 226,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and nine other countries.