Two months after the earthquake of the Japan land, poor victims still waiting for assistance

TOKYO - the most needy victims of the earthquake and devastating tsunami in the Japan have yet to receive a large part of the record of $ 2.2 billion aid two months later, mainly because the authorities have not yet identifiedthe country's Red Cross, said Wednesday.

March 11 earthquake and the tsunami and the nuclear crisis that followed at the plant in Fukushima Daiichi 25,000 dead or missing, left sent more than 117,000 people leave their homes and destroyed infrastructure in the North of the Japan.

The Japanese Red Cross Society collected so far 174 billion yen ($2.2 billion) in aid money, most, he has never given any relief campaign.

Charity distributed about 65 billion yen in April, the regional Governments in disaster-hit but says that this Fund has not yet reached the poor.

"The biggest problem is that those who should receive the money cannot be identified, as more than 10 000 people are still missing, resident records have disappeared, and administrative functions at the periphery don't work," says Tadateru KonoePresident of the Japanese Red Cross.

"Money has reached the prefectural level, but I recently saw a report that a large part of the actual distribution (to the victims of the earthquake) has not yet take place," he told a press conference.

All money relief organization is supposed to be given to the victims, in cash, and the Group has been criticized for the delay in the distribution. In 1995, when a huge earthquake hit Kobe in the Western Japan, the first series of cash took about two weeks of the disaster.

A panel of experts and officials decided the month last on the parameters of the round of initial distribution of aid, as to give 350,000 yen to families who have lost a member and the same amount to families whose homes have been destroyed.

The Japanese Red Cross was still more than 100 billion yen cash relief, and Konoe, also President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, said there is no clear plan on how to distribute it. He said that the money could also be given to businesses and individuals.

Japan began to clean and rebuild the region damaged, but work is difficult and the area is still a ruin.

An area of renaming is still in place 20 km (12 miles) around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant, while residents of a town were allowed to return Tuesday for two hours for the first time since the disaster.

In a survey by Yomiuri newspaper interviewed mayors and officials of 41 cities in areas affected by the disaster, said they felt they did there was no clear vision to rebuild their lives.

Seventeen mayors said they do not have an idea of when claire the clearing of rubble would have finished in their fields, whereas nine said they did not know when electricity and water systems would function properly once more.

Konoe, stated that many medical services in the areas affected by the disaster remained closed and that the stress-related diseases are among the greatest risks to health for internally displaced persons.

The total cost of the damage was estimated at $ 300 billion, which makes higher global disaster. (Yen Japanese $1 = 80.835)