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Asia remembers tsunami disaster with prayer, silence
By Tomi Soetjipto
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - Mourners from across the world wept, prayed and observed moments of silence along ravaged Indian Ocean coastlines on Monday to remember those killed by one of nature's deadliest disasters.
A year after the Indian Ocean tsunami, a huge recovery operation has brought hope to hundreds of thousands of survivors. But the sorrow, pain and trauma remain strong -- along with fears that monster waves could come again.
"We think about the lost lives, lost property and lost jobs," said Kanagalingan Janenthra, 19, in Sri Lanka's eastern town of Batticaloa. "We are in fear. Some of us think it might come again."
About 230,000 people were killed or disappeared in 13 Indian Ocean countries, nearly three quarters of them in Indonesia's Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra, according to tallies made by individual countries.
Survivors, friends and relatives joined national leaders and foreign dignitaries for memorials in the worst affected countries of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.
In Aceh, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono set off a siren at 8:16 a.m. to begin a minute of silence.
"It was under the same blue sky exactly a year ago that Mother Earth unleashed the most destructive power among us," Yudhoyono said in a flattened suburb of the capital Banda Aceh.
STILL DISPLACED
A 9.15 magnitude earthquake, which lasted eight minutes, set off waves 33 feet high that smashed into shorelines as far away as East Africa, sweeping holidaymakers off beaches and erasing entire towns and villages.
A year later, four out of five of the two million people displaced are still living in tents, temporary shelters or piled in with family and friends across the region.
Many people who took part in evening prayers in Banda Aceh said survivors were still living in tents and wooden barracks.
"I would like to ask the president for a house because right now it's in a bad condition," said Marriati, 39, whose house was destroyed. "I had to build a house by myself."
After a much criticized slow start to reconstruction, officials and aid groups say a big chunk of the $13.6 billion in pledged donations -- the most generously funded humanitarian effort in history -- will be deployed for projects next year.
The toll has been difficult to pin down because countries are still trying to update figures. Some women still hope their children will be found.
"In my heart, I still believe they are alive," said Yasrati, 38, who placed smiling photos of her 13-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son in a local newspaper.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra laid a foundation stone for a memorial at Khao Lak, a beach resort in southern Thailand where many foreigners died. Swedes waded into the sea to float wreaths after singing the ABBA hit "I Have A Dream".
In Sweden, which lost 543 people and was worst hit of non-Asian countries, relatives of the dead lit candles and wept as snow fell in a central park in the capital Stockholm.
"The unthinkable happened and nothing can undo it," said Martin Jamtlid, who lost nine family members.
Amid the commemorations were stories of courage. British schoolgirl Tilly Smith, dubbed the "Angel of the Beach", is credited for saving scores of lives at Khao Lak.
The 11-year-old knew what was happening when she saw the sea recede because she had learned about tsunamis in school. Her adamant warning is believed to have saved 100 lives.
PRAYERS
In Sri Lanka's southern town of Peraliya, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist and Muslim priests chanted blessings at the site where 1,000 people died when their train was hit by the tsunami.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse oversaw two minutes' silence and placed a floral wreath at the foot of a cresting wave-shaped memorial for the 35,000 who died in the tsunami.
Thousands lit traditional coconut oil lamps on beaches on the southern coast after dark, including tourists who escaped the tsunami and returned to the island to mark the anniversary.
On the east coast, hardest hit by the disaster, friends and relatives clustered around candles while hundreds of people gathered in Colombo's central Independence Square for their own candle-lit vigil.
In India's Nagapattinam district, where the tsunami took half of India's 12,405 known dead, fishermen stayed away from the sea to pray for the departed.
In the Andaman and Nicobar islands, home to some of the world's most primitive tribes, groups of people walked from village to village observing silence in memory of those killed and lit candles in their hamlets.
Indonesia tested a tsunami warning system for the first time on Monday, sounding warning sirens on a beach in the West Sumatra town of Padang. Officials urged residents to run along organized evacuation routes.
Experts say many lives could have been saved if a tsunami early warning system, similar to that in the Pacific, had been in place.
(Additional reporting by Peter Apps and Simon Gardner in Sri Lanka, Ed Cropley and Darren Schuettler in Thailand, YP Rajesh in New Delhi and Patrick Lannin in Stockholm)
© Reuters 2005
(\\__/) And if you don't believe The sun will rise
(='.'=) Stand alone and greet The coming night
(")_(") In the last remaining light. (C. Cornell)
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