|
IN REMEMBRANCE: Police officers carrying wreaths during ceremonies in Bangmuang, Thailand yesterday. A total of 5,400 people, half of them foreigners, died in Thailand. -- PHOTO: AP
|
|
|
CALANG (INDONESIA) - THREE years after Indian Ocean nations were lashed by massive tsunamis, sombre ceremonies were held yesterday to remember those lost in one of the worst natural catastrophes in modern times.
In Indonesia, mass prayers were held outdoors and at mosques across Aceh - the province at the northern tip of Sumatra island where 168,000 lives were claimed by the earthquake-triggered walls of water on Dec 26, 2004.
The toll here was more than half the 220,000 killed in a dozen nations, including Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.
Yesterday's main ceremony was held outdoors at a village on the outskirts of Calang, one of the areas of Aceh obliterated in the disaster.
Aceh resident Nur Aini lost her husband and one of her two children to the waves.
'We are praying for them today even though I don't know where they are buried,' she said. 'My remaining child still calls out for his father.'
Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf told about 1,000 residents, schoolchildren and officials: 'Let us leave behind all our tears and work together to rebuild Aceh, hoping that one day we can repay our 'debt' to the international community,' he said.
By some counts, the international community pledged more than US$13 billion (S$18.9 billion) to help reconstruction in tsunami-hit regions.
Also in Indonesia, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono observed a dramatic drill that sent around 9,000 residents in the coastal Java province of Banten rushing to higher ground as sirens wailed.
'Let us pray to God for this country to be kept safe from tsunamis,' he said after observing the exercise.
Sri Lanka, which suffered 31,000 deaths, marked the anniversary by opening a bridge in the southern coastal town of Matara, a gift from South Korea.
President Mahinda Rajapakse observed two minutes of silence at 9.25am, the time when the first giant waves lashed the coastline in a disaster that also displaced a million people on the island.
In India, where more than 16,000 people died, thousands of fishing families gathered on beaches to remember the dead.
'The memorial today is just a symbol for me where all of us collect to grieve together,' said 37-year-old Kaveri, who lost a son and daughter when the tsunami hit the fishing hamlet of Keechankuppam.
'But then we are grieving every day.'
Orange-robed Buddhist monks gathered by Thailand's Andaman Sea for a blessing ceremony in memory of the 5,400 people killed in the kingdom, half of whom were foreign holidaymakers.
About 200 people from Thailand and abroad, many of whom lost loved ones in the tragedy, sat silently and clasped red roses as the monks chanted blessings.
Participants then walked out onto Phuket's Patong beach and cast the flowers, representing the dead, into the sea.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
|
