MUTMAINAH sits quietly with her brother at a mass grave on the outskirts of Banda Aceh on Indonesia's Sumatra island, quietly reading their prayer books.
They lost five members of their family in the December 26, 2004, tsunami, which killed nearly a quarter of a million people.
"We left Aceh after the tsunami," she said in Siron on Wednesday on the eighth anniversary of the disaster. "We didn't reopen our shop in Banda Aceh and moved it to Medan."
The middle-aged siblings joined hundreds of others in mourning at mass graves and local mosques.
Music and prayers were performed throughout the day at a newly built tsunami museum in the hardest-hit region of Aceh, located on the northern tip of Sumatra.
The disaster, triggered by a 9.3-magnitude earthquake off Sumatra, killed an estimated 230,000 people in 13 countries on the Indian Ocean, including 170,000 in Aceh and on Nias Island.
Thousands attended a ceremony to mark the anniversary in the port of Malahayati in Krueng Raya, outside the provincial capital.
Red-and-white Indonesian flags flew at half-staff along the streets leading to the port.
Ogasawara Jun, who was in a group of eight Japanese teachers at the commemorations, said he could relate to what the Acehnese were feeling because both countries had suffered losses and devastation from tsunamis.
Jun - from Miyako in the northeastern prefecture of Iwate, which was hit by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami - said he came to Banda Aceh especially for the eight-year anniversary.
"We both have lost so much from strong quakes and tsunamis," he said. "The sadness and pain may never be lifted, even with the passing of time, but I believe that Indonesia and Japan can help each other to build a bright future."
On Thailand's resort island of Phuket, a multi-faith Buddhist, Christian and Muslim service was held early on Wednesday at the Tsunami Memorial Wall, near Mai Khao village.
The area was used to store thousands of bodies until they could be identified in the aftermath of the tsunami that killed up to 8000 people on the western seaboard of Thailand's southern provinces, about half of them foreign tourists.
"I hope the ceremony will bring encouragement to the victims' relatives and that they will feel better that we have never stopped caring about their lost ones," said Wirat Makaew, deputy chief of Mai Khao village, after laying a wreath at the memorial wall.
A candle-lit memorial service was also planned for sunset on the island's Patong beach.
Music, speeches, prayers and a minute of silence were scheduled to be observed by survivors and mourners.
Wednesday 26 December 2012
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/asia-remembers-2004-tsunami/story-fn3dxix6-1226543766622
0 comments:
Post a Comment