Three years after Indian Ocean nations were lashed by massive tsunamis, somber ceremonies were held yesterday to recall 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 staunchly Muslim province at the northern tip of Sumatra island, where some 168,000 lives were claimed by walls of water triggered by the earthquake.
The toll was more than half the 220,000 killed in a dozen nations, including Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, with thousands of unidentified victims buried in mass graves dug in the disaster's aftermath.
PHOTO: AFP
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.
"I came here to pray together with other residents. I pray for my wife and my child who died in the tsunami, hoping they are now resting in peace," said Alimudin, a 61-year-old retired local government official.
Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf, a former rebel fighter, told about 1,000 residents, school children and officials that he hoped "we can learn from the tragedy to improve our piety towards God."
"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.
The global community pledged more than US$7 billion to help reconstruction in Aceh, which is well on track towards completion.
Yusuf, who was detained in a jail that was destroyed by the tsunami, was elected last December following a historic peace pact spurred on by the disaster -- one of its few silver linings -- that saw a 29-year separatist conflict end.
Also in Indonesia, a dramatic drill simulating a tsunami strike was held in Java's coastal province of Banten involving around 9,000 residents, local television reported.
The simulation, designed to test a tsunami warning system gradually being rolled out, saw hundreds of students, along with residents clutching children, rush to higher ground assailed by wailing sirens.
"This country is vulnerable to tsunami threats. Let us pray to God for this country to be kept safe from tsunamis," Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said after observing the exercise.
Sri Lanka, which suffered 31,000 deaths, marked the anniversary by opening a showpiece bridge in the southern coastal town of Matara, donated by South Korea.
Sri Lankan 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.
Sri Lanka's post-tsunami reconstruction work has been dogged by graft and renewed fighting that has blocked relief to survivors, with less than a fifth of the money pledged properly accounted for, watchdogs have said.
In India, where more than 16,000 people died, hundreds of survivors, mostly poor fishermen and their families, held a procession in Nagapattinam District in southern Tamil Nadu State, where more than 6,000 people died.
Children from tsunami-affected families made offerings of flowers to the victims.
Tens of thousands of Indians lost huts in the disaster and rights groups say more than 20,000 tsunami-affected families are still waiting for new homes.
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 holiday-makers.
About 200 people from Thailand and abroad, many of whom lost loved ones in the tragedy, sat silently and grasped red roses as the monks chanted blessings. Attendees then walked out onto Phuket's Patong beach and cast the flowers, representing the dead, into the sea.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS