|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Thursday, 27 January 2005 |
 |
|
 |
World | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
A month on, schools open but hardship persists BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Wednesday (Reuters) A month after a tsunami swept away parents, siblings and classmates, the children of Indonesia's ravaged Aceh province returned on Wednesday to schools littered with debris where empty desks reminded them of their loss. In India, police used loudspeakers to tell frightened coastal residents that rumours of another tsunami, exactly a month after the first left nearly 300,000 people dead or missing around the Indian Ocean rim, had no scientific basis. The Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka declared a day of mourning and people will observe a minute of silence to remember the victims of one of the world's worst natural disasters. But with the region still pulling bodies from the debris and adding up the dead, few planned a formal remembrance of the giant waves on Dec. 26 that crushed coastal villages and roared through luxury beach resorts from Somalia to Thailand. "For us teachers, it's hard because so many lost families and homes. But we have to put this aside and think of our students," Aceh school principal Syarifuddin Ibrahim, 50, told Reuters. Girls in white Muslim headscarves stood in clusters with boys at the SMR8 secondary school in Aceh's provincial capital, Banda Aceh, surveying piles of mud, broken chairs and tables. A few classrooms had been cleared and stacks of wet books lay drying outside. "I'm happy I can go back to learn. But I am sad my best friend has gone," said student Meka Nora, 12, at another school.. Even after a month of dispiriting work to collect and bury the dead, workers still pull more than 1,000 bodies daily from the mud and rubble of Aceh. Thais remain jittery. A deeply superstitious people, hundreds of ghost sightings have been reported, in particular the restive spirits of tourists crying out to locals, or summoning taxis. Resentment is also growing among some tsunami victims who say they are not receiving enough help rebuilding their lives. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
