Indonesia marks four years since tsunami

INDONESIA: Indonesia marked four years since the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami Friday with prayers and remembrance of one of the world’s worst ever natural disasters.

Indonesia was the nation hardest hit by the tsunami, with at least 168,000 people killed when walls of water smashed into Nias island and Aceh province, which sits on the northern end of Sumatra.

Thousands of Acehnese gathered in the shattered remains of a military base in the coastal town of Meulaboh, one of the areas most thoroughly destroyed by the earthquake-triggered tsunami, for a sombre Islamic prayer ceremony.

“The four year anniversary of the tsunami holds deep meaning, because right here we witnessed the first place the waters of the tsunami came into Aceh,” local government head Ramli Mansur told the crowd. “We are here to remember the martyrs who were killed in the tsunami and to give us momentum to rebuild a better Aceh,” he said.

Prayers were held in mosques throughout the staunchly Islamic province, including teary ceremonies at mass graves in the tsunami devastated capital of Banda Aceh.

Indonesia also marked the anniversary with tsunami drills on the northern end of the sprawling island of Sulawesi, including one in Manado city attended by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, state news agency Antara reported.

In nearby Gorontalo city, several students fell unconscious as a crowd of around 5,000 fled to higher ground in the simulated drill after the announcement of a fictitious offshore earthquake.

The 2004 disaster, which killed more than 220,000 people in total, including in Sri Lanka, Thailand and India, led to an outpouring of international aid. Some 7.2 billion dollars were pledged to Aceh and Nias in the month after the tsunami, according the official reconstruction agency. The agency says reconstruction in affected areas is nearly complete, with 6.7 billion dollars in aid money spent and nearly 125,000 homes built as well as extensive schools, roads and bridges. However, around 1,000 tsunami victims still live in barracks and there are concerns of a rise in economic misery as the aid boom that has driven the local economy dries up.

Meulaboh, Friday, AFP