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World marks one-year tsunami anniversary
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-27 09:02
Survivors wept and prayed beside mass graves and at beachside memorials
Monday, marking one year since earthquake-churned walls of water crashed ashore
in a dozen nations, sweeping away hundreds of thousands of lives and uniting the
world in grief and horror.
Mourners filled mosques in Indonesia's shattered Aceh province, the region
hit hardest. Candlelight vigils in chilly Sweden remembered citizens lost during
sunny holidays. An achingly personal tribute 錕斤拷 a bouquet of white roses 錕斤拷 stuck
in the sand in Thailand.
Thai woman Pimchai Chudum holds a rose in
memory of her brother during a tsunami commemoration ceremony in Khao Lak,
located in Thailand's Phang Nga province, nearly 110 km (68 miles) north
of the resort island of Phuket, December 26,
2005.[Reuters] | In a taped message, President
Bush recalled "the acts of courage and kindness that made us proud" in the
sorrowful days after the disaster. Former US President Clinton, the U.N. special
envoy for tsunami recovery, promised not to let the world forget its pledges of
aid.
Survivors relived the terrible awe they felt when the sea rose as high as 33
feet and surged inland for miles with seemingly unstoppable force, carrying
along trees, houses, train cars 錕斤拷 and thousands people 錕斤拷 in a churning rush.
An Indonesian woman sits by a mass grave
memorial Monday Dec. 26, 2005 in Ule Lheu, just outside Banda Aceh,
Indonesia.[AP] | "I was not afraid at the time,"
said Muhammad Yani, 35, who scrambled to the second floor of an Aceh mosque and
watched a muddy torrent roiling with people and debris. "I was more aware than
ever that my soul belonged to Allah."
Like most survivors, Yani's family was devastated. Both his parents and a
younger brother were killed.
"It was under the same blue sky, exactly one year ago, that Mother Earth
unleashed her most destructive power upon us," Indonesian President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono told a crowd at a ceremony in Banda Aceh, provincial capital
of Aceh province, which had 156,000 dead and missing.
He sounded a tsunami warning siren 錕斤拷 part of a system that did not exist last
year 錕斤拷 at 8:16 a.m., the moment the first wave hit, to herald a minute's
silence.
![An Indian woman mourns the death of a relative who was killed after an Indian Ocean tsunami hit Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu in this December 28, 2004 file photo. Countries around the Indian Ocean hold ceremonies on December 26, 2005 to remember the many thousands who died in last year's tsunami, one of the deadliest disasters in modern history. A year on, a huge reconstruction operation has brought hope but the pain of losing loved ones is still raw, some survivors say. [Reuters]](xin_1512022710457041450820.jpg)
An Indian woman mourns the death of a relative
who was killed after an Indian Ocean tsunami hit Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu in
this December 28, 2004 file photo. Countries around the Indian Ocean hold
ceremonies on December 26, 2005 to remember the many thousands who died in
last year's tsunami, one of the deadliest disasters in modern history. A
year on, a huge reconstruction operation has brought hope but the pain of
losing loved ones is still raw, some survivors say.
[Reuters/file] | On Dec. 26, 2004, the region's most
powerful earthquake in 40 years tore open the sea bed off the Sumatran coast,
displacing billions of tons of water and sending waves roaring across the Indian
Ocean at jetliner speeds as far away as East Africa.
The impact was staggering. Water swept a passenger train from its tracks in
Sri Lanka, killing nearly 2,000 people in a single blow. Entire villages in
Indonesia and India disappeared. Lobbies of five-star hotels in Thailand were
filled with corpses.
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