♥Monday, December 26, 2005.

hi guys. is indeed sad over ppl who died coz of tsunami

article frm channel newasia

Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 26 December 2005 1450 hrs

Prayer, tears as Asia marks tsunami anniversary

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia : Tearful mourners from around the world gathered Monday to light candles and offer prayers on the anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami, one of the deadliest natural disasters ever.

From Indonesia to Sri Lanka, on beaches, at mosques and in churches, survivors and relatives remembered the more than 220,000 people killed when the waves slammed into a dozen countries exactly one year ago.

The day's solemn commemorations began in Indonesia, where President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono led an emotional ceremony with a minute's silence to remember the 168,000 people killed in Aceh, which bore the brunt of the disaster.

"Let us now bow our heads in silence to pray for the souls of hundreds of thousands who lost their lives," he said.

"May they rest in peace by God's sight," he said, sounding a wailing siren that forms part of an early warning system being set up to prevent a repeat of the tragedy. No such mechanism was in place when the waves struck last year.

The catastrophe brought grief into lives of people across the globe, killing locals and foreigners, the young and the old, with many of the victims simply washed away, leaving their desperate relatives hoping against all hope.

"I've announced their names and had their photographs printed in newspapers and shown on television but there is no news about them," Tuti Suyanti, 32, said of the two children and 10 other family members she lost.

"Somehow I still hold out hope that I will find them but I leave everything in the hands of God," she said.

In the Indonesian town of Padang, officials tested the warning system for the first time Monday, with emergency personnel evacuating residents amid efforts to prevent a similar tragedy from ever happening again.

"It was so brutal, so quick, so extensive that we are still struggling to fully comprehend it," UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a video message broadcast at the Aceh ceremony. "A year on, there has been tremendous progress in many areas ... And yet in some ways, the most challenging days lie ahead," he said.

Some two million people across the region were left homeless by the disaster, and hundreds of thousands of them are still living in tents or temporary shelters.

A massive undersea earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra triggered the giant waves, which hit as far west as Africa, and pounded shorelines in Asia with ferocious speed and power.

In southern Thailand, where some 5,400 Thais and foreign holidaymakers were killed, mourners signed books of remembrance or tossed flowers into the sea as they gathered along the battered beaches where their loved ones died.

Swedish couple Mari Olsson and Michael Sanden came back with their two surviving daughters to honour the memory of a third who was killed when the entire family was caught up in the giant waves.

"We didn't want to be home at Christmas. We didn't want to celebrate," Olsson said.

On Phi Phi island, some 1,500 people gathered to lay orchids and garlands of white flowers at a tsunami altar, including Thai diving instructor Apichart Mukda, who broke his leg in the disaster.

"The tsunami is my worst memory," he said, speaking from a wheelchair.

Sri Lanka's president led his nation in paying tribute to an estimated 31,000 people who perished along its coastline.

President Mahinda Rajapakse stood with his head bowed after an inter-faith service and observed two minutes of silence in the village of Peraliya, where over 1,000 people perished when their train was hit by giant waves.

Saffron-robed Buddhist monks conducted a brief ceremony to invoke blessings on those killed by the tsunami just before Christian, Hindu and Muslim clerics conducted services for the dead.

Candlelight vigils were planned for after sunset along the island's coastlines that were battered by the destructive waves.

In India, where more than 10,700 people were killed and 5,600 others are listed as missing, survivors offered tearful tributes.

The worst-hit district in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, where almost 6,000 people died, observed a minute's silence at the moment the waves slammed into the shore here.

In some villages trees were planted for each of the dead, while in others lamps and candles were lit and religious services and beachside ceremonies were held.

On the palm-fringed island of Car Nicobar, India's military unveiled a memorial while women thronged Nicobar's once-fabulous beaches to pray to their gods for the sea to remain calm. Priests called on villagers to gather at the still-standing churches in remembrance of those who died.

US President George W. Bush sent a message of support to the suffering. "Nature is an awesome force and it can inflict great tragedy, yet throughout history, humanity has come back from fire and flood to build anew," he said in a recorded message broadcast at the ceremony in Aceh.

"May Almighty God comfort all those affected by the tsunami and give them strength in the years ahead." - AFP /ct