People mourn 20 years since the Indian Ocean tsunami: NPR

BANDA ACEH, INDONESIA — People offered prayers and witnessed a mass grave in Indonesia’s Aceh province on Thursday, marking 20 years since the Indian Ocean tsunami hit the region in one of the worst natural disasters in modern history. visited.

Many shed tears as they laid flowers at a mass grave in the village of Ure Ryu, where more than 14,000 unidentified tsunami victims are buried. It is one of several mass graves in Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia’s northernmost province, one of the areas hardest hit by the magnitude 9.1 earthquake and resulting tsunami.

“We miss them and we still don’t know where they are. What we do know is that we visit the mass graves in Uli Lu and Shillong every year. It’s just that,” said Muhammad Amiruddin, who lost his two children 20 years ago and has never visited since. discovered their bodies.

Amiruddin visited the grave with his wife and said: “This life is temporary, so we will do our best to help others.”

A powerful earthquake off the coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island on December 26, 2004 triggered a tsunami that killed around 230,000 people in more than a dozen countries and reached as far as East Africa. Approximately 1.7 million people were forced to evacuate, mostly in the four worst-hit countries: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand.

More than 170,000 people have died in Indonesia alone.

Two decades later, Indonesian survivors are still grieving the lives of loved ones lost in the massive wave that leveled buildings as far as Banda Aceh, the provincial capital.

Hundreds of people gathered to pray at the Baiturahman Mosque in downtown Banda Aceh. Sirens sounded throughout the city for three minutes, warning of an earthquake.

Aceh’s infrastructure has been rebuilt and is now better than before the tsunami hit. Early warning systems have been installed in coastal areas to warn residents of the coming tsunami, providing critical time to ensure safety.

Reconstruction efforts were made possible with the support of international donors and organizations, who provided significant funding for the region’s recovery. Schools, hospitals and critical infrastructure destroyed by the disaster have been rebuilt.

In Thailand, people gathered for a memorial service in Bang Nam Khem, a small fishing village in Phang Nga province that bore the brunt of the country’s devastating tsunami.

The tsunami killed more than 8,000 people in Thailand, many of whom are still missing, and left a deep scar on the country’s history. Nearly 400 bodies have not been recovered.

Mourners wept and comforted each other as they laid flowers at the village’s tsunami memorial. About 300 people attended the small ceremony, which featured Muslim, Christian and Buddhist prayers.

Ulay Silisk said he is avoiding the seaside memorial park for the rest of the year because his heart still hurts every time he remembers his 4-year-old daughter’s death.

“I feel like the ocean took my child away. I’m so angry. I can’t even put my feet in the ocean,” she said.

But she said: “I can still hear her voice. She’s calling me. I can’t abandon her. So I have to be here for my child.”

In India, hundreds of people gathered at Marina Beach in Chennai, a city in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. They poured milk into the sea to appease the gods, offered flowers and prayed to the dead as drums pounded in the background.

According to official data, 10,749 people have been killed in India, including nearly 7,000 in Tamil Nadu alone.

“It’s been 20 years since the tsunami,” said Sadayammal, a 69-year-old self-proclaimed man. “We are here to honor those who lost their lives.”

In Sri Lanka, survivors and relatives of tsunami victims gathered in the coastal village of Pereliya to lay flowers at a memorial to the nearly 2,000 passengers who died when the Queen of the Sea train was struck by waves. did. Only a few dozen people are thought to have survived.

Anura Ranjith also joined the mourners to pay tribute to her sister Anura Ranjani and her nine-year-old daughter, who were passengers on the train. After that day, I did not hear from Ranjith.

“I have searched everywhere for them for many years and still have no information about them. Their loss is a great sadness and pain for me. I am still grieving,” he said. said.

Overall, more than 35,000 people died in the tsunami in Sri Lanka. On Thursday, people across the country held two minutes of silence in memory of those who lost their lives.