‘Many promises of aid, but that’s all — promises’

IN Indonesia’s Aceh province on Sumatra island, one survivor dismissively gestured at a jumble of scrap iron and plastic sheeting — all that remains of his neighbourhood.

"You want to talk about changes, we've seen nothing," said Baihqi, 24. "Many promises of aid, but that's all we get promises."

Of the anniversary, he said: "It just means we've existed for one year. We're still around."

The world's grief and compassion returned to the Indian Ocean's tsunami-battered shores yesterday, marking a year since giant waves crashed ashore in a dozen countries, laying waste to communities and sweeping away at least 216,000 lives.

Beside gentle seas that belied the fury unleashed last December 26, survivors, friends and relatives commemorated the lost lives and destruction from one of the worst natural disasters in memory. World leaders sent condolences.

The tsunami generated one of the most generous outpourings of foreign aid ever known. Some €11 billion was pledged to relief and recovery efforts, the UN says, of which 75% has already been secured.

But the pace of reconstruction has been criticised, and frustration has grown with 80% of the 1.8 million people displaced by the waves still living in tents, plywood barracks or with family and friends.

In Aceh, the closest land to the magnitude 9 quake that spawned the waves, the president sounded a tsunami warning siren to start a minute's silence at 8.16am (1.16am Irish time) the moment the first wave struck.

"It was under the same blue sky, exactly one year ago that mother earth unleashed her most destructive power upon us," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said. "The assault began with a massive earthquake but ... that was only a prelude to the horrific catastrophe to come."

Similar silences were observed in Thailand and Sri Lanka, where President Mahinda Rajapakse joined ceremonies near the site where the raging waves swept a passenger train from its tracks, killing nearly 2,000 people.

Muslim, Christian, Buddhist and Hindu prayers services were being held across the tsunami zone; flags were lowered to half-staff, and bells rung.

Some preferred more personal reflection.

On Thailand's Patong beach, one man sat weeping in the sand before a gently lapping sea, a bouquet of white roses in front of him.

He was among hundreds of Westerners, including survivors and relatives of those killed, who travelled to sites along Thailand's world famous beach front where their loved ones died or disappeared.

"Somehow it's good to see this place," said Ulrika Landgren, 37, of Malmo, Sweden, weeping as she visited the beach where nine family friends died.

Last year's earthquake the most powerful in 40 years ruptured the sea floor off Sumatra, displacing billions of tons of water and sending 30-yard high walls of water roaring across the Indian Ocean at jetliner speeds.

Their impact was staggering.

The tsunami swept away entire villages in Aceh and Sri Lanka, swamped five-star resorts in Thailand and surged into coastal communities from India to east Africa.

On that day, Muhammad Yani clung to the second floor of an Aceh mosque, watching waters full of people and rubbish roll past him.

"I was not afraid at the time," said Yani, 35, who later learned that his parents and a younger brother were killed. "I was more aware than ever that my soul belonged to Allah."

Indonesia for the first time tested its tsunami warning system in Sumatra yesterday a chilling reminder that the island sits on one of the world's most unstable geological fault lines and is still vulnerable. Scores of powerful aftershocks have rumbled through the region all year.

"We knew it was just a drill," said Candra Yohanes, 55, who was among thousands of residents of Padang town who fled to higher ground when the sirens rang out. "Still, when I heard the siren, my heart was pounding so hard."

At least 216,000 people were killed or disappeared in the waves. The UN puts the number at least 223,000, though it says some countries are still updating their figures.

The true toll will probably never be known. Many bodies were lost at sea and population data in some places was destroyed.

"It was so brutal, so quick, and so extensive that we are still struggling to fully comprehend it," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a videotaped message yesterday.