Prayers, fear, anguish in affected countries

Sri Lankan woman Anuska sits among the rubble of her house at Seenigama village, some 90 km south of Colombo, yesterday exactly a month after deadly tsunami struck causing widespread destruction. PHOTO: AFP

Hundreds of Sri Lankan mourners dressed in traditional white gathered in Colombo's Indepe-ndence Square for a silent vigil at the moment the tsunami struck on Dec. 26, leaving nearly 300,000 dead or missing around the Indian Ocean from Somalia to Thailand.

Indian police used loudspeakers to dispel rumours that another tsunami would strike, a month to the day after the first giant waves were triggered by a magnitude 9 earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra island.

Teachers and students hugged and cried together as damaged schools in Indonesia's Aceh province, at the northern tip of Sumatra island, opened their doors. Books and desks dried in the open air.

"I'm glad to be back, but I'm also sad because many of my friends are not here. I don't know where they are," said Aceh schoolgirl Eva Wahyuni, fighting back tears.

Only 300 of the nearly 900 students enrolled before the tsunami turned up for class. Authorities in Aceh, which was home to most of Indonesia's more than 220,000 dead and missing, say the tsunami killed 45,000 schoolchildren and more than 2,300 teachers and administrators.

In India's ravaged southern state of Tamil Nadu, coastal villages appeared to have overcome fears of another tsunami. Children played on beaches and relief workers helped fishermen move hundreds of damaged boats.

"I think the tsunami won't come again but I always keep an eye on the sea to ensure that it is normal. I wouldn't go near the sea alone," said Thankaraj, who sat with a group of fishermen in the shadow of a badly damaged boat at Nagapattinam's harbour.

Authorities used public address systems, radio and television to ease fears another tsunami would lash the area on Wednesday.

In one of the few formal commemorations for the dead, Sri Lankans gathered in Colombo at 9:36 a.m., the moment the tsunami struck the island.

But the worst affected, living in tents among the ruins of homes along Sri Lanka's southern, eastern and northern shores, did not join in. Displaced families near the southern town of Galle knew nothing of plans for a nationwide minute's silence.

In southern Thailand, where thousands of tourists and locals were killed by the tsunami, people remain jittery.

A deeply superstitious people, Thais have reported hundreds of ghost sightings, in particular the restive spirits of tourists crying out to locals, or summoning taxis.

Hundreds of Acehnese demonstrated in Jakarta on Wednesday to demand the Indonesian government allow foreign troops that responded to the tsunami disaster to stay in Aceh. Officials have said they expect most foreign troops to leave by late March.