posted December 29, 2004 06:46 PM
...and on the otherside of the coin.COLOMBO, Sri Lanka Dec 29, 2004 — A fisherman who clung to his capsized boat for three days after huge waves swept the Indian Ocean was rescued Wednesday when the crew of a Sri Lankan air force helicopter happened to spot him at sea.
The aircraft had been on a mission to drop food to 300 people cut off by floodwaters when its crew glimpsed fisherman Sini Mohammed Sarfudeen hanging on to his boat off Kalmunai, a town 140 miles east of the capital, Colombo.
"He told us that since Sunday he had been floating in the sea," Group Capt. Ajantha De Silva said. "His condition was bad."
Sarfudeen was taken to the hospital in Kalmunai, where many people flocked to the beach to watch the rescue a rare bright spot amid a disaster that killed more than 22,000 of their countrymen.
One resident, Dr. Fazlul Rahman, was impressed with the fisherman's tenacity.
"It was good to see that the man had the will to live, and this is what saved him," Rahman said.
By CHRIS TOMLINSON
Associated Press Writer
KOVALLUM, India (AP) The villagers living along the highway between Madras and Pondicherry built on the high ground of the coastal plain, but the scattered wreckage and grass stained black by ocean mud show it wasn't high enough.
Thatched roofs lay on the ground Wednesday, tossed aside by tsunami waves that tore away the huts' mud walls from underneath them three days earlier.
New shantytowns were going up across the landscape, cobbled together from scraps of debris and tarpaulins handed out by aid workers but sited far inland from the blackened grass.
By ALISA TANG
Associated Press Writer
BAN NAM KHEM, Thailand (AP) This poor fishing village hemmed in by expensive tourist resorts wasn't missed by the devastating tsunami waves, but its people complained Wednesday that aid efforts are mostly passing them by.
Sorawat Kraipao, 42, manager of a fish processing company, was bitter as he pulled what was left of his furniture from his wrecked home, saying wealthy foreign tourists had gotten much more attention and help than the village's ethnic Thai and Burmese fishermen.
"Help? It was slow in coming," he said. "As for the tourism, the authorities gave that higher priority."
He said that when Thai officials visited the Khao Lak region, they went to the resorts.
"Here it was quiet," he said. "The problem was everywhere, but they focused on the tourist areas. The people here, our lives don't have the same meaning as theirs."
By S. SRINIVASAN
Associated Press Writer
NAGAPPATTINAM, India (AP) A noisy crowd jostled past a young mother holding her infant daughter heading for a load of clothes delivered to a shelter for those who lost their belongings and homes to the raging sea.
Carrying her baby in one arm, 22-year-old Kayalvizhi joined the rush Wednesday, but she turned away without taking anything.
"We may have lost our homes, but this is so demeaning," she said, pointing to the heap of old clothes piled next to the road. "The clothes were used ones, and wearing them is demeaning by itself. But they expect us to pick them up from the road. We don't want anything from them."
Relief officials had tossed the load of dresses outside the shelter and sped on. The clothes lay jumbled where chlorine powder was sprayed to combat contamination from decaying corpses. Thousands of people died in Nagappattinam, one of the worst hit towns along India's southern coast.
The homeless in this town of about 40,000 are getting food and water but little else, and people are losing patience with the authorities.
"How long can we sit here and beg for food? We just want to get back to our normal lives," said one refugee, who gave his name as Valarmathi. "We had our own boat to earn our daily bread. We didn't depend on others for our living. Just get us a boat and we don't need your alms."
By LELY T. DJUHARI
Associated Press Writer
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) Dirty bodies piled up at the bottom of a freshly dug pit Wednesday, looking like one of the mass graves that human rights groups discover from time to time in the jungles of Indonesia's Aceh province.
These weren't victims of Aceh's long-running insurgency. They were the dead from Sunday's earthquake and tsunami, and government officials are burying corpses as fast as possible.
It was a burial lacking any pomp and certainly no dignity. Trucks picked up bloated bodies from around this once-bustling provincial city and delivered them to an open field that once hosted children's soccer games. Two sputtering bulldozers covered them with earth.
A few miles away, a woman who identified herself as Ani sat beside her house waiting for someone to help dig out her five family members from beneath the piles of wood and concrete.
"My sister is still under here," she said. "I can see her clothes and arms, but I can't find anyone who can clear up the debris."
By SEAN YOONG
Associated Press Writer
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) Nearly 15,000 Myanmar soccer fans gathered to watch their national team compete in Southeast Asia's premier tournament Wednesday, but their enthusiasm was dulled by the loss of more than 90 of their countrymen to tsunami waves back home.
The crowd observed a minute of silence before the kickoff against Singapore to mourn the tens of thousands killed across southern Asia on Sunday.
Myanmar fan Hla Tun Min said the gesture comforted him and his friends, most of whom are migrant workers who have heard little news from home, where the secretive military regime rarely provides details of man-made or natural disasters.
"It was really kind of the organizers to think about all the victims," he said. "All that my friends and I know is from the radio. We heard a big wave hit our country, but there isn't any more information. So we are all very anxious and sad."
But Myanmar's supporters found no consolation in the match. Singapore won 4-3 in the first leg of the tournament's semifinal pairing.