Survivors and grieving relatives of victims yesterday held the first ceremonies marking one year since the Indian Ocean tsunami swept away at least 216,000 lives in one of the world's worst recent natural disasters.
Western tourists who returned to the beaches of southern Thailand where they were caught in the disaster were among hundreds of people who launched a boat laden with flowers, candles and incense to ward off evil spirits.
Ceremonies in Thailand yesterday were the first of hundreds due to be held to mark the disaster's grim anniversary in the dozen countries hit by the earthquake-spawned waves on Dec. 26 last year.
The mourning comes as survivors and officials take stock of the massive relief operation and peace processes in Sri Lanka and Indonesia's Aceh province, the two places hardest hit by the tsunami. In both cases, success has been mixed.
At Bang Niang beach in Thailand's Phang Nga Province, hundreds of mourners placed offerings into a brightly colored, bird-shaped boat that was floated into the Andaman Sea as members of the local Moken, or sea gypsy, community chanted and banged drums.
Peter Pruchniewitz, 68, who was swept from his hotel room and lost a friend to the waves a year ago, returned from Zurich, Switzerland, to attend anniversary ceremonies. Asked why, he said simply, ``to remember.''
In hardest-hit Indonesia, workers yesterday scaled the minarets of the imposing 16th century mosque in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, replacing missing tiles and slapping on a fresh coat of whitewash in preparation for special services tomorrow.
The tsunami resulted in a cease-fire between the government and Aceh's separatist guerillas and thousands of people have moved into new homes built with some of the billions of dollars in foreign aid that poured in after the disaster.
But aid agencies say 80 percent of Indonesians who lost their homes are still waiting for a new one.
In Sri Lanka, troops yesterday patrolled the streets of the capital, Colombo, amid boosted security for ceremonies marking the tsunami's anniversary.
Disputes over aid delivery and an upsurge in violence blamed on separatist Tamil Tiger rebels have dashed hopes that the tsunami would bring a final end to the country's long-running civil conflict.
Exactly one year ago tomorrow, the most powerful earthquake in four decades -- magnitude 9 -- ripped apart the ocean floor off Sumatra, displacing millions of tonnes of water and spawning giant waves that spread in all directions, picking up speed as they neared land.
Almost 400,000 homes were reduced to rubble and more than 2 million people left without a place to live, according the UN. The livelihoods of 1.5 million were swept away.
The tsunami generated an unprecedented outpouring of generosity, with donor pledges reaching some US$13.6 billion.
Rebuilding has started in some places, and fishing boats and seeds have been handed out to kick-start ruined village economies.
But many refugee camps are still full, with residents relying on aid handouts to survive, and the UN and others have expressed concern about the pace of rebuilding.
The small Christian communities in tsunami-hit countries were preparing Christmas services yesterday, and Muslim clerics in Aceh urged people to keep their end of year celebrations solemn to respect the tsunami dead.
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