Reuters Posted online: Friday, January 07, 2005 at 1421 hours IST
Banda Aceh (Indonesia), January 7: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan toured Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province on Friday, flying by helicopter to the razed town of Meulaboh, beyond which is a black hole of devastation.
"I must admit I have never seen such utter destruction, mile after mile. You wonder, where are the people?," said Annan on his return to the provincial capital, Banda Aceh.
Meulaboh on the west coast of the island of Sumatra is just 150 km (93 miles) from the epicentre of the undersea earthquake that sent a tsunami across Asia killing more the 153,000 people.
The United Nations estimates that one-third of Meulaboh's 120,000 people were killed when the giant waves ripped through on Dec. 26.
"I am deeply overwhelmed with the misery I just saw with my own eyes," said an emotional Tadao Chino, president of the Asian Development Bank who accompanied Annan, along with the leaders of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
But 12 days after the tsunami hit, and with aid merely trickling in to Meulaboh aboard US military helicopters, Annan said survivors were starting to rebuild their lives.
"We saw people begining to pick up the pieces of their lives and that tells us something about the resilience of the human spirit," Annan told reporters at a brief news conference.
"They will need help for post-traumatic stress. They are going to need help to build their houses ... they are going to need help to build boats so they can go back to fishing."
The UN chief has called on world leaders to honour their pledges of nearly $5 billion, citing the failure of nations to fully deliver on promised aid after previous disasters, such as the earthquake which hit the Iranian city of Bam in late 2003.
BLACK HOLE OF DESTRUCTION
Aceh province bore the full brunt of the tsunami, with 100,000 known dead or two-thirds of the victims across Asia, but the coastal area south of Meulaboh remains a black hole.
"We have no information at all below Meulaboh, it is a big worry," said Michael Elmquist, UN relief chief in Banda Aceh.
Satellite photographs of the area below Meulaboh on the west coast of Sumatra island showed an "area that used to be land is now sea", Elmquist told Reuters.
There are at least 20,000 people around Meulaboh in desperate need of aid and, with outlying areas still cut off, the number of dead, injured and homeless will rise, the United Nations says.
"The only way to describe some of the villages is extinct," said US helicopter pilot Scott Cohick after an airdrop to the area. "We drop off food where we are told and we save some to drop off to stragglers."
Many of the villages are just splintered homes to scores of orphans. "It is heartbreaking because most of them are little children. I hate to say it but a lot of parents are missing or buried," Cohick said.
Indonesia reported more than 7,000 new deaths on Friday, taking its toll to 101,318, almost all in Aceh.
PRAY FOR SURVIVAL
But as Annan toured the devastation, thousands in Banda Aceh gathered in the ravaged city's mosques to pray to Allah for forgiveness and for their survival.
For many Muslims in this northern Indonesian province the giant walls of water that crashed ashore were punishment.
"This is a test from Allah so that people are aware that they're making a mistake. A handful of people did bad deeds and all of us suffer," said restaurant owner Muhammad Saman.
A week ago the Grand Mosque Baiturrahman in Banda Aceh was full of dead bodies, a makeshift morgue, and later it became a refuge for the sick, injured and scared.
Today it stands like a beacon of hope in this wasteland, shining with a fresh coat of white paint courtesy of Indonesian soldiers who have prepared it for Friday prays.
"We are trying to recruit religious leaders to heal the psychological trauma," Indonesian Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab told Reuters. "The mental and physical trauma is immense."
Hospitals here are overflowing with sick and injured, with doctors forced to amputate badly infected limbs in desperate hope patients will survive -- but some do not.
"Today is day 12 after the tsunami so the wounds are badly infected," said anaesthetist Paul Luckin, an Australian navy lieutenant who has operated on patients for the past eight days.
"It's a life-or-limb decision," Luckin told Reuters.
The World Health Organisation has warned that Asia's death toll could double to 300,000 if diseases such as cholera break out. The United Nations says there have been no reports so far of disease outbreaks in Banda Aceh.
Despite their grief and injuries, hundreds of survivors determined to rebuild their lives queued from dawn on Thursday at aid stations and shops for food and clean water. A market bustled as people bought and sold vegetables, meat, chicken and rice.
