Home>News Center>World
         
 

Toll tops 175,000, Sri Lanka adds thousands
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-17 20:03

Sri Lanka's tsunami death toll shot up on Monday as officials said the more they cleared up, the more bodies they found.

The island added another 7,275 victims to its list of the dead, taking the national toll over 38,000 and the overall toll around Indian Ocean nations to 175,458.


Refugee children try to catch relief goods tossed from an Australian military helicopter Monday, Jan. 17, 2005 in a rice paddy in Lampaya, outskirts of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. [AP]

"We are coming across dead bodies on a daily basis as we clear the rubble," said Tilak Ranavirajah, a senior public security ministry official.

Hardest-hit Indonesia has steadily raised its total, but Sri Lanka's body count had stabilized around 30,000 until Monday.

U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz flew to the island to see the clean-up efforts in the southern port of Galle.

Sri Lanka said it would begin its tsunami reconstruction phase on Wednesday in the obliterated town of Hambantota.

"We were not prepared at all ... to face a disaster like this," said President Chandrika Kumaratunga. "The people of this country faced it effectively, they are in a position to rebuild."

It is 22 days since a powerful earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra island triggered the deadliest waves on record that hit more than a dozen countries from Asia to Africa.

Sri Lankans have now begun rebuilding tsunami-hit homes and hotels close to the shore, in defiance of a government ban.

"I'm worried about my family but I'm also worried about the future of my children. This is my business. How else will I protect and feed my children?" said Ranjith Premakumara, 28, rebuilding a guest house on its old foundations just 30 meters (yards) from the beach in the southern town of Paiyagala South.

RELATIVES NEED BODIES

In Thailand, Prime Minister Goran Persson of Sweden -- which lost hundreds of people -- visited a Buddhist temple turned mortuary with his Norwegian and Finnish counterparts, Kjell Magne Bondevik and Matti Vanhanen.

It houses hundreds of corpses from nearby Khao Lak resort, which forensics experts are trying to identify -- crucial for families left without a body to grieve over.

"I'm impressed and I'm also extremely humbled because they're doing a very difficult job here under difficult circumstances," Persson said.

The trio was greeted by angry villagers demonstrating against Thai plans to move the mortuary and forensic operation from the temple to Phuket island, two hours drive to the south.

Nearly 2,000 Swedes are dead or unaccounted for. The tsunami looks set to be the greatest national tragedy in two centuries for a country that stayed neutral in the world wars.

Tens of thousands of bodies around the region may never be recovered, worsening the trauma.

In the Indian town of Seruthur, Lakshmi Kolandavelu refuses to believe her husband when he says their two-year-old son, torn from her arms by the waves and missing, is dead and probably buried in a mass grave with three of his four siblings.

"We never found their bodies," she says, shaking her head.

"The sea goddess gave us five children and snatched back four," says her husband.

TEARS AND DEEDS

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the tsunami brought tragedy but also heroism in Sumatra's Aceh province.

"To this day, all of Indonesia is united in tears and deeds," he said.

His government sought at the weekend to reassure U.S. and other foreign troops bringing relief in Aceh -- an area suffering a long-running separatist rebellion -- that it did not plan to send them home by late March, as one official earlier said.

After talks with Wolfowitz, who visited Aceh, Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said there was no deadline but a March 26 target for Indonesia to take over most of the aid effort.

Mark Collins, head of Aceh operations for relief group AusAID, said things were slowly looking up.

"There has been a great deal of progress," he said. "Immediate needs of foods and shelter are being met."

"We have been very fortunate there has been no widespread outbreak of diarrhoea, or gastro-intestinal diseases so far," he said, suggesting that this was because local people had taken in as many of the homeless as they could to look after them.

Indonesian soldiers fumigated parts of the provincial capital Banda Aceh. "The purpose is to kill the insects, mosquitoes, cockroaches, rats and flies," soldier Dwi Joko said.

KOBE GRIEF

In Japan, Kobe city residents marked the 10th anniversary of their own quake in solemn pre-dawn ceremonies, remembering their 6,433 dead and praying for the tsunami's victims.

"I couldn't bear to see the news, how hard it is for them," said Tomiko Fujimoto, whose son died in Kobe. "It made me think of everything all over again."

Kobe's experience -- of a smaller disaster in a rich nation -- made clear how hard the future may be for tsunami survivors.

"The 10 years have been both short and long. We've worked so hard to try and get our lives back," Fujimoto said.



 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

Cross-Straits jets ready for take-off

 

   
 

Zhao Ziyang, 85, passes away in Beijing

 

   
 

'Go-west' speeds up in next five years

 

   
 

80 officials entangled in bank loan swindle

 

   
 

Party issues outline to fight corruption

 

   
 

Anti-gambling war forces 84 casinos to close

 

   
  Toll tops 175,000 as Sri Lanka adds thousands
   
  Israel holds off on action in Gaza Strip
   
  Iraq is Bush's Vietnam: Senator Kennedy
   
  U.S. arrests dozens ahead of Iraq vote
   
  Ukraine court to rule on Yushchenko taking power
   
  U.S. military releases about 80 Afghans
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  News Talk  
  Are the Republicans exploiting the memory of 9/11?  
Advertisement
         
主站蜘蛛池模板: 国产成人亚洲精品无码青青草原| 狠狠色狠狠色综合日日不卡| 好男人在线社区www| 久久夜色精品国产尤物| 精品国产午夜福利在线观看| 国产美女一级做受在线观看| 久久久久黑人强伦姧人妻| 热re99久久精品国产99热| 四虎永久在线精品视频免费观看| 黄色片一级免费看| 女人是男人的未来视频| 亚洲av无码码潮喷在线观看 | 成人黄色激情视频| 亚洲精品国产成人| 菠萝菠萝蜜在线免费视频| 国产自在线观看| baoyu122.永久免费视频| 日韩欧美久久一区二区| 亚洲啪啪AV无码片| 精品久久久BBBB人妻| 国产成人精品视频福利app| 一级午夜a毛片免费视频| 日本高清二三四本2021第九页| 亚洲色图欧美在线| 精品久久久久久亚洲综合网| 国产成人午夜高潮毛片| 2018中文字幕第一页| 国内精品久久久久伊人av| 中文字幕亚洲综合久久综合 | 四虎1515hh丶com| tom影院亚洲国产一区二区| 成人免费大片免费观看网站| 亚洲人成网站18禁止久久影院 | 国产成人精品午夜在线播放| h视频在线观看免费完整版| 国产精品国产三级在线专区| 2022国产精品最新在线| 国产精品美女网站在线看| 91华人在线视频| 成人免费视频69| 中文字幕在线亚洲精品|