Banda Aceh: A girl who was swept away in the Indian Ocean tsunami seven years ago has been reunited with her parents.
Fifteen-year-old Wati showed up at a cafe in Meulaboh, a city in Aceh province, earlier this week, saying she'd been forced to work as a beggar and had finally broken free.
She said she was looking for her family.
Wati was led to a man named Ibrahim, her grandfather, who summoned her parents, Yusniar and Yusuf.
The parents said they lost three daughters when the tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations slammed into their tiny village of Ujong Baroh.
The mother, Yusniar, said she recognized Wati by the small scar over her eyebrow and a mole on her hip.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, December 23, 2011, 17:34