Lampuk (Indonesia): Ikra Alfila has
rediscovered the joy of play, but the little 10-year-old still
has nightmares about giant waves five years after the tsunami
that killed everyone in her family except her father.
Life has resumed its tranquil course in Ikra`s fishing
village of Lampuk, which was all but wiped off the map on that
awful day on December 26, 2004, when an earthquake off the
Sumatran coast unleashed a wall of water.
Most of the physical damage has been cleaned up thanks
to a massive international relief effort, but the emotional
and psychological trauma for the survivors of Indonesia`s Aceh
province may never heal.
"Even if I wanted to, I couldn`t forget. It`s the same
for my friends who survived," Ikra says, her voice breaking.
Indonesia was the nation hardest hit by the tsunami,
with at least 168,000 people killed when the sea surged over
the northern tip of Sumatra island. Over 50,000 more died in
Sri Lanka, Thailand and India.
Images of the devastation around Lampuk, where the
mosque was the only building left standing in a landscape of
flattened trees and rubble, were flashed around the world in
the days after the disaster.
Houses, schools, businesses and markets were washed
away as far as seven kilometres inland, and more than one in
five villagers lost their lives.
PTI
