Nias Recovery News

Nias marks one year since deadly quake

AFP - Yahoo
Tuesday March 28, 03:13 PM

GUNUNG SITOLI, Indonesia (AFP) - Indonesia held emotional ceremonies to mark one year since a deadly earthquake struck Nias island, as survivors remembered lost loved ones and looked ahead to the still-huge task of rebuilding.

Survivors, officials and aid workers lay flowers and lit candles at a Christian cemetery as they prayed for the more than 850 people killed by the 8.7-magnitude quake, which injured 6,000 and left tens of thousands homeless.

The quake, the second biggest worldwide since 1964, hit three months after the Indian Ocean tsunami lashed the island's shores and killed 140 people there, but was far more devastating for Nias. Some 13,000 homes were flattened.

The head of the agency overseeing rebuilding in tsunami-hit Aceh and Nias, Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, led the prayer ceremony and laid wreaths at the cemetery in Gunung Sitoli, the island's main town.

One of the survivors, 40-year-old housewife Mimi, said she had come to the cemetery to remember her mother.

"I'm very sad because I didn't have a chance to make her happy. Why did she leave us so soon?" she said, weeping as she lit a candle at her mother's grave.

Many of those buried at this cemetery were ethnic Chinese, a large minority group on Nias, which is a mainly Christian island in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
The tragedy in Nias, an island off the west coast of Sumatra, was largely overshadowed by the aftermath of the tsunami.

The walls of water on December 26, 2004 -- triggered by the biggest quake in forty years -- claimed 168,000 lives in Aceh in northern Sumatra and sparked an unprecedented global humanitarian response.

Three months after that, disaster struck Nias, with devastation strewn indiscriminately across the island where access was near impossible.

Mangkusubroto's office has said that besides the totally destroyed homes, about 58,000 suffered damage. The island's infrastructure was also badly hit, with some 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) of its road network made impassable.

Physical reconstruction was only launched last December, according to the agency.
The agency handed over 1,200 ready-to-use homes to survivors on Tuesday but before that only some 200 had been rebuilt.

"Let us pray to the Almighty and remember those whose lives were lost in the earthquake last year," Mangkusubroto told survivors at a ceremony to hand over the houses.
"Going forward there are great challenges facing us. Therefore everyone should stand up to build back Nias better."

US officials dedicated two new schools and two bridges on the island to mark the day, the embassy said.

The cost of rebuilding Nias stands at one billion dollars, half of which is needed to rebuild transport infrastructure alone.

Only 235 million dollars however has been pledged by the government and international donors, Mangkusubroto's agency said in a statement Tuesday.

At another ceremony attended by thousands of schoolchildren, Nias district chief Binahati Baeha said survivors should look to the future.

"Today Nias remembers what happened one year ago. Many of our friends and relatives died. But we must not dwell on sadness. It is time for us to rebuild Nias," he said.

A moment of silence was also due to be held at 11:09 pm (1609 GMT) on the island to mark the moment the quake struck.

AFP - Indonesia's Nias marks one year since deadly quake - Yahoo! News UK.mht

Labels: 2006

posted by BRR Perwakilan Nias @ 7:29 PM