Few survivors feared among messengers<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
A lot of people count on them to bring the news, especially
\nnow as traumatized survivors search frantically for lost family
\nmembers, but almost all of 80 journalists from the only daily
\nnewspaper based in Aceh -- Serambi Indonesia -- are missing and
\nfeared dead.<\/p>\n
The latest stories published on the Serambi website are from
\nSaturday's edition.<\/p>\n
As the main paper covering Aceh, the journalists have become
\naccustomed to threats, intimidation and violence amid the
\nconflict in the province that began in earnest in 1989 when the
\nmilitary started operations to root out the Free Aceh Movement
\n(GAM). Despite those risks, nothing could have prepared them for
\nwhat is becoming known as the Boxing Day debacle.<\/p>\n
Along with the newspaper's other staff members, the missing
\njournalists are among 230 employees based in Banda Aceh and other
\nareas, who work for the Jakarta-based publishing group Gramedia.
\nGramedia also publishes the country's largest newspaper, Kompas.<\/p>\n
\"We fear for the worse,\" said Gramedia public relations chief
\nAgus Parengkuan, also refering to employees of the group's
\nbookstore. The Kompas bureau chief in Aceh checked the homes of
\nmany of the missing employees, including that of Najmuddin Umar,
\nwho also reports for Kompas. Like the others, \"His house was no
\nlonger there\" an executive at Kompas said.<\/p>\n
The Serambi office and printing house were among the buildings
\nin downtown Banda Aceh that were totally destroyed, either by the
\nmassive 9.0-earthquake or the resulting tidal waves on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Serambi was established in the early 1990s by several senior
\nKompas journalists, including its editor-in-chief Syamsul Kahar,
\nwho survived the tragedy.<\/p>\n
Since Sunday, media companies outside Aceh were also trying
\nfrantically to locate their reporters and staff based in the
\nprovince. As of Tuesday, some were found to be safe including The
\nJakarta Post's Nani Afrida and Nur Raihan of detik.com. Nani
\nsounded traumatized, while Raihan cited \"God's miracle\" that she
\nand her family escaped \"a four-meter wave just behind our car.\"
\nBehind them other cars vanished into the wall of water, which
\nswallowed up most of Banda Aceh, she said.<\/p>\n
Raihan's colleague explained that reporting was still quite
\ndifficult in Banda Aceh. \"With a lack of gasoline, everyone's
\njust walking from place to place,\" he said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/few-survivors-feared-among-messengers-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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