Life slowly returns to Banda Aceh<\/p>\n
Harry Bhaskara, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh<\/p>\n
The following articles are based on a three-day
\nvisit by Harry Bhaskara of The Jakarta Post to Aceh
\non June 7. The visit was sponsored by the Melbourne-
\nbased Asia Pacific Journalism Center and was made
\ntogether with eight Australian journalists.<\/p>\n
Banda Aceh seems to have a second soul: The commercial part of
\nthe city is bustling with life.<\/p>\n
Except for a few shattered buildings, few traces remain of the
\ncatastrophic earthquake and tsunami that struck six months ago.<\/p>\n
"This is exactly what it was like before the tsunami," says
\nUdin, a civil servant in Banda Aceh.<\/p>\n
Most restaurants, shops and offices have been reopened.
\nChildren in school uniforms walk along the streets. The
\nubiquitous motorized becak (pedicabs) are back in service.
\nYoungsters play soccer in muddy fields.<\/p>\n
The evening cafes along Jl. Machmudsyah, catering to a young
\nclientele, have been reopened. Teenagers park their motorbikes on
\nside streets and sip coffee and soft drinks as darkness falls.<\/p>\n
"It says in the Koran that a huge amount of water is poured
\ninto the land," says Bachtiar, a 53-year-old civil servant in
\nBanda Aceh. "We have to accept the tsunami as something that was
\nsent by God. It is not right to vent our anger at God."<\/p>\n
He said this awareness came slowly following what seemed to be
\nan endless feeling of sadness.<\/p>\n
Juwai of Deah Baru village said Acehnese were used to gales
\nand storms, but the tsunami was something they could not escape.<\/p>\n
"We should accept our fate; it is God's will that we have to
\ngo through this suffering," he said.<\/p>\n
The smoothly flowing traffic in Banda Aceh is a far cry from
\nthe scene of destruction immediately after the Dec. 26 tsunami,
\nwhen it took more than two hours to travel just one kilometer.<\/p>\n
"I will never forget the scenes of utter destruction I saw
\nwhen I arrived here," says Enayet Madani, a UN government liaison
\nofficer in Banda Aceh who was out of the capital when the tsunami
\nstruck.<\/p>\n
"The streets were full of bodies, debris and mud. Nobody did
\nanything about it because people were frantically looking for
\ntheir loved ones," he says.<\/p>\n
But the havoc brought about by the tsunami is much more
\npronounced in those parts of the city within three kilometers of
\nthe coast. Shattered buildings lie in ruins, testament to the
\nearthquake measuring 9.8 on the Richter scale that preceded the
\ntsunami. More than 129,000 people died in the earthquake and
\ntsunami and a further 90,000 are unaccounted for. The apocalyptic
\nscale of the disaster is most visible in coastal areas like Lhok
\nNga and Baet village.<\/p>\n
These are places of total destruction.<\/p>\n
The tsunami may have occurred six months ago, but its impact
\nis still felt.<\/p>\n
"I only found out today that one of my cousins died in the
\ntsunami," said Nina Darmawan who was living in Medan at the time
\nof the tsunami but has since moved to Banda Aceh. "I have been
\nsearching for her for six months and I met a friend today who
\ntold me that she had already died."<\/p>\n
She said her sister, who lives in a coastal area of Banda
\nAceh, heard two huge explosions just before the earthquake on
\nDec. 26. "The explosion seemed to originate from the bottom of
\nthe sea," she said, quoting her sister.<\/p>\n
People also wonder whether the parties held on Dec. 25 to
\ncelebrate the upcoming New Year helped invoke God's anger.<\/p>\n
"Last year's parties were exceptionally raucous. People were
\npartying through the night until the early morning on beaches in
\nBanda Aceh," said Udin.<\/p>",
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