Tsunami creates bachelor villagers<\/p>\n
Bill Tarrant, Reuters\/Meunasah Mesjid, Aceh<\/p>\n
Nestled between steep, forested hills and a white sandy beach,
\nMeunasah Mesjid is one of Aceh's new bachelor villages after the
\nDec. 26 tsunami, which killed a disproportionate number of women
\nand children.<\/p>\n
The biggest tsunami ever recorded, triggered by the strongest
\nearthquake in 45 years, killed nine out of 10 people in this
\npicturesque village on Aceh's northern coast, a mere 150
\nkilometers from the quake's epicenter.<\/p>\n
Only 161 of Meunasah Mesjid's 1,110 people survived -- just 45
\nof them females.<\/p>\n
The people here now live in tents pitched amidst twisted cars,
\nendless piles of rubble and ruined paddy field, utterly dependent
\non distributions of food, water and other aid.<\/p>\n
\"A lot of the men were up in the hills cutting meranti trees
\nfor logs. Others were in the paddy fields and some men work in
\nthe city,\" said the village's recovery coordinator, Mulia,
\nexplaining why more men survived.<\/p>\n
Some men were also out fishing at sea and many of them
\nsurvived as the wave passed under their boats.<\/p>\n
In some villages, the disaster killed up to four times as many
\nwomen as men, international aid group Oxfam said after a survey
\nof villages. Its finding were similar in India and Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n
\"In some villages it now appear that up to 80 percent of those
\nkilled were women,\" Becky Buell, Oxfam's policy director, said in
\nthe report released on March 26.<\/p>\n
\"We are already hearing about rapes, harassment and forced
\nearly marriages,\" she said.<\/p>\n
A group of women gathered at lunchtime in the community hall,
\nnow being used as the tsunami recovery center, said that hadn't
\nhappened in Meunasah Mesjid. But single, divorced and widowed
\nwomen acknowledged they were coming under pressure to marry.<\/p>\n
\"I get a lot of pressure to marry and have children, but I
\nhaven't found my soulmate yet,\" said Omrahwati, 32, who like many
\nothers in the village was wearing a hat, shirt, gloves and
\ngaloshes that the U.S. Agency for International Development
\n(USAID) is distributing to villages throughout Aceh as part of a
\nclean-up campaign.<\/p>\n
\"There's pressure,\" said Elliyana, 19. \"I want to marry an
\nAcehnese. There's a lot of choices now, so that's good.\"<\/p>\n
The tsunami took an appalling toll on children, many of whom
\nwere home on a Sunday morning with their mothers.<\/p>\n
Mulia said in Meunasah only eight children between the ages of
\ntwo to nine survived, along with four teenagers.<\/p>\n
Many women and young children, struggling to stay afloat or on
\ntheir feet, simply tired and drowned when the tsunami, traveling
\nat speeds of 45 kms an hour or more, raced across Aceh's coastal
\nplain.<\/p>\n
Women clinging to one or several children would tire even more
\nquickly, Oxfam said.<\/p>\n
\"I'm afraid to get married again,\" said Zora, 35 and divorced.
\nThree of her five children were lost in the tsunami. \"But I do
\nwant to have children again.\"<\/p>\n
Men may face problems of their own once their lives regain
\nsome semblance of normalcy as they take on unfamiliar household
\ntasks or look after their families.<\/p>\n
Some may could become willing recruits for Acehnese separatist
\nrebels hiding up in the hills.<\/p>\n
The men in the community hall say their sympathies are with
\nthe Free Aceh Movement, known by its Indonesian acronym, GAM. But
\nthey are hedging their bets.<\/p>\n
\"People here are 'wait and see'. If GAM is winning, they'll
\njoin the revolution. If the government is winning, they'll follow
\nthe government. But our sympathy is with GAM,\" said one
\nfisherman.<\/p>\n
A rebel commander who grew up in Meunasah came out of the
\nhills a day after the disaster to hand out rice and fish -- the
\nfirst aid distribution in the village, Mulia said.<\/p>\n
But the men might also find gainful employment courtesy of the
\nUSAID, which is building a 247 km road from the capital Banda
\nAceh on the northern tip of Sumatra to Meulaboh on the west
\ncoast. The road will run through Meunasah.<\/p>\n
USAID said its primary objective is to make a \"significant
\ncontribution to improving livelihoods, employment and the local
\neconomy.\"<\/p>",
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