World marks tsunami anniversary with prayers<\/p>\n
Agencies, Car Nicobar, India\/Stockholm<\/p>\n
Families of the tsunami victims across the world marked the
\nanniversary of the disaster on Monday with candlelight vigils and
\nsomber memorial ceremonies.<\/p>\n
India offered tearful tributes to the thousands killed in last
\nyear's tsunami with countrywide memorial services, silent marches
\nand beachside ceremonies.<\/p>\n
On the palm-fringed island of Car Nicobar, shattered by the
\nDec. 26 tragedy, the military unveiled a memorial while thousands
\nof civilian survivors, mostly Nicobarese tribespeople, left their
\nhomes early to remember those washed away within seconds when the
\ngiant waves struck.<\/p>\n
Women thronged Nicobar's beaches to pray for the sea to remain
\ncalm as priests called on villagers to gather at those churches
\nstill standing in remembrance of the dead.<\/p>\n
India lost more than 10,700 people confirmed killed, with
\n5,600 others listed as missing, as villages were wiped out along
\nits southern coast and in the Andaman and Nicobar island chain.<\/p>\n
It suffered material damage estimated by the United Nations at
\nUS$2.5 billion.<\/p>\n
In Nagapattinam, India's worst-hit district in the southern
\nstate of Tamil Nadu where more than 6,000 people died, each
\nvillage found its own way to remember the destruction.<\/p>\n
The entire district observed a minute's silence at 9:17 a.m.
\nat local time, the moment the waves slammed into the shore.<\/p>\n
In Thailand, Thousands of Thais and foreigners gathered on
\nbeaches across southern Thailand to mark the anniversary of last
\nyear's tsunami as Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra led a nation
\nin mourning the victims of the disaster.<\/p>\n
\"It is not often that we have the opportunity to be part of a
\nhistoric moment that will be remembered for generations to come,\"
\nThaksin said as he laid the foundation stone for a tsunami
\nmemorial here.<\/p>\n
Around 5,400 people were killed in Thailand alone -- 2,436 of
\nthem foreign tourists from 37 countries -- and another 637 are
\nlisted as missing.<\/p>\n
The ceremony came at the end of a day of commemorations
\nthroughout southern Thailand that saw Thais and foreigners come
\ntogether to remember the dead.<\/p>\n
At Bang Nieng in the worst hit province of Phang Nga, hundreds
\nlined up earlier in the day to sign remembrance books in the
\nshadow of a police patrol boat that was washed one kilometer
\ninland by the killer waves and now stands as a memorial to the
\ncatastrophe.<\/p>\n
Many of the messages were brief, with one reading, \"We miss
\nyou every day\", while another simply asked \"Why?!\"<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka remembered the Dec. 26 tsunami victims
\nwith prayers, flowers and a two-minute silence as survivors,
\nofficials and foreign diplomats gathered in a village that
\nsuffered the country's largest loss of life.<\/p>\n
Butchers hung up their knives to show respect for life while
\nBuddhist monks prepared to chant through the night on the first
\nanniversary of the disaster.<\/p>\n
In the southern village of Peraliya -- where the raging waves
\nswept a passenger train from its tracks, killing nearly 2,000 -
\nordinary Sri Lankans and international diplomats joined President
\nMahinda Rajapakse to honor the country's more than 35,000 dead
\nand missing, the second-highest count after Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Christian clergymen, representing
\nSri Lanka's four main religions, opened the ceremonies with
\nprayers. A two-minute silence followed at 9:30 a.m. local time --
\nthe time the waves hit -- and a temple bell rang nine times.
\nRajapakse placed flowers on a monument.<\/p>\n
In Sweden, one of the hardest-hit Western countries, national
\nbroadcaster SVT dedicated all programming on its second channel
\nto the anniversary. The special memorial program started with
\nlive coverage from a vigil at a Thai beach where dozens of
\nvacationing Swedes died a year ago.<\/p>\n
\"Even the sky cries with us today,\" Bishop Lennart Koskinen
\nsaid in Swedish as a light rain fell on the mourners gathered in
\nKhao Lak, a beach resort that was pounded by the tsunami.<\/p>\n
Candlelight vigils were planned later in the day throughout
\nSweden. The royal family and Prime Minister Goran Persson were to
\nattend a one-hour vigil in Stockholm, the capital.<\/p>\n
Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds, who has been harshly
\ncriticized for not reacting more quickly to the disaster, said
\nshe would not attend out of respect for the victims.<\/p>\n
More than 500 Swedes were killed in the tsunami - the biggest
\ntrauma the safe and prosperous country has experienced since the
\nsinking of the passenger ferry Estonia in the Baltic Sea in 1994.
\nThe government faced heavy criticism for failing to grasp the
\nscope of the disaster at an early stage and mount an effective
\nresponse.<\/p>\n
Germany honored the 534 Germans identified as lost in the
\ntsunami. Fifteen still are missing.<\/p>\n
\"None of them is forgotten,\" Development Minister Heidemarie
\nWieczorek-Zeul said late on Sunday in a statement.<\/p>",
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