A generation of young Asians lost in an epic disaster
A generation of young Asians lost in an epic disaster
S. Srinivasan,
Associated Press/Cuddalore, India
The buzz of grim conversation in the darkened morgue was broken
by a man's shriek as the small body was lowered on a bed. "My
son, my king!" wailed Venkatesh, hugging the limp shrouded
bundle.
Thousands of miles away in Indonesia, farmer Yusya Yusman
aimlessly searched the beaches for his two children lost in
Sunday's tsunami. "My life is over," he said emotionlessly.
In country after country, children have emerged as the biggest
victims of Sunday's quake-born tidal waves - thousands and
thousands drowned, battered and washed away by huge walls of
water that have decimated an entire generation of Asians.
"The power of this earthquake, and its huge geographical
reach, are just staggering," said United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF) Executive Director Carol Bellamy. Hundreds of thousands
of children who managed to survive in the affected coastal
communities now "may be in serious jeopardy," she added.
The UN organization estimates at least one-third of the tens
of thousands who died were children, and the proportion could be
up to half, said UNICEF spokesman Alfred Ironside in New York. He
said communities are suffering a double loss: dead children and
orphaned boys and girls.
"Our major concern is that the kids who survived the tsunami
now survive the aftermath. Because children are the most
vulnerable to disease and lack of proper nutrition and water."
Children make up at least half of the population in Asia. Many
of them work alongside poverty-stricken parents in the fishing or
related industries in coastal areas, so they were in harm's way
when the tidal waves came. Many children from the more affluent
families would also have been on the beaches for a stroll or for
Sunday picnics.
In Sri Lanka, which suffered the biggest loss of life in the
tsunami, crowds had come to the beaches to watch the sea after
word spread that it was producing larger-than-normal waves.
Thousands of children joined their elders to see the
spectacle. The waves brought in fish. The old and the young
collected them. Many waited for more fun.
Then the 6-meter tidal waves hit the tropical island of 19
million people.
"They got caught and could not run to safety. This is the
reason why we have so many child victims," said Rienzie Perera, a
police spokesman who said reports from affected police stations
indicated children made up about half the victims in Sri Lanka.
On Monday, parents wept over the bodies of their children in
streets and hospitals across the island, even as some dead
children still dangled unclaimed from barbed wire fences.
The scenes of unimagined grief and mourning were repeated
across Asia.
"Where are my children?" wept 41-year-old Absah, as she
searched for her 11 missing children in Banda Aceh, the
Indonesian city closest to Sunday's epicenter. "Where are they?
Why did this happen to me? I've lost everything."
On the day disaster struck, Malaysian Rosita Wan recalled
watching in horror as her 5-year-old son was gulped by the sea
while he swam near the shore at Penang.
"I could only watch helplessly while I heard my son screaming
for help. Then he was underwater and I never saw him again," said
a sobbing Rosita, 30.
About half of the nearly 400 people who perished in Cuddalore
in India's Tamil Nadu state were children, leaving the town
stunned.
Under Hindu tradition, children are buried instead of being
cremated like adults. For the grim task in Cuddalore, two pits,
together about half the size of a basketball court, were dug near
a river at the edge of this coconut palm-fringed town.
After one couple laid the body of their daughter in the deep
pit, a bulldozer shoveled in sand and the little girl disappeared
from view. They then stepped aside for others to bury their
children, denied any chance for a service or private mourning.
Most of the children, ages 5-12, were buried as they were
found - in their Sunday clothes - without the luxury of a shroud.
Local officials wanted to quickly finish the burial, and the
cremation of adult victims, so they could turn their attention to
helping those left alive.
"There will be a time for crying, but that will come later.
Now the priority is to shelter those who survived," said
fisherman Akilan, 28, who lost two nephews when waves struck
their house. Akilan uses only one name.
Bodies of young and old lay unclaimed at the town morgue,
awaiting identification by relatives. Doctors called them in one
by one over a public address system, while vans with wailing
sirens brought in newly discovered bodies.
Many emerged from the morgue shaking their heads in silence
after failing to identify any of the bodies as that of their
loved ones.
Venkatesh, who uses only one name, found his 11-year-old son
Suman as his body was lowered on to a gurney.
The 37-year-old man had been in Dubai, where he went three
months ago as a construction worker. When his wife called from
Cuddalore to tell him their boy was missing, Venkatesh flew home
immediately and went straight to the morgue.
There, he found his wife and daughter minutes before Suman's
body was brought in.
"I never thought I would only see my son's body," cried
Venkatesh, refusing even a sip of water.
Within moments, an identification tag was tied to the boy's
hand and his body taken inside.
As one of his relatives pulled him away, Venkatesh kept
asking: "How can I go, leaving behind my son?"