Indonesian survivors found after days afload

Indonesian survivors found after days afload

Agencies, Port Blair/Kuala Lumpur

Four men and a woman from Indonesia were found separately after
days of drifting at sea.

The Associated Press quoted the Indian coast guard as saying
on Monday that four fishermen were found alive on a boat that was
pushed north to a remote Indian Ocean island by the tsunami of
Dec. 26. The men were rescued by the coast guard on Saturday off
Campbell Bay, said Anil K. Pokhariyal, commander of the coast
guard ship. They were brought to a jetty at Port Blair, capital
of the Indian archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Pokhariyal said the men were already stranded before the
tsunami hit, as their engine had broken down. He said they had
been adrift for nine days before they were spotted by a
reconnaissance helicopter on New Year's Day.

"They were on a wooden dinghy," he said. "They waved to us and
gestured in sign language, asking for food." He said the men had
tied a cloth to a post in an effort to make a sail.

One of the men, who identified himself as Jasmi, said he had
learned a few words in Hindi from his nieces who lived in New
Delhi, India's capital. He tried to explain, in broken Hindi and
gestures, that the boat had broken down and they had no fish or
water, and that they had come from Sabang.

From Kuala Lumpur, Agence France Presse quoted officials on
Monday saying that a Malaysian fishing boat rescued an Acehnese
woman who had been drifting in the Indian Ocean for five days.

The woman in her 20s was found floating alive Friday not far
from the shores of Aceh, a Malaysian International Tuna Port
official told Bernama news agency.

"From initial information received from the crew, the woman,
with leg injuries, is safe," he said.

He added the woman would be hospitalized for treatment once
the ship arrived back at the port on the north Malaysian island
of Penang later Monday.