People return to Baiturrahman

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post/Banda Aceh

As Muslim washed his face before Friday prayers at Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in Banda Aceh, the first service at the mosque since the region was by tsunamis, he could not hold back his tears.

The 50-year-old had walked 24 kilometers from his village to the mosque -- the pride of Acehnese Muslims -- to attend Friday prayers.

"All of the mosques in our village were flattened to the ground," the man said.

Muslim's home in Leupung district, Aceh Besar, is gone and all the members of his immediate family with it. He was spared as, on Dec. 26, the day of the disaster, he had been driving a truck to South Aceh.

When he returned, his village was gone. His wife, children and grandchildren, grandmother and mother and father-in-law were all missing. All he found were the rotting corpses of people he did not know. He buried them and went to Banda Aceh for Friday prayers.

"Twelve of my family members are gone," sobbed the man.

All he wanted to do was to pray in the mosque that God would ease his suffering. "I'll pray that God opens up the heavens to my family and forgives them for their sins," Muslim said.

The service at Baiturrahman Grand Mosque was the first since the disaster, when it had been filled with corpses and 15- centimeter-deep mud. After the service, the people continued with a mass prayer for those who had been killed in the disaster.

Local authorities, with the help of military officers, have been working for the last three days to clean up the mosque, as well as to repaint it.

"Once the mosque is clean, Aceh will shine again," said Umar, a 23-year-old volunteer for the clean-up.

The prayers were led by secretary-general of the Indonesian Council of Ulema Din Syamsudin but not many people showed up as it used to.

"Half of Banda Aceh's people are dead now," Umar said.