People, soldiers isolated after tsunami disaster
People, soldiers isolated after tsunami disaster
A'an Suryana The Jakarta Post/Meulaboh
First Lt. Kartika Sudrajat was angered by a private TV station's news ticker that said many soldiers in Aceh were among the victims of Sunday's powerful tsunami.
"The news ticker was not correct and may have unnecessarily worried and distressed our families," said the military doctor from the 623 Bakti Wira Utama Infantry from Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, who is currently stationed in Kuala district, Nagan Raya regency.
The news ticker said that over a hundred soldiers from 623 Infantry were killed in the catastrophe.
Kartika, along with other infantry soldiers, watches the news from Aceh on the infantry's TV set, which is equipped with a generator set and a parabola.
"Actually, only one soldier was found dead and another was missing after the tsunami," said Lt. Col. Ruddy Prassemilsa Max, chief of the infantry that was deployed to Nagan Raya to crush the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebel group.
As the post is located a few kilometers away from Nagan Raya beach, its soldiers were not physically affected by the deadly tsunami.
Those infantrymen who were injured or killed were in nearby Meulaboh town for medical care or business reasons on Sunday.
Kartika's fellow soldiers also spoke of feeling unsettled as they could not inform their families back home they were safe.
Phone lines have been down in Nagan Raya and the West Aceh capital of Meulaboh since the tsunami hit, but latest reports say that phone services have started to return to normal as of Sunday afternoon, though connections are still limited.
Mulya Agus, a postgraduate student of Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, said he was unable to contact the university to tell them he is safe and in need of help. Mulya, a civil servant and a native of Meulaboh, had been doing research for his thesis in the city.
The manager of a transportation company, Daniel Aon, could not contact his relatives in Central Java and Medan as his address book had been swept away by the water.
Police chief Sgt. Budi Setiawan, whose house is located in a military complex some 200 meters from Meulaboh beach, was desperate to learn of the fate of his nine-year-old son, Wahyu Setiawan, who was staying with his relative in the devastated Banda Aceh.
Budi's two other children -- Ilham, 3 and Meutia, 1 -- are still missing but his wife, Rosana Harahap, survived.
"We keep searching for Ilham and Meutia here, but for Wahyu, we don't know what to do. The phone lines are still down," Budi told The Jakarta Post and a Medan correspondent of Gatra weekly news magazine. The two were the first print journalists to arrive in the isolated town.
Others, however, have found solutions to their communications problems.
Learning that the Post's journalist had on his personage a satellite cell phone, some middle-ranking military officers used it to call their families back home.
"Hi Ma, we're still alive... I'm teasing you by calling early in the morning. I'm borrowing a friend's phone. I'll talk to you later," said Lt. Col. Ruddy.
Others followed suit. "Hi darling, please call me back at xxxxx," said First Lt. Dadang, referring to the Post's satellite cell phone number.
Lower-ranking soldiers only asked the Post's journalist and Gatra correspondent to relay information to their families via SMS or a call, giving their families' house or cell phone numbers.
"You don't need to talk too much with them... just tell them that we are still alive. At least our families will know that we are safe," said Kartika.