Soldiers, others isolated after tsunami

Soldiers, others isolated after tsunami

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.