Schools reopen, sorrows remain

Indonesian school children wept and prayed for thousands of missing classmates as debris-littered schools reopened in devastated Aceh province yesterday, a month after the Asian tsunami.

Hundreds of Sri Lankan mourners dressed in traditional white gathered in Colombo's Independence Square for a silent vigil at the moment the tsunami struck on December 26, leaving nearly 300,000 dead or missing around the Indian Ocean from Somalia to Thailand.

Indian police used loudspeakers to dispel rumours that another tsunami would strike a month to the day after the first giant waves were triggered by a magnitude 9 earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra island.

In the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, hundreds of people rallied to demand that foreign troops helping with tsunami relief be allowed to stay longer in Aceh, battered by a 30-year rebellion that has killed more than 12,000 people.

Teachers and students hugged and cried together as damaged schools in Aceh province, at the northern tip of Sumatra island, opened their doors. Books and desks dried in the open air.

"I'm glad to be back, but I'm also sad because many of my friends are not here. I don't know where they are," said Aceh schoolgirl Eva Wahyuni, fighting back tears.

At the SMR8 secondary school in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, students sat on a cleared basketball court where they prayed and recited from the Koran. Some girls cried and held their heads in their hands and others stared blankly.

Only 300 of nearly 900 enrolled students turned up for class. Authorities in Aceh say the tsunami killed 45,000 school children and more than 2,300 teachers and administrators, while 130 schools were damaged and 140 emergency schools had been set up in tents.

"For us teachers, it's hard because so many lost families and homes. But we have to put this aside and think of our students," school principal Syarifuddin Ibrahim, 50, told Reuters.

Cries of anguish rose from the crowd as he read out the names of nine teachers killed by the tsunami.

In India's ravaged southern state of Tamil Nadu, coastal villages appeared to have overcome fears of another tsunami. Children played on beaches and relief workers helped fishermen move hundreds of damaged boats.

"I think the tsunami won't come again but I always keep an eye on the sea to ensure that it is normal," said Thankaraj, who sat with a group of fishermen in the shadow of a badly damaged boat at a harbour in Nagapattinam.

Authorities used public address systems, radio and television to ease fears another tsunami would lash the area yesterday.

In one of the few formal commemorations for the dead, Sri Lankans gathered in Colombo at 9:36 a.m., the moment the tsunami struck the island.