Media Reports |
Apple Daily, Hong Kong, January 6, 2005
Only Lifeless Bodies Could be Seen for Hours
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[Staff report] Heart-rending scenes of tearful disaster victims fleeing the heavily devastated province of Aceh into the warm embraces of relatives have become daily sights at Indonesia's Medan Airport.
Since the December 26, 2004 tsunami, many places in Aceh have been cut off from the outside world and relief supplies have yet to reach victims. For volunteers delivering the first batch of relief materials into the area, horrifying scenes resembling those of doomsday remain vivid in their minds.
Mr. Hardi Li, a 43-year-old Chinese native raised in Medan and an insurance worker, is also a member of the Indonesia branch of the spiritual group known as The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association. Mr. Li said that on December 27, a day after the tsunami, the Association delivered around five tons of relief materials, including food, clothing and medical supplies to Lhokseumawe, located between Medan and Aceh. Mr. Li and several volunteer workers immediately rushed to the scene to transport the supplies to the affected areas by truck.
'The severity of the disaster was beyond everyone's imagination," said Mr. Li. Thirty minutes after the relief team had set out on their journey to Aceh, they saw bodies and a few survivors here and there. They immediately alighted, preparing to distribute relief materials, but the victims declined their offer and instead urged them on to Aceh, where the situation was believed to be very severe.
Shocked to See Someone Alive
The group arrived in Aceh at ten o'clock that night and it was pitch dark everywhere. Wherever the headlights of their truck shone, they saw bodies—lying on the roads, dangling on rooftops and trees. A search failed to find any signs of survivors. They could only move on. At about three in the morning, the moon shone brightly, its light falling on piles and piles of dead bodies.
After driving on for another half hour, they met five or six survivors. The relief workers" unexpected appearance as they approached the victims to offer their assistance took the local people by surprise. The survivors then took the workers to a small, tattered house, where they found dozens more victims, many of them injured. The relief team quickly sought military assistance, requesting gas and rushing the injured to the airport in military trucks. For Mr. Li Jian, the terrible scenes that he witnessed during his relief trip to Aceh will be forever imprinted in his mind.
Media Reports:
Apple
Daily, Hong Kong
Medan Daily News, Indonesia
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