2 Trucks of Corpses Brought to Mass Graves every 15 Minutes

A mechanical digger works from morning to night to prepare the ground for the bodies. The soldiers can hardly bear the smell of the corpses, which have been decaying for days, but the collection still continues. According to the official figures, the death toll is 80,000, but only 10 percent of the work to remove debris has been completed so far. Corpses have yet to be collected from under the debris of wooden houses that were destroyed by the tsunami. The putrid smell of decaying corpses is everywhere.

Survivors in the villages of Banda Aceh continue to face impossible conditions. Those who lost their relatives try to support each other and a camp has been set up in the village of Sigli 60 kilometers from the city for those who survived the tsunami. 29 year-old Al-Medina, who is staying in this camp, has lost her husband Murtezi, 34, and her four year-old son Putri in the tsunami. Al-Medina had left for work just before the gigantic waves hit her house, where her husband and her son remained. Tsunami waves of three or four meters washed away their house. She had survived by holding on to a tree. Many of the survivors bear wounds on their heads and feet where they have been struck by debris. Gas canisters that exploded due to pressure by tsunami also caused wounds and Aisha Farazi from Aceh and her two children are among those who were wounded by a fire caused by explosion of a canister. The family is under medical treatment at a hospital in Banda Aceh. Her three-year old son Mohammed is the one whose condition is worst in the family.