Somber tributes mark tsunami anniversary

Even higher death toll?
The Associated Press found in an assessment of government and credible relief agency figures in each country hit that at least 216,000 died or disappeared. The U.N. puts the number at least 223,000, though it says some countries are still updating their figures.

Among the dead were hundreds of vacationing northern Europeans, and in Sweden, the national broadcaster SVT dedicated all programming on its second channel to the anniversary.

“The catastrophe entered our homes and ripped apart our families,” Swedish Parliament Speaker Bjorn von Sydow told hundreds of mourners who braved subzero temperatures to remember the victims in an outdoor ceremony in Stockholm.

The tsunami generated one of the most generous outpourings of foreign aid ever. Some $13 billion was pledged to relief and recovery efforts, the U.N. says.

But the pace of reconstruction has been criticized, and frustration has grown with 80 percent of the 1.8 million people displaced still living in temporary housing.

In Aceh, one survivor dismissively gestured at a jumble of scrap iron and plastic sheeting — all that remains of his neighborhood.

“You want to talk about changes, we’ve seen nothing,” said Baihqi, 24. “Many promises of aid, but that’s all we get — promises.”

Following the tsunami, the government and separatist guerillas decided they did not want to add to people’s suffering and ended a nearly three-decade civil war that left nearly 15,000 dead.

In Sri Lanka, the waves had the opposite effect. Disputes over tsunami aid and an upsurge in violence have raised fears the island will return to civil war despite a 2002 cease-fire.

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