• 
• 

Thailand along with other Asian nations on Friday remembered with prayers and ceremonies the deadly Tsunami which swept the Indian Ocean. People in Phuket and Phang Nga, one of the worst-hit areas, gathered to remember those who died in the deadly waves which hit on Boxing Day.

Four years have passed, and rehabilitation efforts in several devastated villages are making progress. Community projects such as fish piers, boatyards and small seafood facilities are being created. In Thailand, 5,400 people were killed, half of them foreign tourists.

Events in several countries were aimed at reminding people of the victims and what should be done in future natural disasters. For instance, in Indonesia's Aceh province, the worst-hit region, with at least 168,000 killed, thousands gathered in the shattered remains of a military base in the coastal town of Meulaboh for a sombre Islamic prayer meeting.

"The fourth anniversary of The Tsunami holds deep meaning, because this was the first place the waters came into Aceh," local government head Ramli Mansur told the crowd.

"We are here to remember the martyrs who were killed in The Tsunami and to give us momentum to rebuild a better Aceh," he said. In fact, the devastation forced the Indonesian government and the separatist Acehnese to speed up their peace deal, which was signed in September, 2005 in Helsinki.

In Phuket, around 1,000 Thais and others gathered to offer prayers for the dead during remembrance services at Dolphin Park on Patong Beach in Phuket. Thousands of candles were lit and placed in coconut shells along Kamala beach. Hundreds of people gathered along the country's southwest coast to place wreaths, float lanterns and release turtles to commemorate the disaster.

In spite of reconstruction, many bodies of victims remain unidentified. The Thai Tsunami Victim Identification and Repatriation Centre in Phang Nga cited 388, 293 of them Thai and 95 believed to be foreign nationals.

The slow process of identifying the victims should be addressed. After all, the authorities are equipped with DNA facilities and qualified personnel.

Unfortunately, most of the unidentified bodies are Thai fishermen and migrant workers from neighbouring countries, particularly Burma, making it extremely difficult to trace DNA linkages.

The Tsunami should not be wiped from our memories. It taught us lessons about how humans cope with natural disasters by generosity and help in times of crisis.

In Thailand, the first groups of rescuers to reach the scene were volunteers and people from private organisations. While assistance from the authorities had yet to reach them, people donated to help each other out. Some who were hurt themselves had to provide emergency assistance to the more severely injured.

It also taught us not to be complacent. We should be aware of the possibility of natural disasters and the causes of them. How to live in peace with nature is the most challenging question we face as global warming serves up ever more drastic weather.