PLACE WHERE ONCE THE KNELT-PRAYNG WAS DENIED IS TURNED INTO A LAND HUNDRED OF MUSLIMS FLOCK FOR THE SAME - AT PAYILVAN GRAVE YARD, KATTANKUDY WHICH WAS DISTROYED BY THE UC-KKY 

From Right: Mr. Abdur Rahman (eng) chairman of the British College of Applied Studies, Colombo, Quizy Judge Mr. Khalid JP, Mr. Lathieff (ADE), Mr. Saif Ahamed Muslim Aid-UK  

Houses for the Tsunami victims, funded by Muslim Aid UK  

The peace village (100 Houses) funded by the Muslom Aid UK with the sponsorship of CDR at Ollikkulam was inagurated by Saif Ahamed (Muslim Aid) on 26.12.2006 

Peace Village Opening Ceremony at Ollikkulam 

Asian nations remember the 230,000 killed in 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami

Associated Press, Tue December 26, 2006 03:51 - Associated Press Writer - Entire villages were swept to sea in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh and in Sri Lanka luxury resorts and fishing communities were submerged in Thailand, and thousands of homes destroyed in southern India.

``I cannot forget ... it feels like it happened just yesterday,'' said Zaldi Setiawan in Aceh, where an estimated 167,000 people died, including his two children, who were ripped from his arms by the waves.

``I can still imagine their faces,'' he said, joining scores of other Acehnese in prayers at mass graves that contain tens of thousands of corpses.

The drill on Indonesia's resort island of Bali which involved warnings sent from the capital to radios along the beach occurred hundreds of kilometers (miles) to the east and was as much about raising awareness as testing technology deployed in the country.

Sirens wailed as crowds, many of them school children, briskly walked inland from the shore, accompanied by Indonesia's minister of research and technology and a handful of foreign tourists.

``The biggest challenge is working with the people to make them aware,'' said German geologist Harald Spahn, who is helping Indonesia set up its alert network. ``It is a really complex job that many people underestimate.''

In Thailand, ceremonies were held along the Andaman coast with Buddhist prayers to remember more than 8,200 killed, many of them foreign holiday makers. Balloons were to be launched and candles lit along beaches once again filled with sun-seeking tourists.

Sharon Howard, a 39-year-old British tourist who lost her fiancee and two children in the disaster, attended one memorial but said being there made her ``very sad, very sad.''

``I miss them. They were my life,'' she said, tears pouring down her cheeks. ``I wish I could turn back time and they could all come back.''

In Sri Lanka - , the resurgence of a civil war has added to the misery of survivors and slowed efforts to rebuild sparking criticism from outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who urged Tamil Tiger rebels and the military to lay down their arms.

``No one could have prevented the tsunami's wave of destruction,'' he wrote in a statement. ``But together, we can stem the tide of conflict, which threatens once again to engulf the people of Sri Lanka - .''

Temple bells chimed to mark the exact time the first wave crashed ashore, and all cars and trucks came to a standstill for two minutes. Looking to the future, the first of 100 warning towers was erected on a beach.

In India, where another 18,000 are believed to have died, ceremonies were somber and subdued. A dozen fishermen watched gulls circle overhead in one hard-hit hamlet, staring at the sea and telling stories about villagers who died. Hundreds more gathered as the day went on, some throwing flowers into the water as others lit camphor sticks.

Volunteers were replanting mangroves in Malaysia, where 69 people died, saying they were key to protecting coastal communities.

The 2004 tsunami generated an unprecedented outpouring of generosity, with donor pledges reaching some US$13.6 billion (euro10.3 billion), but many of those homeless complain they are stuck with poorly built structures that leak, are termite-infested or located in flood zones.

Corruption has also marred the process, with several private organizations forced to delay projects or rebuild homes after contractors and suppliers ran off with the funds.

Thailand faced fresh questions about possible graft on Tuesday.

Seven Western nations sent a letter to Thai police saying up to 60 percent of the US$1.6 million set aside to help identify the dead in that nation appears to have been misused.

The money may have gone toward travel and other miscellaneous costs, the letter said, calling for an investigation.

ordanian ship captain Ramaz S Abdul (L) walks through a military check point in Omantai, Sri Lanka December 25, 2006. Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels on Monday released 25 crew of a Jordanian ship that had drifted into waters near a guerrilla stronghold in the north, a rebel spokesman said. 

Sri Lanka rebels forced way onto Jordan ship-crew

Associated Press writers Rungrawee C. Pinyorat in Khao Lak, Gavin Rabinowitz in New Delhi, Vijay Joshi in Kuala Lumpur and Bharatha Mallawarachi in Hikkaduwa contributed to this report.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels fired shots in the air and forced their way onto a Jordanian cargo ship that strayed into waters near a rebel stronghold in the north, the vessel's captain said on Tuesday.

Two of the 25-member crew suffered injuries when they were ordered off the stricken Farah III and pushed into boats by the rebels, Ramiz Abdul Jabbar told a news conference.

Jabbar and his crew were brought to Colombo by the Red Cross on Monday after they were freed by the rebels, two days after their ship's engines failed, leaving it adrift off the Mullaittivu coast.

The rebels said they had come to the crew's rescue after the ship began drifting in rough seas.

The ship, carrying a cargo of rice from India to South Africa, has become the latest flashpoint in fighting between the Tigers and the Sri Lankan military, which accused the rebels of piracy and planned a rescue operation.

"They ordered us to leave the ship, they fired four shots to make us jump into boats," Jabbar, flanked by Sri Lankan navy officials, said.

One of the crew, Shareef, who came to the conference in a wheelchair, said he was injured in the back after the rebels forced him into a boat.

"There were no seats in the boats, I was hit by the water when it moved," he said.

Jabbar said six armed men boarded his ship. "They had explosives, they said they wanted to blow up the anchor," he said.

Once the crew, a mix of Jordanians and Egyptians were brought ashore, they were given food, water and clothes, he added.

The ship has since run aground, some three miles off the coast, its owners said. "We want our ship back, we want the cargo but this can only be done by governments," said Jemal Alzeghari, a representative of the shipping company. He put the value of the ship and its cargo at $10 to $12 million.

The spat comes at a time when the Tigers, fighting for an independent homeland for minority Tamils in the east and north, are locked in daily artillery duels with the military.

The violence has killed more than 3,000 people so far this year and forced thousands to flee.