Tsunami victims begin rebuilding lives

GALLE, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankans lit candles and chanted prayers for the dead to mark one month since the tsunami Wednesday, and mourners on a Thai island launched two new fishing boats in a first step toward rebuilding the devastated local fleet. On the hardest-hit Indonesian island of Sumatra, there were no memorials, but children went back to school and the empty desks of dead classmates.

A month after killer waves swept away more than 140,000 lives and ravaged coastlines around the Indian Ocean, survivors quietly remembered the tragedy and carried on with the struggle to rebuild their lives. But behind the public grieving was a deepening sense of frustration at the slow pace of recovery efforts.

"We have not received any assistance yet," read a banner strung between plastic tents housing survivors in Sri Lanka's southern city of Galle.

Candles and multicolored Buddhist flags lined a highway hugging the coast of Sri Lanka, where nearly 31,000 people died and a million were displaced by the Dec. 26 tsunami.

President Bush is expected to ask Congress next month for roughly $1 billion for continued U.S. aid for victims of the tsunami, lawmakers said Wednesday.

But one Bush administration official told a House foreign aid subcommittee that stricken nations desiring long-term debt relief from the United States will probably have to accept reductions in other aid in exchange.

At the Ariyakara Viharaya temple near Galle, more than 2,000 oil lamps flickered in memory of the dead. Monks chanted on loudspeakers. Devotees brought fresh flowers.

"In memory of that day, for the missing and dead in all the countries, we are praying that a tsunami will never return," said L. Chandaransi, the head monk.

In Indonesia, where at least 96,000 died, there were no government or religious events to mark the day. Instead, officials said a proper remembrance was to send children back to school for the first official day of class since the tragedy.

Many students in ravaged Aceh province, however, returned to find their schools filled with mud and debris, with books, computers and other materials strewn everywhere. And many of their friends and teachers were gone forever.

Alqausar, a 6-year-old boy with neatly parted hair and a Power Rangers bag, arrived at school with his mother and wondered about his best friend, Andi. After about two hours of glancing repeatedly at the school gate, it hit him.

"I don't think he's coming," he whispered.