Posted on Tuesday, June 07, 2005 1:25 AM
Sitting in an empty office, checking the e-mail. It is early, nobody here apart from a hissing VHF radio. Waiting for the helicopter that will take me from Banda Aceh to Meulaboh in the South East of Sumatra. There I join a team that will do a jungle exploration. According to rumours there are people wandering in the forest. Think this is also how they discover soldiers who think the Second World War is still on. It happened again some time ago. Two Americans were found; They knew the war was over, but refused to go home. One of them founded a large family, with beautiful children from beautiful wifes.
Yesterday I went to a mass grave along the road to the airport of Banda Aceh. Some 130,000 people died here and there was not enough time and space to give them. It will be part of my first report on the aftermath of the tsunami.