Radio Netherlands Worldwide

SSO Login

More login possibilities:

Close
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
Home
Monday 13 February RNW - NEWS AND ANALYSIS FROM THE NETHERLANDS IN 10 LANGUAGES, WORLDWIDE 24/7 ON RADIO, TV AND ONLINE
Fediya Andina's picture

Return to the tsunami prison

Published on : 24 December 2009 - 1:17pm | By Fediya Andina
More about:

The tsunami on Boxing Day 2004 killed 230,000 people. The coastlines of 12 different countries were hit by a huge tidal wave. Almost half of the dead were in Aceh, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

 
Amongst all the horrific stories of the dead and the wounded, there is one which as well as being ghastly, is also particularly sinister. Hundreds of people were locked up in the Keudah prison in the provincial capital Banda Aceh when the tsunami hit the city. Many of them were fighters of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
 
When the water came, the prison guards panicked and fled, forgetting to release their prisoners. It doesn't take much imagination to guess what happened during the agonising moments that followed.
 
The story of the prison in Banda is not a lone one: only a couple of hundred of the 3000 prisoners in the 20 prisons in the province of Aceh survived. They were literally trapped like rats.
 
Today, there is a market on the site of the prison. Reporter Fediya Andina visits the scene of the disaster with Oki Tiba, where his father Sofyan, a leader of the Free Aceh Movement, drowned in his cell...

Discussion

Post new comment

Please be reminded all comments must be in English, short and to the point - guideline 250 words. Abusive and inappropriate comments will be removed.

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <p> <br>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.

More information about formatting options

Video highlights

Homs: where is the UN?
The citizens of Homs in Syria are under attack and are asking the UN for...
In from Holland
On this week's show: winter weather takes hold of the country, we find out...

RNW on Facebook

Sign up for our newsletters

Email news bulletin

What's on - Programme Preview

Press Review - of the leading Dutch newspapers every weekday

Media Network

Euro Hit 40 - Europe's No. 1 chart show

RNW - News and analysis from the Netherlands in 10 languages, worldwide 24/7 on radio, television and online