Asian Leaders to Lead Prayers for Last Year's Tsunami Victims

Dec. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Thousand of mourners will gather on beaches from Galle in Sri Lanka to Khao Lak in Thailand today to attend ceremonies marking the first anniversary of the tsunami, which killed more than 200,000 people.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will attend a prayer service in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province, starting at 8:16 a.m. local time, which is when the first wave slammed into Indonesia's coastline. Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will attend commemorations in southwest Thailand's worst-hit resort area of Khao Lak.

The tsunami was unleashed by a magnitude-9 earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra, the strongest in more than 40 years. It produced waves of 30 meters (98 feet) that killed people in 12 countries bordering the third-largest ocean in the world.

Thaksin declared Dec. 26, 2005 an official day of mourning. About half the 5,395 people confirmed killed by the tsunami in six Thai provinces were foreigners. Another 2,940 people, including 917 foreigners, are still listed as missing, and 8,457 people were injured.

Thaksin will lead an afternoon ceremony to lay a memorial stone in Khao Lak in Phang Nga province, where about 80 percent of Thailand's casualties occurred. In the evening, Thai Princess Ubol Ratana, who lost her son in the disaster at Khao Lak, will speak, before a minute's silence and floating lanterns are lit at an interfaith memorial service with Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Islamic, Sikh and Hindu leaders at Chong Fa Beach.

Banda Aceh

Indonesia's Yudhoyono will also attend an official ceremony which will be held at 1 p.m. in Banda Aceh, followed by an evening prayer at Mesjid Raya Baiturrahman, the grand mosque, one of very few buildings in the city that remained intact after the disaster.

Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse will lead the island's commemorations from Galle, where a passenger train traveling on the southern coast was overturned by the giant waves, drowning about 800 people.

About two-thirds of Sri Lanka's coastline was battered by the waves that first hit around 8:50 a.m. Sri Lankan time and killed 35,322 people and left 516,150 people homeless.

Sri Lanka will issue an anniversary stamp and observe two minutes of silence today during which police will bring traffic to a halt.

India Commemoration

In southeastern India, where about 12,405 died, 5,640 went missing and almost 650,000 people were displaced, commemorations are focused on the worst-hit state of Tamil Nadu.

To mark the anniversary, the district will dedicate a memorial light pillar in a local park, with a clock recovered from the tsunami wreckage that stopped when the first waves hit at 9:17 a.m. Indian time.

In Malaysia, where the tsunami killed at least 69 Malaysians, with five still missing, the National Security Department is holding a National Disaster Awareness Day today. Penang state, the worst hit area in Malaysia, will hold a special prayer session on Dec. 31.

The Maldives, where 82 died and 26 are missing according to the government, hasn't publicized any tsunami commemorations after declaring 2005 a year of national unity. The country, which is made up of 1,190 islands about 670 kilometers (416 miles) southwest of Sri Lanka, gets more than 60 percent of its economy from tourism.

As many as 28 countries, including South Korea, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand and Vietnam were expected to send representatives to the first anniversary commemoration of the tsunami in Banda Aceh, the state news agency Antara reported.

prayers !!!!!