Suffering eases as city gropes for normality

Two weeks after the tsunami swept across the ocean and smashed into Banda Aceh, the Indonesian city was still in chaos.

Its civilian airport was closed and the military airbase was like a hellish scene from the film Apocalypse Now.

Hercules freight planes from many nations lined the runway, while several more planes circled above waiting for a space to land.

Helicopters, with searchlights blazing through the rain, rushed to get a growing mountain of aid moving to where it was most needed.

In the terminal, refugees huddled in shock under the impassive gaze of Indonesian soldiers, as the military of many nations set up camp outside.

The road into Banda Aceh was lined with tents, while trucks became gridlocked in their attempts to get in and out of the shattered city.

Death was all around - the smell and sights of death, despair and destruction were everywhere.

Two months on, the airbase is empty. Australians run the remaining air and cargo movements but only have a group of forlorn Pakistani soldiers for company.

Locals say the Pakistanis do not appear to have moved in the last six weeks.

Now the civilian airport is the focus, yet even there life looks almost normal. The Indonesian bureaucracy is open for business, with immigration officers at work.

There are food stalls and hawkers selling their wares and services.

"You need taxi, mister?" comes the yell. "Good driver, good English, just 600,000 rupiah a day."

"House for rent all sizes, all prices, just for you."

Hired drivers stand outside, holding up signs for incoming aid workers from Oxfam, World Food Programme and a multitude of other agencies.

The aid economy has arrived in Banda Aceh in force.

The city is working its way back from the Boxing Day tsunami. Yet the statistics for the Aceh region - at the western tip of Indonesia in Sumatra - beggar belief.

People have stopped counting the dead, more than 200,000 some say, with maybe 200,000 more missing.

Body recovery unit leader Eka Susila says his team has buried 123,142 bodies.

Those who saw Aceh two weeks after the tsunami doubt an accurate count was made.

Each day officials post the number of bodies recovered - around 300 most days but sometimes many more. Mr Susila hoped to stop counting by the tsunami's two-month anniversary - today.

It may still end then, despite the knowledge many more corpses remain out there.

Fewer and fewer are being found around Banda Aceh, but more are being discovered around the towns of the hard-hit and more isolated western coast.

After two months in the tropical heat, there is not much to recover.

The grim task of clearing the rubble and mud-filled wasteland near the coast will continue for weeks, maybe months.

Even in central Banda Aceh there are earthquake destroyed buildings which appear not to have been touched by searchers yet.

While some sniff the air to search for bodies, a plethora of aid agencies concentrate on the living, particularly those without homes.

Oxfam worker Kim Tan says the official figure of 430,000 "displaced" persons may be as high as 100,000 people short.

It is thought many have moved into the homes of families and friends, or set up their own unofficial camps.

The Indonesian Government is trying to move all the homeless into 40 camps spread around Aceh.

Many Acehnese who fear the camps will become permanent homes are being assured that they are temporary settlements while the clear-up continues.

Most accept places because life in a tent is miserable when the rain and wind comes.

* Ian Llewellyn is in Indonesia with the assistance of the Asia 2000 Foundation.

Aceh's death toll

* Bodies buried: 123,142.

* Bodies recovered daily: 300 on average, sometimes 500-750.

* Total dead: 200,000 (estimated).

* Total missing: Possibly 200,000.