DAMMAM, 21 July 2006 — The Saudi woman and her son who were killed in the tsunami in Indonesia earlier this week were buried in Java, the Arabic daily Al-Yaum reported yesterday.
Sara Jasim Bukhamees and her son Jasim Hamad were interred in Indonesia. Abdullah Al-Baseeri, Saudi Arabia’s consul in Jakarta, said the woman’s surviving husband, Hamad, and other son are recuperating in a local hospital.
The father agreed to bury his son and wife in a graveyard in Java on Wednesday, two days after the 7.7-magnitude quake off the coast of Indonesia sent two-meter waves crashing into West Java.
Many coastal Indonesians who felt the quake were seen on the day of the quake gathering in terrified groups, worried about a repeat of the Dec. 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that claimed at least 230,000 lives in numerous countries.
“We are all nervous,” said Pak Aditya, 44, to The New York Times on Monday shortly after the quake as he stood outside a mosque directing fleeing residents to safety. “Nobody wants to take any chances anymore, so if one person screams, everyone runs.”
Hamad and his family were on vacation and picnicking on the beach when the sea lashed out on the coast following the quake that many people did not sense.
Hamad’s father in the Kingdom’s Eastern Province told the newspaper that he had received a phone call from his son informing him of the decision to bury his wife and child in Java.
Al-Baseeri said that the Saudi mission in Indonesia has not received any other report of Saudis injured or killed in tsunami.
He said the embassy is following up and checking with all known Saudi nationals in Indonesia, a popular vacation destination for Gulf Arabs.
According to the embassy, some 21,000 Saudis have obtained visas for Indonesia during this summer vacation season.
As rescue workers continue to sift through the remains of beachfront properties ravaged by the tsunami, Indonesian officials reported yesterday that the death toll from the region’s second fatal tsunami has climbed to at least 582, with 382 injured and 273 missing. The tsunami also damaged or destroyed about 38,000 homes.
