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Portrait of S. Lankan tsunami survivor with family photos

V. Anitha, 22, stands in front of photos of her loved ones lost to the tsunami at her refugee hut in the northeastern coast of Sri Lanka, an area ravaged also by civil war. .Anitha lost her only child, her mother, brother and sister to the waves. .The December 26, 2004 tsunami killed around 40,000 people along Sri Lanka's southern, eastern and northern shores, tearing thousands of families apart. .The bulk of the dead were women and children - husbands lost young brides and around 4,000 children lost one or both parents. .Even before the tsunami struck, people here in the northeast had already been displaced four times by the Tigers' two-decade war for autonomy. .In some places, the scars of war and the tsunami have become one. Remnants of walls torn down by waves are pockmarked with bullet holes and shrapnel from shells fired before a 2002 ceasefire plunged a civil war that killed over 64,000 people into limbo. ..Picture taken March 2005 by Justin Jin

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srilanka09.jpg
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Copyright 2005 by Justin Jin. All rights reserved.
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Tsunami
V. Anitha, 22, stands in front of photos of her loved ones lost to the tsunami at her refugee hut in the northeastern coast of Sri Lanka, an area ravaged also by civil war. .Anitha lost her only child, her mother, brother and sister to the waves. .The December 26, 2004 tsunami killed around 40,000 people along Sri Lanka's southern, eastern and northern shores, tearing thousands of families apart. .The bulk of the dead were women and children - husbands lost young brides and around 4,000 children lost one or both parents. .Even before the tsunami struck, people here in the northeast had already been displaced four times by the Tigers' two-decade war for autonomy. .In some places, the scars of war and the tsunami have become one. Remnants of walls torn down by waves are pockmarked with bullet holes and shrapnel from shells fired before a 2002 ceasefire plunged a civil war that killed over 64,000 people into limbo. ..Picture taken March 2005 by Justin Jin