The lack of volunteers to assist in the unearthing of bodies trapped under the debris is hampering the healing process for the Acehnese, who were the worst hit in the Dec 26 tsunami disaster.

To date there are only about 100 groups, both independent and affiliated with non-governmental organisations, helping the Indonesian authorities in recovering the bodies throughout the provincial capital, Banda Aceh.

According to local media, 78,000 bodies have been recovered so far while another 17,000 more are expected to be still trapped under the debris.

Cakra Ahcmad, who is leading an independent group assisting in the operations, called on Malaysians to help.

"There are about 1,000 volunteers from the 100 teams but this is far from enough. We need more. We welcome everyone especially our friends in Malaysia," he said when met.

Malaysians can help

Mohamad Zharif Afandi, a physically disabled Malaysian who is part of Cakra's team, said it is important to remove the bodies so that the people could return to a normal life as soon as possible.

"Donating money and food is commendable but I am afraid, it is not enough. To me helping them clear the bodies is equally important if not more," said the psychology student from Kolej Damansara Utama, who was born without hands.

"How can this people return to their homes or business premises, or what's left of them, when the stench of the bodies is still so strong," he added.

Zharif, who is in his 20s, said Malaysians as the closest neighbour to Aceh should play a more prominent role in helping the province in this aspect.

He said apart from himself and another Malaysian Ellyn H Lamin, he has yet to meet others in the teams involved in recovering the bodies.

Ellyn said joining these teams do not necessarily mean that volunteers would have to handle the bodies.

"Those who are not prepared to handle the bodies can help the team in organizing activities, transportation and other simple work like cooking for the volunteers and cleaning the office," she added.

She said due to the similarities in language and culture, volunteers from Malaysia could easily help the locals.

"I really hope more Malaysians especially the youth would come and volunteer. For me, looking at Zharif is enough to motivate me everyday. Despite his shortcomings, he has helped the team tremendously," she added.

Prayers recited

The team's daily activity starts at 2pm when members start donning their rubber gloves, safety suits, boots and masks.

This is followed by a prayer recited by team coordinator Winarson Puspojudu, affectionately known to the members as 'Pak Dey'. The team is then ferried to the sites in a lorry.

They return at about 7pm and members would have their garments sterilized. Then Pak Dey would recite prayers in gratitude for their safe return and seek forgiveness from the dead for any mishandling.

Yesterday, the team went to Punge Blang Cut, east of Banda Aceh, where they spent about three hours but only managed to recover six bodies.

According to Pak Dey, it was really difficult to free the bodies, which were trapped under huge piles of debris.

"It usually takes four to five minutes to put a body in the bag. But in this operation, we took 45 minutes just extracting the body," he said.

There were bodies found stuck on a roof of a badly damaged building while another was found in a vehicle under blocks of wood and bricks.

Pak Dey estimated that it would take at least another three months before the process is completed. So far the team has recovered 400 bodies.

"We need more volunteers. There is a lot of work to be done," he stressed.

'Difficult to look at bodies'

Meanwhile, Elyn said volunteers work in batches and each batch serves for about 10 days before being relieved by another.

Speaking on her team, Ellyn said that a batch of team of 20-25 volunteers are required only to take part for 10 days before another batch takes. The current batch is the team's third one.

She said Pak Dey limited each volunteer to 10 days in order to prevent any psychological impact.

Asked how they felt when handling the bodies, Ellyn and Zharif said it is difficult to look at the bodies, especially that of children but the support from other members helps them control their emotions.

"The first day was quite bad. It took me a while to digest the scene. I was even afraid to move fearing that I would step onto a body. But then the second day onwards I became more confident in helping the team finding the bodies," said Zharif.

Ellyn said so far none of the crew members were psychologically affected. There were a few instances when volunteers broke down after seeing bodies, especially that of children.

"There was one volunteer from Aceh. He had lost a few cousins to the tsunami. I guess the thought that the bodies he saw could be that of his relatives was just too much for him," she added.

Malaysiakini chief reporter Arfa'eza A Aziz is in Aceh with Amal Foundation of Malaysia.