Indonesia girl missing for 7 years back with family after 2004 tsunami

23 December 2011 - 09:36 By Sapa-AP
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This handout picture received 26 December, 2007 from the Aceh-Nias reconstruction agency, known as BRR, shows aerial views of Calang in Aceh province, taken 03 August, 2005 (L) and the same area taken 14 December, 2007.
This handout picture received 26 December, 2007 from the Aceh-Nias reconstruction agency, known as BRR, shows aerial views of Calang in Aceh province, taken 03 August, 2005 (L) and the same area taken 14 December, 2007.
Image: AFP PHOTO / HO / Arif ARIADI / BRR

A girl who was swept away in the Indian Ocean tsunami seven years ago has been reunited with her parents.

Fifteen-year-old Wati showed up at a cafe in Meulaboh, a city in Aceh province, earlier this week, saying she'd been forced to work as a beggar and had finally broken free.

She said she was looking for her family.

Wati was led to a man named Ibrahim, her grandfather, who summoned her parents, Yusniar and Yusuf.

The parents said they lost three daughters when the tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations slammed into their tiny village of Ujong Baroh.

The mother, Yusniar, said she recognized Wati by the small scar over her eyebrow and a mole on her hip.

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