Foes Seek Ties In Tsunami's Wake

Sri Lanka's ethnic Sinhalese president announced plans to adopt a Tamil child orphaned by last month's tsunami — a gesture that appeared to be aimed at helping mend a three-decade rift between the two warring communities.

In another gesture of reconciliation, Indonesia's military chief on Tuesday extended a new cease-fire offer to separatist guerrillas in the tsunami-stricken Aceh province.

Meanwhile, a man drifting at sea since the Dec. 26 tsunami struck was picked up by a passing ship. He said he survived on coconuts and bottled water he found on a raft.

As aid poured in to help survivors, worst-hit Indonesia opened up a new airport on an island north of the devastated city of Banda Aceh, hoping to relieve pressure on the provincial capital's tiny airport the day after a U.S. helicopter crashed there.

The unprecedented financial commitments from across the globe prompted the United Nations to take the usual move of turning to an outside accounting firm to track billions in relief funds and to investigate allegations of fraud.

Rebels in Indonesia's hard-hit Aceh province welcomed the cease-fire proposal made by Gen. Endriartono Sutarto during a news conference in Banda Aceh, and said they hoped the government would keep its word.

"For the time being, we are making this offer," Sutarto said. "We have to work together to help Aceh."

Speaking from Sweden, the group's spokesman, Baktiar Abdullah, said the government's cease-fire offer "has come a bit late, but still, it is something that is positive and good."

However, he expressed skepticism about the proposal, noting that the government had sent thousands of additional soldiers to the region since the tsunami hit.

Sutarto repeated claims that the guerrillas, who've fought for years for a separate homeland on Sumatra island's northern tip, had tried to hijack relief supplies. The military has yet to offer evidence backing the claims.

The Free Aceh Movement, known by its Indonesian acronym GAM, "is trying to stop food assistance and they are trying to rob the food away," Sutarto said. "If they ask for food, we will give it to them. They do not have to do this."

Asked if some places were unsafe for foreign aid workers, Aceh relief operations chief Budi Atmaji said at a news conference: "Yes, in some places."

Indonesia's military has asked aid groups to draw up a list of international relief workers and to report on their movements.

Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga's offer to adopt a Tamil child was a startling gesture in a country where civil war has left 65,000 people dead. Peace since after a Norway-brokered cease-fire in 2002, and the country appeared to be drifting back to war before the tsunami hit.

Sri Lankan troops and Tamil rebels, deadly foes for two decades, worked together on tsunami relief efforts. Sinhalese and Tamils have rescued, fed and cared for each other. However, recriminations between both sides have started to resume, most recently over a recent visit by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

In Thailand, psychologists have joined the relief effort, trying to comfort those who escaped with their lives and are in anguish now from guilt and questions about why they were able to survive.

"Many parents that I've dealt with are blaming themselves," said psychologist Roona Kabatznick, in an interview with CBS News Correspondent Barry Peterson. "Why couldn't I have protected my children? Why couldn't I have done anything?"

She tells them, "If you could've, you would've."

Petersen

In most tsunami areas, due to the extent of the disaster, there is an awareness that many victims may never be found - and some who were - may never be identified.

In some parts of Thailand, hundreds of bodies are being exhumed to do DNA checks - a process begun because of concerns that some foreign tourists may have been misidentified as local residents.