Indonesian television journalist Dendy Montgomery saw 10-metre tall waves kill people in his homeland in Aceh province two years ago.

He now feels that waves of forgetfulness are compounding the tragedy.

The western coastal areas of Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, were among the hardest hit by the tsunami resulting from the Indian Ocean earthquake 26 December 2004. According to estimates, around 230,000 people were killed in Aceh and 500,000 left homeless.

On that fateful day, Montgomery and his photographer wife Nur Raihan Lubis saw the waters engulf areas near the majestic Grand Mosque, saved many by carrying them away in their old jeep, and narrowly missed death.

“We lost at least 50 relatives (from our joint family),” Montgomery told IANS here. “(After that) I lost my sense of reporting for a month.”

“Reuters (with whom he has been a TV stringer) wanted to give me a Betacam (camera). But I'm just thinking, can I just take a break for a while? Everybody and everything appeared the same to me. There were broken pieces ... and dead bodies. And I was a tsunami victim myself,” he said.

For six months after the disaster, the epicentre of the massive Indian Ocean tsunami remained in the news.

“But after that, I don't know. We didn't have (dramatic pictures) like broken homes. So (editors) probably felt it was not a 'sexy' story anymore,” says a bewildered Montgomery.

When the first year's commemoration came up, reporting took a spurt. Then again it slowed down. Similar has been the case for the second anniversary of the event.

“You should follow your heart. Journalists from elsewhere come to (Aceh) to do what their news director wants, not to report what's happening in the field,” he says.

Montgomery says he slowly got back to the camera, when he got a chance to do long-term work on the lives of tsunami survivors. That was when he became involved in the Indonesian component of Children of Tsunami – a regional media project that tracked the recovery stories of tsunami affected families in India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Montgomery served as cameraman and his wife contributed as researcher for the Indonesia stories, which tracked the recovery struggles of two Tsunami affected girls -- Putri, 8, and Yenni, 15. The duo worked for Jungle Run Productions of Indonesia, local producers of Children of Tsunami.

“It was like being born again. After months, I began thinking about getting a good picture,” he recalls.

He says the conflict in Aceh, earlier known for its separatist rebel movement fighting for greater autonomy from Indonesia, is also not viewed as 'sexy any more' in newsrooms.

“Sometimes journalists ask the military to shoot from their tank, and then report (on TV) as if they are in the heat of a battle,” he remarks.

“Some ask me: 'Hey Dendy , where can we find good gun-fighting?' So I tell them, why do you want to find something like this? Don't break my heart. I'm Acehnese. Why would you like gun-fighting? Just for your audience? Or your TV station?”

Aceh has substantial natural resources, including oil and gas - some estimates put Aceh gas reserves as being the largest in the world. “We've got wealth, but no development,” Montgomery states.

Aceh was established initially as a small Islamic kingdom in 12th century AD. During its golden era, its territory and political influence expanded as far as Satun in southern Thailand, Johor in Malay Peninsula and Siak in what is today Riau province.

Its capital, Banda Aceh, gets the first part of its name from the Persian, meaning 'port' or 'haven'.

“It's not even a true war (in Aceh). But we can find a victim everyday,” says Montgomery. “It's easy to kill people. Once they are dead, you can claim they are from the Free Aceh Movement or from the military, depending which side you're on.”

The separatist battle began in 1998, but flared up in 2001.