Stunned by the devastation wrought by the Asian tsunami, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan toured a Sri Lankan town Saturday where hundreds of shoppers at an outdoor weekly market were swept to their deaths. Accompanied by the head of the World Bank, James A. Wolfensohn, and top U.N. officials, Annan was touring the battered southern and eastern coastlines which took the brunt of the tsunami's impact. More than 30,000 people were killed in the island nation in the Dec. 26 tsunami and some 800,000 people were left homeless. "We came to listen and learn, and I think Mr. Wolfensohn and I have some ideas," Annan said. It was the second stop on Annan's tour of nations afflicted by the worst natural calamity in modern times. "I have never seen such utter destruction mile after mile," he said after a helicopter flight Friday over the western coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island. "You wonder where are the people? What has happened to them?" Annan flew Saturday over Galle, Sri Lanka's southern capital, and eastward over palm-fringed south coast bays to Hambantota, a mixed town of about 13,000 Sinhalese and Muslims.
