The Hindu : International : One more Indian dead in Thailand

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 31, 2004

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International

One more Indian dead in Thailand

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE, DEC. 30 . At least one more Indian national has died in Sunday's tsunami-strike at holiday resorts in Thailand. He was an employee of a hotel in Phang Nga province and his body was buried there. This raises the number of fatalities among the Indian citizens to four. The efforts to trace over 35 Indians continued today, with the Thai authorities indicating that they would soon provide a list of foreigners. India's Charge d'Affaires in Bangkok, T. P. Seetharam, said the Thai gesture would help trace the Indians in the disaster zone.

The Thai authorities are burying the unclaimed bodies of foreigners after taking DNA samples, fingerprints and photographs. The idea was to exhume those bodies at a later date, if need be.

Lee for meet

The Singapore Prime Minister , Lee Hsien Loong, today suggested that the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) convene an urgent meeting of not only its member-states but also India and Sri Lanka, both as affected countries, besides China, Japan, South Korea, the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, the United Nations, the World Bank and the World Health Organisation.

Mr. Lee said, at a press conference here, the meeting should request the U.N. to establish a "special emergency fund for relief and reconstruction" for the affected nations.

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