Monday, Jan 03, 2005
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PHUKET, JAN. 2. The Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, visited the tsunami-ravaged Phuket island on Sunday, hoping to prop up a tourism industry that is critical to its economy. Some of the beaches that were least affected by the walls of water which battered a long stretch of the southern coast a week ago already have been largely cleaned up, and tourists were out swimming and sunning themselves. But with the death toll approaching 5,000, victims were still being put in body bags as heavy machinery worked on the ruins of posh resorts that were flattened around Khao Lak beach, about 80 km north of Phuket, where Mr. Thaksin said the situation remained ``quite severe.'' Elephants were brought in to clear debris in nearby areas that are too muddy or hilly for vehicles to reach. ``Nice to meet you, enjoy your stay,'' Mr. Thaksin told tourists who had returned to battered Patong beach. ``We'll try and make your stay happy.'' He also said Thailand would set up a tsunami early-warning system that scientists say could have saved many lives had it been in place a week ago. ``We are studying the early-warning system that [is] appropriate for the region,'' Mr. Thaksin told reporters. ``We will install, regardless of who [is] going to invest with us or not.'' Teams of forensic experts from Thailand and 18 other countries worked frantically at Buddhist temples that serve as makeshift morgues to identify the dead, many of whom were foreign tourists, before their bodies decomposed in the tropical heat. — AP
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