16 SA tourists still missing
2004-12-30 13:48
Johannesburg - Fourteen South Africans are missing in Thailand and two in India following this week's killer tsunamis, the foreign affairs department said on Thursday.
"According to our ambassador in Thailand, Buyi Pheto, there are officially 14 people missing," Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said.
He said another two South Africans were still unaccounted for in India.
The department of home affairs had asked families of the missing people to provide them with photographs to publish in Thailand, Mamoepa said.
Calls for help
He also asked families who had heard from relatives they had listed as missing to inform the foreign affairs department.
"We appeal to families who may have made contact to advise us so that we can remove them from the list of missing persons."
Mamoepa said the government was calling on organisations to help with relief efforts in South Asia.
"The government is making an appeal for relief organisations to come to the fore in a joint partnership with government in responding to the emergency call for relief by the Sri Lankan, Maldives and Indonesian governments."
Four South Africans were confirmed dead in Thailand.
According to the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), they were Morris Isaacson, Roy Fitzsimmons, Daphne Coetzee and Dolores Ribeira.
The bodies were returned to South Africa on Wednesday.
They were killed after tsunamis, set off on Sunday by a massive earthquake west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale, left over 80 000 people dead along the Indian Ocean shorelines.
A mercy flight organised by the SAJBD, Discovery Health and Netcare in conjunction with the department of foreign affairs, brought home 69 South Africans from Thailand on Wednesday.
- SAPA