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Tsunami victim commits suicide
21/05/2005 09:01 - (SA)
Bangkok - A Thai teenager who lost his mother and sister in the December 26 tsunami has committed suicide after suffering months of depression with no apparent psychological treatment, media reports said on Saturday.
The body of Piyawat Suksrikaew, 18, was found on Friday hanging from a pine tree on the beach of Phang Nga's Takua Pa district, one of the hardest hit areas by the Boxing Day disaster that claimed 5 400 lives in Thailand's six southern provinces on the Andaman Sea coast, said The Nation newspaper.
"He committed suicide," Piyawat's father Arthorn reportedly told police. "He had been very depressed since the disaster and had not received any treatment."
Arthorn added that Piyawat was also depressed by an ownership dispute over the land on which their house had been built prior to the disaster. Many Thai tsunami victims have lost their land rights to property speculators in the wake of the calamity.
Thai Mental Health Department director general Wachira Pengjuntr said Piyawat was the third Thai tsunami survivor to commit suicide. The two others killed themselves in January.
Wachira said the department was trying to monitor the mental health of 15 000 tsunami trauma victims. A mental rehabilitation centre will be established in Phang Nga on May 26, he added. - dpa
- SAPA
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