|
Nine SA tourists still missing
03/01/2005 19:03 - (SA)
Pretoria - Nine South Africans were officially listed as missing, foreign affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said. Seven had been listed in Thailand and two in Myanmar.
A total of 1 137 South Africans were still unaccounted for after last week's tsunami disaster in southeast Asia - about 16 of whom were feared dead, the government said on Monday.
Those listed as unaccounted for were thought to have been in the area at the time but had not been in contact with anybody since the event, deputy foreign affairs minister Aziz Pahad told reporters in Pretoria.
This did not necessarily mean they were missing.
A Thai website named two South Africans who were also reported dead in Phuket as a woman, Daniela Delbello, 38, and a man, Miia Maria Paunila, 52.
The foreign affairs department had no more information on them. Their deaths brought the number of confirmed South African victims to seven.
Pahad said a total of 1 820 South Africans who were in southeast Asia when the tsunamis struck had been located.
He urged others who had not yet contacted their families or their local missions to do so urgently.
Forensic services
Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi, who heads a ministerial committee set up to co-ordinate assistance to people and countries affected by the disaster, said the government was doing all it could to assist South African families find their loved ones.
An operations centre was set up in Pretoria to that end, co-ordinated by the foreign affairs department.
It had also been decided to put the police's forensic science laboratory to the government's disposal for the identification of possible South African victims.
Pahad said South African embassies abroad were heavily involved in attempts to find the missing nationals, and senior officials had been sent from South Africa to reinforce them.
- SAPA
|
News
