Thailand To Attend Int'l Conference On Tsunami

[george]

Thailand to attend in't conference on tsunami warning system

BANGKOK: -- Thailand will attend an international conference on the establishment of a regional tsunami warning system, to be hosted by Indonesia next month, according to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The prime minister told TNA today that the meeting would be held in Indonesia on 6 January.

Earlier on the day, the former Director-General of the Meteorological Department, Mr. Smith Tumsaroch, said in a telephone interview with Modernine TV that Thailand was planning to host the conference here next month.

Mr. Smith, who warned a couple of years ago that Thailand could face a tsunami attack, was appointed by the prime minister yesterday to be a new Vice Minister for the Office of the Prime Minister to oversee the establishment of a tsunami warning system in the country.

The prime minister said that the appointment of Mr. Smith to the new post would be officially announced soon.

Mr. Thaksin said that Jakarta later asked to, instead, host the forthcoming regional conference.

Thailand's southern coastlines were unprecedentedly hit by a series of tsunamis, caused by one of the world's strongest earthquakes in the Indonesian resort island of Sumatra, measured at 9.0 on the richter scale, last Sunday morning, leaving over 4,500 dead so far, with more than 9,000 injured and scores of others still missing.

Prime Minister Thaksin forecast yesterday that the final death toll could hit 6,800.

The country's affected areas include Phuket, Phang-nga, Krabi, Trang, Ranong and Satun Provinces.

Other Asian and African countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Madacasca and Somalia, were also hit by Sunday's tsunamis, causing over 120,000 deaths so far, with thousands more injured and still missing.

This has prompted the affected countries to plan to join forces in establishing a regional tsunami warning mechanism to ease the impact of any possible tsunami disaster in the future.

The Thai leader said that the forthcoming meeting would be attended by all 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other affected nations.

ASEAN now groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

--TNA 2004-12-31