It Was A Bird Flu Cover-up, Says Senator

Bangkok: It was a cover-up, says senator

BANGKOK: -- A whistle-blowing senator has lashed out at government officials who she says were “at least two months late” in tackling the bird flu crisis now winging across Asia, a report said today.

Malinee Sukhawejworakit, a senator from Nakhon Sawan which was among the first of 36 provinces to report bird flu in the kingdom, said she went to her home province in November and discovered a calamity in the making — and concerted efforts to keep it under wraps.

"I first suspected bird flu in November when so many chicken deaths were reported in my constituency," Malinee told the Nation newspaper in an interview.

"I'd say that the Government was at least two months late in managing this crisis properly," said Malinee, who chairs the Senate Committee on Public Health.

Government officials who had "started out with the mistaken assumption that it wasn't the deadly (bird flu) disease" proceeded to pull the wool over the eyes of panicked farmers who were wrongly told the outbreak was not bird flu, she said. A lack of capability in testing for the H5N1 virus strain in government laboratories added to the bungling, the paper cited her as saying.

"When you set out to handle a looming crisis in this manner, it's inevitable that the crisis will later explode in front of you like it did a couple of weeks ago," she said.

Two Thai boys have died and a third is ill from the virus, while seven more deaths and seven illnesses are classified as suspected bird flu.

After repeated denials, the Government on Jan 23 finally admitted that the disease had been detected.

Another senator, Nirun Phitakwatchara, said a day earlier that bird flu had been confirmed in a child in Suphan Buri province.

But Malinee, the Nation said, sounded the alarm Jan 19 by publicly charging the Government with hiding findings about bird flu.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's credibility has taken a severe beating over the fiasco, with allegations that his Government covered up the outbreak of the lethal disease for weeks.

The Government conceded last Wednesday, as Thailand hosted international talks aimed at forging a united response to the crisis engulfing 10 Asian nations, that it had "screwed up" in its handling of the outbreak, but denied a deliberate cover-up.

Also in the Nation, the secretarygeneral of the Thai Public Health Foundation, Rosana Tositrakul, called for the resignation of Agriculture Minister Somsak Thepsuthin and his deputy Newin Chidchob.

A government spokesman has pledged that heads would roll as a result of the crisis, but refused to say who would be sacked.

--AFP