SINGAPORE : The Foreign Affairs Ministry says more Singaporeans
who were reportedly in the the tsunami disaster areas have been
contacted.
Those uncontactable now number 51, down from 81 on Sunday.
The number of Singaporeans dead remains at nine, while 12 others
are missing, all in Thailand.
At the same briefing, it was announced that the United Nations has
accepted Singapore's offer to set up a UN Regional Coordination
Centre here to coordinate relief efforts to stricken areas.
Singapore has sent humanitarian aid and disaster relief teams to
the tsunami-stricken areas, and it is set to play a larger role
when the UN Regional Coordination Centre is set up in the days
ahead.
This centre will see an influx of UN staff and it is likely to be a
long-term infrastructure to help reconstruction efforts.
Said Andrew Tan of the MFA, "We're glad that the UN has accepted
our offer, it will give us a greater role in helping to relieve the
congestion that is now building up in many of these areas .... The
key right now is to make sure this aid gets down to the people in
the remote areas so that public health disaster can be
averted."
The Singapore government had earlier announced it was opening its
air and naval bases as additional staging and logistics points for
bringing relief supplies to Indonesia.
John Budd, UNICEF head of communications in Indonesia, said, "The
Singapore government's military response to the emergency in Aceh
has been nothing less than outstanding. It has done a phenomenal
job; all the aid agencies and the UN are very grateful for the
enormous and fast response the military in Singapore brought to
bear on this disaster."
The Foreign Ministry has also made headway in contact
tracing.
The police have also been making home visits to those listed as
uncontactable to check if they have returned.
MFA's Benjamin William said, "The new school term has started; that
has help us to bring down the uncontactable figure significantly
over the last two days. More and more Singaporeans returned, we've
managed to contact them, some did not even realise that friends and
families have reported them as uncontactable."
DNA samples for 11 of the 12 missing persons have been collected.
The police say they also have samples for two persons from the
uncontactable list.
The civil defence also clarified that reports that two Singaporean
boys had died dead in the Aceh province are inaccurate, as seven
bodies, all adults, were found in the wreckage.
The search operation was called off on Sunday night. - CNA