Thailand's assistance goes to disaster-hit Indonesia

BANGKOK, October 4 (TNA) - Thailand's contributions of financial and material support, as well as medical and public health services are pouring into disaster-hit Indonesia, following a most powerful earthquake and tsunami hitting the neighboring country's Sulawesi Island recently, causing a massive damage and thousands of casualties and displaced people. Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha presented the Thai government's financial support of 5 million baht to the natural disaster victims through the Indonesian Ambassador in Bangkok, H.E. Mr. Ahmad Rusdi, at Bangkok's Government House on Thursday. On the occasion, the Thai prime minister conveyed his condolences for the recent natural disasters to the Indonesian government and people on behalf of the Thai government and people and expressed his confidence that Jakarta's management of mitigation missions under the leadership of President Joko Widodo will quickly get Indonesia through this hardship. The Thai premier also thanked Jakarta for helping facilitate and evacuate Thai people in diaster-hit zones back home safely. The Thai prime minister said he will personally extend his condolences and thankfulness to the Indonesian president during the upcoming gathering of ASEAN leaders, set to be held on the Indonesian resort Bali Island, while the top envoy of the ASEAN neighboring country expressed his gratefulness to the Thai assistance. Meanwhile, Thai Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Busadee Santipitaks, who is also Director-General of the ministry's Department of Information, told journalists that in response to Jakarta's recent request for international relief and mitigation support, her ministry is discussing with the Thai private sector to offer additional financial and material contributions to the disaster victims, worth at least 10 million baht, covering individuals' contributions through their banking services. Besides, the Thai Ministry of Public Health is sending a team of 25 emergency medical and psychiatric personnel to take care of the quake and tsunami victims. For 32 Thai nationals who were stranded in Palu City of Sulawesi, the spokesperson confirmed that all of them have been evacuated safely from the disaster-stricken area. The Royal Thai Navy is, in the meantime, dispatching its 20-member medical emergency response teams (MERT) to the Indonesian disaster-ravaged zones to provide their high availability disaster recovery (HADR) support, each period for non-stop 72-hour services, to the disaster victims, covering preparing food and offering medication and utility facilitations for them. The recent 7.5-magnitude quake in Palu, followed by many aftershocks and a powerful tsunami, have killed over 1,400 victims and injured over 2,500 others, while many others have remained missing and more than 70,000 others have been displaced. (TNA)