'The catastrophe is probably the worst of our time and will impact
everyday Swedish life for a long time to come,' Prime Minister
Goeran Persson told a news conference.(AFP/Sven Nackstrand)
(I'll post more Sweden-related photos below. CH)
Posted on 12/29/2004 1:00:53 PM PST by Charles Henrickson
STOCKHOLM (AFP) - With more than 1,000 Swedish tourists in Thailand still unaccounted for, Sweden looked likely to be the Western country hardest-hit by the giant tidal waves which struck Asia's coastlines.
"The catastrophe is probably the worst of our time and will impact everyday Swedish life for a long time to come," Prime Minister Goeran Persson told a news conference on Wednesday.
Calling the tidal waves "a huge tragedy" Persson said the number of Swedish victims was "very high", but offered no figures beyond the six Swedish fatalities which had been positively identified since Tuesday.
"What we need now is national unity," Persson said.
Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds spoke of a "national trauma" for her country.
In Phuket, Thailand, where she touched down on Wednesday, Freivalds said more than 1,000 Swedes were still missing.
"Many of them, I fear, we will not find," she was quoted as saying by the TT news agency.
Freivalds compared the trauma for Swedes with the 1994 sinking of the Estonia car ferry, Europe's worst post-war maritime disaster, which occurred during a crossing from Tallinn to Stockholm and was survived by only 137 of the 989 on board.
"You won't find many people in Sweden who don't have some personal link to this tragedy," Freivalds said.
When the waves struck, some 20,000 to 30,000 Swedes were believed to be holidaying in the disaster areas, of whom up to 10,000 could have been travelling independently of any tour operator, officials said.
Some 80,000 Swedes visited Phuket in 2003.
The Thai authorities said that Western tourists had borne the brunt of the tidal wave disaster, especially northern Europeans.
"For the tourists the hardest-hit group was northern Europe, especially Scandinavia," Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told reporters.
Norway was still without news of 446 of its citizens in Thailand, the government said Wednesday.
A further 930 Norwegians were believed to have been in the region at the time of the disaster, but their exact whereabouts were not known, Foreign Minister Jan Petersen told a news conference.
The official casualty toll was still 13 Norwegians dead, and between 20 and 40 injured.
Norway was to dispatch a second aircraft equipped with medical facilities on Thursday to Thailand after a first such plane took off Wednesday.
As families across Scandinavia endured the painful wait for news from their loved ones, the Swedish government announced efforts to repatriate its citizens from Thailand.
"The most important thing is now to get all Swedes home," Freivalds said.
This included those in hospital. "They are clearly well taken care of, but we are putting strain on the health services here in Thailand which does not have enough resources for its own population," she said.
Swedish tour operator Fritidsresor said Wednesday that simply evacuating people from Phuket was "no longer enough".
"There is a crying need for ambulance transport for people with open wounds and those who are in a state of shock," Managing Director Johan Lundgren said.
Fritidsresor spokeswoman Lottie Knutson said the Thai authorities sent many tourists from evacuated areas straight to Phuket airport, although they were in urgent need of medical attention.
"There are thousands of tourists with open wounds, bleeding and in a state of shock at the airport," she said. "There are no doctors, no air conditioning. People are lying there in the heat and dying," she said.
At the request of the government, Scandinavian flagship carrier SAS said it will add 14 flights from Thailand to Scandinavian capitals to its regular schedule before the weekend, and hopes to repatriate 3,500 Swedes. The first two aircraft left Stockholm's international airport Arlanda on Wednesday.
Swedish mobile phone operators Telia, Tele2 and Vodafone all stopped charging for mobile phone calls to and from Southeast Asia for 48 hours to make it easier for survivors to get in touch with their families.
The three companies also sent SMS messages to all Swedish-registered phones in Thailand asking subscribers to make contact with their families or the Swedish embassy.
(I'll post more Sweden-related photos below. CH)
Ping to the Swedish Ping List.
Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivals (R) comforts an unidentifed Swedish national who survived the tidal wave incident in Phuket, southern Thailand during her visit to the Bangkok Phuket Hospital.(AFP/Roslan Rahman)
ping to Minnesota
oofda.
Claes Lindblom, evacuated from Phuket, Thailand, is welcomed by relatives, Dec. 29, 2004, upon his arrival at Landvetter airport, Goteborg, Sweden, after the devastating tsunamis and earthquakes that hit the Asian region. The death toll from the earthquake off Indonesia and tidal waves passed 80,000 today with with more than 1,000 Swedes still unaccounted for. (AP Photo / Bjorn Larsson Rosvall)
Huh? What does that have to do with anything? Sounds more appropriate for fending off barbarian hoards.
The US has ships en route, but I heard that Sweden is truning down US/Australian offers of help.
Two-year-old Swedish boy Hannes Bergstroem, right, is reunited with his father Marko Karkkainen, in a Phuket hospital, Thailand, Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2004 in this image made from television. Hannes was found alone in the wasteland of a tsunami-hit resort island in Khao Lak, southern Thailand. (AP Photo/APTN)
Ping.
Swedish tourists wait for their flight at Phuket Airport, Thailand December 29, 2004.
Swedish tourists, Rebecka (R) and Fredrika Kloth, wait for their flight at Phuket Airport, Thailand December 29, 2004.
The best example of a natural or man-made disaster overturning some interesting matters that I can think of was the crash of a Columbian airliner on Long Island back in the late 1980's. Due to the incompetence of the crew - the plane left Columbia with less fuel than had been assumed to be on board and while on final approach over Long Island the engines stalled for lack of fuel and the plane crashed in a residential area (landing on John McEnroe's father's property, if I recall correctly). There were a large number of survivors (since there was no fuel for a fire), and many were taken to area hospitals, where routine intake included an x-ray. Many of the injured passengers were found to be drug carrying "mules" - with intestines packed with condoms containing cocaine. The luggage that was burst open and strewn across the property also contained a lot of illegal drugs fresh from Columbia.
I always thought of that as a great example of how an accident or natural disaster (plane crash, tsunami, whatever) can be a great cross-sectional view into something going on right under our noses (e.g., drug trade) which we manage to miss every day.
I realize I'm going to catch hell for suggesting this - but I'm really curious what will be discovered, in a similar fashion, as a by product of this disaster.
Radovan Daric and Tony Eklund arrive at Arlanda airport in Stockholm, Sweden, with blankets over their shoulders. Daric and Eklund were in Kao Lak, Thailand, with their families, when the tsunami hit the Indian Ocean shores. Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds said that 1,500 Swedish visitors in Thailand were still unaccounted for, and the government feared that many of them were dead.(AFP/Pressensbild/Nils Petter)
Injured Swedish tourist Gerdh Vall, whose husband and daughter were missing after the tidal wave hit Thailand, sits in shock while waiting for medical treatment at Phuket international hospital.
Swede Carl Michael Bergman of Stockholm holds his son Hannes, 1 year old, while talking about his missing wife, Cecilia Bergman, Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2004 in Phuket, Thailand. Cecilia Bergman was missing after a massive tidal wave struck the beachside resort the couple was staying in north of Phuket, Thailand.
Janette Strum from Sweden, weeps as her 16-year-old injured son, Matias, lies near her while they wait to be airlifted out of the Thai resort island of Phuket December 28, 2004. Strum's 13-year-old son, Jonathan, is still missing. . . .
Since you've never been there, why not spend your time and effort praying for the survivors and the families of those lost.
Karl Nilsson of Lulo, Sweden, poses with a sign saying his parent and brothers are missing Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2004, in Phuket, Thailand. The young boys parents were swept out to sea Sunday, Dec. 26, 2004. . . .
As you can see from the photos the vast majority of the 20 - 40 000 Swedish tourists visiting Thailand are couples and families - often with small or smallish children, plus backpackers. It is true Thailand used to be known for sex tourism in Europe as well, but it has largely shed that reputation during the last ten years or so - it is now essentially the place Nordics go in order to escape winter. (Hence the large numbers of tourists) I suspect the rep is lagging behind a bit in the States, as you have the Caribbean to play around in.
Of course $10000 in cash representing a payoff to the Watergate burglars was found when a plane carrying E. Howard Hunt's wife crashed. But I think that usually people are more concerned with the tragic effects of a big disaster than on the few disquieting facts it may reveal. I spoke to someone from Thailand yesterday who knows someone who died in the tsunami. They were desperate for more news from their country. I'm betting the sex tourism impact will be a minor footnote to this entire story.
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