Finns turn down Tsunami memorial


All people injured and relatives of the diseased, who want to take part in the the Boxing Day memorial, can apply the Thai government to have the trip to Thailand and hotel paid. The Thai government hoped that 10,000 people would participate, but just about 400 have applied by filling out application forms on the Thai Foreign Ministry homepage, 24 being Finns. 114 Swedes, seven Norwegians and 18 Danes have applied.
  Because of the few applications the deadline was postponed till November 15th. According to the Thai Foreign Ministry’s homepage the deadline is now further postponed. This time till November 25th. Ambassador attached to the Thai foreign ministry, Vitavas Srivihok, has turned down expectations. Now he hopes that 1500-2000 will attend the memorial, but in these numbers are also included VIPs, representatives of international organisations, NGOs, diplomats and volunteers.
  There might be several reasons for the rather modest number of applications. Many people already went them selves or with their government to see the sites of the disaster and they might have been given too short a notice for them to prepare to go to Thailand,” Vitavas Srivihok says.
  For more information and application form, go to www.mfa.go.th/tsunami

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