S'pore pulls forces out of tsunami areas

S'pore pulls forces out of tsunami areas

SINGAPORE: Singapore, a key contributor in tsunami-relief
efforts, is pulling its search and rescue teams out of hard-hit
areas in Thailand and Indonesia as reconstruction work gets
underway, the Straits Times newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Just 12 members of the 80-strong team from the Singapore Civil
Defense Force remain in Phuket, where hundreds of foreign
tourists were among the casualties in the Dec. 26 tsunami, the
paper said. Among those staying are police officers working to
identify victims through DNA matching, it said.

All 27 team members sent to Indonesia's battered Aceh province
have also returned home, although several hundred members of the
Singaporean armed forces remain on the ground in Indonesia and
aboard ships and aircraft to deliver relief supplies to Aceh.

Tiny Singapore was among the first countries to send rescuers,
and its forces were instrumental in opening supply lines to some
of the worst affected areas in Aceh.

Rescuers recovered scores of bodies and scoured the Phuket
area for Singaporean vacationers, 15 of whom are still listed as
missing. At least nine Singaporeans died in the disaster. --AP