First military personnel arrive in Sumatra
The first contingent of Swiss army personnel has arrived in tsunami-hit Sumatra as part of a United Nations relief mission.
Meanwhile, the foreign ministry has announced that the number of Swiss missing in the Asian tidal waves has fallen to 280.
The defence ministry said on Sunday that nine military employees had arrived in the town of Medan on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
Their main task will be to prepare the ground for the arrival of three Swiss army helicopters, which left for Sumatra on Monday.
Switzerland is sending the helicopters and up to 50 military personnel to the island following a request by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR). The helicopters will be used for medical evacuations and to airlift relief supplies to inaccessible areas.
Indonesia was the worst hit by the December 26 tsunami, with a death toll of 104,055.
The relief mission is expected to last up to three months and to cost up to SFr3 million ($2.56 million).
In other Swiss aid operations, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is to help provide drinking water in Banda Aceh in Indonesia and the Swiss Red Cross has increased its aid contribution to SFr2.5 million.
The Swiss are also due to announce this week which Thai village is to be rebuilt using SFr2 million in aid pledged by the government.
Death toll climbs
Meanwhile, the number of people killed by the disaster continues to climb, with official estimates now putting the death toll at up to 156,000.
On Saturday, the foreign ministry announced that the number of missing Swiss, which previously stood at 400, had fallen to 330.
Of these, 95 are presumed dead, but the official Swiss death toll remains unchanged at 23.
A spokeswoman said that some of the missing had come forward to identify themselves, but that further changes to the numbers were to be expected over the next few days.
According to a report in the German-speaking NZZ am Sonntag newspaper, the authorities have asked mobile phone companies Swisscom, Sunrise and Orange to help them in their search for the missing.
This includes the handing over of phone numbers and other data to help them track people’s movements, said the paper.
Apology
In another development, the Swiss ambassador to Thailand, Hans-Peter Erismann, has apologised on Swiss radio for mistakes made in the embassy’s handling of the tidal-wave disaster.
This included the fact that no Swiss representatives were on hand at Phuket airport in Thailand to help Swiss trying to get home on the Monday after the tsunami struck.
He said that at that time Swiss representatives had underestimated how many people would be fleeing the country on the day after the quake.
But Erismann commended his staff for working “in a fantastic way” in the aftermath of the tidal waves.
swissinfo with agencies
The undersea quake which provoked the tidal waves on December 26 measured 9.0 on the Richter scale.
Official estimates put the overall death toll at up to 156,000.
Indonesia’s death toll is the highest at an estimated 104,055.
280 Swiss are still missing; 23 are officially dead and at least 90 presumed dead.
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