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BKK POST: Howard pledges 25% incr
- Subject: BKK POST: Howard pledges 25% incr
- From: suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 07:11:00
April 25, 1998
THAI-AUSTRALIA TALKS
Howard pledges
25% increase in
aid
For courage and sacrifice
Achara Ashayagachat
Australian Prime Minister John Howard yesterday pledged an
additional A$34 million or 25% increase in aid to Thailand over
the next two years and A$1.5 million assistance for Burmese and
Cambodian refugees along the Thai border.
Mr Howard said after talks with Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai:
"Our support for Thailand (reflects) that my country is strong
enough economically to be able to assist the Thai people at this
particular time of economic problems, demonstrating that we are
not a fairweather friend but a friend and partner for the long
term."
Australia will suspend an earlier agreement to graduate Thailand
from Australian development assistance by 2000-1, said Mr
Howard after witnessing memoranda of understanding on
agricultural cooperation and on recognition of academic
qualifications at Government House yesterday.
Mr Howard said he appreciated Prime Minister Chuan's
leadership.
"Thailand and Australia have a very strong relationship, including
at the people-to-people level. The assistance that we provide for
Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea shows the priority that we
place on the region."
The new programme of Australian support will be developed to
focus on rehabilitating the banking and finance system, on good
governance and on reducing the impact of the crisis on the poor
and disadvantaged.
Australia will fund 80 postgraduate scholarships for Thai students
who are affected by Thailand's economic constraints.
The scholarships are in addition to the 250 Thai students already
in Australia under the existing development assistance
programme, he said.
The two countries have concluded a new air services agreement,
enabling Qantas and Thai Airways to nearly double capacity
from 38 to 70 flights per week by March 2000.
Mr Howard, who also had a discussion with visiting Australian
business people and the Australian business community in
Thailand, asked for an open investment climate.
During his official visit beginning Thursday, Mr Howard said
Australia would put more investment to Thailand.
The latest case is Winterthur insurance company's holding of
25% stake in Nam Seng insurance.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Kobsak Chutikul added that
Australia has also pledged A$1 million to displaced people from
Burma at the refugee camps along the Thai border and
A$500,000 to support Cambodian refugees and for repatriation
to their homeland.
Australia will consider relaxing importing regulations of durians,
mangoes and mangosteen from Thailand, in exchange for
Thailand's consideration to reduce import tax of lupin (pea for
animal production), skim milk, and chemical products from
Australia, he said.
Bilateral trade last year reached A$3,000 million.
The Australia Thailand Sports Foundation will also be set up
during Mr Howard's visit, in which two million baht will be
contributed by Australia to assist the Thai national team to
prepare for the 1998 Asian Games and the Sydney 2000
Olympics, said Mr Kobsak.
Thailand will also be supported to join a multilateral military
exercise, said Mr Kobsak.
Grandson of unsung Thai war hero
Boonpong handed award
Micool Brooke
Hellfire Pass
The grandson of Thailand's unsung hero of World War II
Boonpong Sirivejapanadah received an award for courage and
sacrifice from visiting Australian Prime Minister John Howard
who travelled to Kanchanaburi to open a 75 million baht
museum yesterday.
Mr Howard, who flew from the 2nd Cavalry Division to Hellfire
Pass by Bell 212 Helicopter, some 80km west of the famous
bridge on the River Kwae, awarded Boonpong's grandson,
Veeravej Subhawat, a certificate of appreciation before opening
the museum.
"Let this award mark our enduring gratitude for the various
deeds of your grandparents and let it symbolise the warmth of
our friendship which has grown since the war," Prime Minister
Howard said when presenting the certificate to Mr Veeravej.
Mr Howard, who held talks with Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai
earlier in the day before flying to Hellfire Pass, also announced
an additional A$50,000 contribution from Canberra towards the
Weary Dunlop/Boonpong Exchange Trust.
"This trust is in memory of all Australian medical officers and of
every Thai citizen who risked torture and death to provide
comfort and hope to our sick. A trust to allow talented young
Thai surgeons to travel to Australia to refine their skills. Out of
war, a legacy of peace.
Mr Howard said Hellfire Pass "does not seek to magnify
tragedy, but to commemorate triumph."
Mr Howard added that the museum would immortalise the
sufferings of a dying generation of Australians who helped forge
the Australian character. He said they represented Australia's
introduction to Asia.
"Memorials throughout the world attest to Australia's
achievement in battle... this museum, by its stories and through its
message is no different," Mr Howard said after alighting from the
helicopter which flew him from Bangkok to Hellfire Pass after his
meeting with Premier Chuan.
Mr Howard addressed a crowd of some 500 prominent Thais
and Australians before inspecting the Hellfire Pass Museum.
He is the first Australian prime minister since Paul Keating in
1994 to visit the site.
All of the Australian PoWs present agreed that the museum
would serve to educate not only the next generation of
Australians but the youth of all countries including Japan about
the horrors of Japan's war of aggression in WWII.
"This museum will tell future generations about the sacrifice and
struggle by not only Australian PoWs but also the British,
Americans, Dutch and New Zealanders.
Hellfire Pass now has a place in Australian history alongside
famous battles such as Gallipoli, Tobruk, Kakoda Trail, and
Long Tan where brave individuals helped further define the
Australian character through heroism and humour in the face of
death.
Hellfire Pass was the most difficult section of the railway to build
because it involved the construction of a number of rock-cuttings
and many flimsy bridges through extremely rugged terrain and
disease-infested jungle.
The five-kilometre stretch of track from Hellfire Pass to Hin Tok
station along a natural rock ledge some 175 metres above the
Kwae Noi River cost more lives than any other.
More than 400 of the 1,000 Australian and British PoWs died
during its construction.
Australian soldiers gave Hellfire Pass its name because, viewed
from above at night as prisoners worked by candlelight, the rock
cutting looked like the "jaws of hell."
Hellfire Pass was opened to the public in April 1987 during a
ceremony attended by veterans including Sir Edward Dunlop,
who received the medical supplies from the Thai trader,
Boonpong.
Sir Edward was awarded the Order of the White Elephant from
His Majesty the King in 1992 in acknowledgement of his efforts
in setting up an Australian-Thai doctor training and exchange
programme.
Sir Edward was one of 60 Australian, British and Dutch
surgeons on the railway who battled to save thousands of sick
and dying men from death and a lonely grave in a foreign land.
Not only did Sir Edward risk execution by defying his Japanese
captors who wanted sick and dying men to work on the line, he
also saved countless lives by performing near-impossible
operations with rudimentary tools and medicine supplied by
Boonpong, who after the war became mayor of Kanchanaburi.
Between 1942 and October 1943, a force of 60,000 Allied
PoWs captured by the Japanese in Singapore and elsewhere in
the Asia-Pacific, together with some 200,000 Asian slave
labourers, were mobilised to construct a 415-km railway linking
Bangkok and Rangoon for the Japanese war effort and the
coming offensive against India.
Many died in the construction process including 12,000 Allied
POWs, 2,800 of them being Australian.
They died of starvation, overwork, beatings, exhaustion, disease
and malnutrition.
The survivors have carried the mental and physical scars ever
since - many of them returning to the River Kwae on pilgrimages
in an effort to exorcise the ghost of 50-year-old horrors.
The railway took 17 months to complete and operated during
October 17, 1943 to February 1945 when British and US
bombers destroyed both bridges crossing the River Kwae.
One of these bridges is still in use today.
Only 110 kilometres of the original 415km railway survives
today, carrying tourists on the popular and scenic ride along the
bank of the Kwae Noi to Nam Tok, the terminus and site of a
hospital during WWII.
The rest of the track has been ripped up, sold off or consumed
by the jungle.
Meanwhile, Col Hamely, of Melbourne, formerly of the 2/2
Pioneer Division, said the new museum would keep the tradition
of ANZAC alive for the next generation.
"It's something to tell the next generation of not only Australians
but all people after the veterans of World War II are dead. We
are the last witnesses to the horror of war. The hope is that the
next generation learns from our experiences. Even the Japanese."
Today's ANZAC DAY at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery is
similar to Armed Forces Day commemoration services in all
countries around the world, but is uniquely Australian in that after
the service, the diggers and the new generation share a tale and a
tear over a cold beer.
To help preserve the spirit of ANZAC Day today, which
commemorates Australia's baptism of fire in the Gallipoli landings
in WWI, the Australian Embassy will supply beer for an
estimated 1,200 people.
It's hot here - 40 plus - so two cans per person might not be
enough.
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Last Modified: Sun, Apr 26, 1998