By Napat Wesshasartar and Artorn Pookasook
BAN SAI, Thailand, March 13 (Reuters) – Thousands of miles from the Middle East in Thailand’s rural northeast, Sommai Butdee waits for news of her nephew, one of three crew members missing from the Thai-flagged vessel after it was struck with two projectiles earlier this week as it travelled through the Strait of Hormuz.
On Friday, Sommai, 58, gathered with other relatives under their wooden stilt home in Surin province’s Ban Sai village. Holding out her phone, she showed a photo of her nephew, 27-year-old Panupong Muentan, on his graduation from a merchant marine training centre.
“He didn’t say much. I wished him a safe journey. He had gone to work at sea once or twice before. He told me, ‘Don’t be afraid. There’s nothing to worry about’,” Sommai said, recalling the last time they had seen each other in February.
Sommai raised her nephew and described him as a good and devoted man, who hoped to help pay off the family’s debt and his sibling’s tuition fees through his work as an engine room mechanic.
“They only went there to make a living, to work. They didn’t know anything about the bigger things happening in the world. We never thought it would turn out like this. His parents and relatives are all sad,” said his uncle, Dechawat Ratanapakul, 70.
Bangkok has demanded an apology and clarification from Tehran over the incident.
“Thailand is not a party to the conflict, the ship was not carrying anything controversial and there have been ships that have had safe passage and our vessel should have been treated that way also,” Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow told reporters in Bangkok on Friday.
The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has threatened Gulf ports and disrupted global trade through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement carried by the Tasnim news agency that the ship was “fired upon by Iranian fighters”.
Twenty other crew members abandoned ship in a lifeboat before being rescued by the Omani navy.
The three missing crewmen are believed to be in the vessel’s engine room, the ship’s owner, Precious Shipping said previously.
“I just want to hug him if he survives. I hope he is safe. I would be so happy,” Sommai said.
(Additional reporting by Chalinee Thirasupa; Writing by Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
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