Aussies, Kiwis to mark Anzac Day in Asia

BANGKOK - In the half light of early morning across Asia, Australians and New Zealanders will flock to Anzac Day dawn services to remember compatriots slain on the region's battlefields.

At war memorials and in jungle clearings, hundreds will pause to remember the dead from two world wars and conflicts in Malaysia and Vietnam.

In Vietnam, as many as 200 Australian veterans and family members will attend an early morning service at Long Tan in Nui Dat province, the site of the 1966 battle of Long Tan.

Former Western Australian premier Allan Carpenter will be one of those in attendance, said an Australian consulate official in Ho Chi Minh City.

Some 100 people are expected to attend a ceremony at the Rex Hotel in Ho Chi Minh.

In Malaysia, where Australian forces fought in the Second World War and the Malaya Emergency ended in 1960, services will be held at the military annex of the Cheras Road Christian cemetery in Kuala Lumpur.

In Malaysia's Sabah, up to 100 Australians are expected to visit the Sandakan Memorial Park in Taman Rimba.

The park, on the site of the Sandakan prisoner of war camp, contains tributes to those who died on the infamous death marches, including 1,381 Australians, in September 1944.

Services are also planned for Penang.

Memorial services will also take place in Thailand, centred on the so-called death railway in the western province of Kanchanburi, 120km from Bangkok.

The building of the railway line to carry supplies into Burma claimed the lives of 12,400 prisoners of war, including 2,800 Australians, and 100,000 Asian labourers who perished from disease and malnutrition.

An estimated 600 people are due to attend a dawn service at the Hell Fire Pass Konyu Cutting, 60km from Kanchanburi township, an Australian Embassy official said.

Later, diplomats and officials from Australia, New Zealand, Britain, the United States and other countries will gather at the lawn cemetery in Kanchanburi for a ceremony in the mid-morning.

In Singapore, Australian officials expect between 800 and 1,000 to attend ceremonies at the Kranji Commonwealth War Cemetery.

The Australian High Commission in Singapore said both the Australian and the New Zealand high commissioners would attend, along with Singaporean government representatives and military officers.

Anzac Day services will also be held in Laos, Cambodia and Burma.

- AAP