Victim identification continues

2005-12-23 12:03

Griffin Shea

Khao Lak - It has been almost a year since the Indian Ocean tsunami, and scientists are still painstakingly piecing together tiny clues to identify those killed in the catastrophe.

The Thai Tsunami Victim Identification and Repatriation Centre in the Takua Pa district has more bodies than it has names of missing - 673 people are still listed as missing but 805 bodies or parts of bodies are awaiting identification at the centre.

Most of the remaining bodies were believed to be Thai nationals. The unaccounted are thought to belong to illegal migrant workers from Myanmar.

The largest forensics team the world has ever assembled - involving experts from 30 countries - is still at work in Thailand, collecting DNA samples that may be tested in China or Bosnia, trying to match samples to strands of hair lifted from victim's brushes, or possibly to DNA taken from close relatives.

Legal process holds up payments

The process will go on into next year.

All bodies at the centre will be moved to the Bang Maruan cemetery in Phang Nga province by mid-January.

At the same time, the Phuket-based identification centre will be relocated to the Thai police headquarters in Bangkok and upgraded to an Interpol-backed disaster victim identification unit covering Southeast Asia and Central Asia.

Meanwhile Thai families who reported their loved ones missing but who still have no body to bury or cremate are caught in legal limbo - those who go missing in a disaster are not declared legally dead for two years, and the requirement has held up payments for many of relatives.

Thailand's parliament has approved a bill, currently awaiting the king's signature to become law, that will eliminate this two-year waiting period.

Families of foreign tourists who vanished in the country are facing similar problems.

- AFP