Secret Mass Grave For Tourists

[kat]

I recently read that there were hundreds of Burmese migrants that died, especially in the area of Ranong. For the most part, they have simply been exempt from the attention received by every other victim or survivor.

Edited January 10, 2005 by kat

[naomisri]

I recently read that there were hundreds of Burmese migrants that died, especially in the area of Ranong.  For the most part, they have simply been exempt from the attention received by every other victim or survivor.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This article is interesting and reinforces the point I made about Burmese illegal workers (if that's what they were) not approaching the Thai authorities for risk of deportation. If you have lost your documents, as many farang did, you are much less likely to be given a sympathetic ear.

http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/0/bc10a...28?OpenDocument

It's not just the Thai authorities that are at fault, of course it's the regime in their homeland - as the article states - "In the case of the Burmese migrant workers and fishermen, however, there is no-one to speak for those without a voice."

In fact I was an illegal immigrant from Burma once - on a visa run my longtail driver forgot to get us to stamp out on our exit from Burma and I got as far as the Thai Immigration only to be told I was officially still in Burma...!

[mffun]

> back to the topic

Thais order tests on all victims' remains

By Martin Chulov and agencies

January 11, 2005

THAILAND has ordered DNA tests be conducted on the remains of all

5300 people known to have been killed by the tsunamis, a process that will involve the exhumation of some bodies.

The move has been fuelled by fears that some of the bodies may have been wrongly identified during the early days of the massive clean-up across the southern resort area of Phuket and two nearby tourist islands.

Authorities in India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka have abandoned hope of identifying most of the dead within their borders because of the overwhelming number of bodies. It is feared the bodies could lead to outbreaks of disease if they are not buried quickly. However, the identification task in Thailand has been made easier by the comparatively smaller body count and the help of forensic experts from numerous countries, who are keen to identify their own nationals.

On Sunday, the Thai Government acknowledged that the identification process during the mayhem following the tsunami could have been haphazard.

Yesterday, a rescue official in the hardest-hit province of Phang Nga said: "All bodies who were not DNA-tested will be unearthed so DNA samples can be taken and microchips will be implanted to identify who they were."

The Australian Federal Police has sent a team of 45 victim identification officers to Phuket, where the greatest numbers of Australians were killed.

A further 50 officers are liaising with other Australian agencies from Canberra.

AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty yesterday said the final Australian death toll might be as high as 100.

So far, 22 Australians are confirmed dead, with serious concerns for 31 more.

"I would think the range would be somewhere between 30 and 100," Mr Keelty told radio 2UE. "But it's very difficult and very time-consuming to get through the material that we've got."

The toll of missing Australians has fluctuated due to the Government's inability to pinpoint precisely where the 11,000 Australians travelling through Southeast Asia over Christmas were when the tsunamis struck.

Mr Keelty said to date only about 220 post-mortem examinations had been conducted in Thailand.

"There are several thousand bodies to undergo post-mortem investigation," he said.

More than 150,000 people were killed when the waves, caused by an earthquake off Sumatra, pummelled south Asian nations on the rim of the Indian ocean, as well as nations in East Africa.

The DNA process in Thailand could take months to organise, as those bodies not already DNA-tested are unearthed in order for samples to be taken.

Those samples must then be matched against DNA taken from any relative who has reported a family member missing.

In the Indonesian province of Aceh, almost all those killed have been buried without identification in mass graves, most near the capital of Banda Aceh.

- with AAP, The Australian

Source: news.com.au

---

"Foreign embassies have also set up posts around the affected region to take the details of missing nationals, and check them against dental and fingerprint records back home."

Source: bbc.co.uk

Edited January 10, 2005 by mffun