1240 Bodies To Be Buried In Mass Grave

Thailand to bury unidentified tsunami bodies

(Reuters) - Thailand will switch off the refrigeration preserving the unidentified bodies of 1,240 people killed in the Indian Ocean tsunami and bury them in a mass grave in December, Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Vanasatidya said.

"We will bury those bodies and will only dig them up when the families come to claim them," Chidchai told reporters on Thursday, saying each body would be embedded with a microchip containing all the data on it.

Samples from the bodies would be preserved and work on trying to identify them would continue, but the identification centre on the southern resort island of Phuket would be closed as scheduled in December and work would move to Bangkok, he said.

Around 300 of the unidentified bodies were Caucasian and the rest Asian, Chidchai said.

Police General Nopadol Somboonsub, head of the identification centre, said in August the bodies would be kept refrigerated until the end of 2006 and Chidchai gave no explanation for the change of plan.

Thailand's official death toll from the Indian Ocean disaster, which struck the Andaman Sea coast at the height of the tourist season, is 5,395, of whom 2,436 were believed to be foreigners. Another 2,817 people are listed as missing.

The forensic operation -- which at its peak included experts from 35 national police forces worldwide -- uses fingerprints, dental records and DNA to put names to the bodies.

A Thai official said the Disaster Victim Identification Centre was seeking 50 million baht ($1.2 million) from the government to buy metal caskets to preserve the bodies.

"Metal caskets will help the bodies in good condition," he said.