Forensic experts remove a body at the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) centre at Phuket in 2005. Thailand will next week begin burying 513 bodies of tsunami victims that have gone unclaimed or unidentified nearly two years after the catastrophe.

AFP

Thailand to bury 513 unclaimed bodies from tsunami

BANGKOK (AFP) - Thailand will next week begin burying 513 bodies of tsunami victims that have gone unclaimed or unidentified nearly two years after the catastrophe.

Burial ceremonies will begin on December 1 and last six days at the Bang Maruan cemetery in the hardest-hit province of Phang Nga, just north of the resort island of Phuket, police Colonel Khemmarin Hassiri said.

The bodies include those of 103 victims who have been identified, but whose families have yet to collect the remains, Khemmarin told AFP.

They include 72 Myanmar nationals, 28 Thais, one Filipino, one Turk and one Nepalese, he said.

The other 410 bodies have still not been identified, he added.

"We have collected DNA samples from all the bodies, so if any new evidence arises, we can exhume the bodies to complete the identification process," said Khemmarin, who heads the Thai Tsunami Victim Identification (TTVI) unit.

The bodies have been kept in a morgue that was meant to be temporary.

Khemmarin said Thai officials decided to bury the bodies because of concerns that the containers were not designed for such prolonged use and could begin to deteriorate.

Some 5,400 people were killed in Thailand on December 26, 2004, when the tsunami tore across the Indian Ocean and killed 220,000 people in a dozen countries.

Roughly half of the victims in Thailand were foreign holidaymakers.

Thailand and the United States are set to deploy the first tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean next week.

Thailand believes the system is essential to reassuring tourists about their safety, although tourism in the tsunami-hit region is already on the rebound.

- AFP

UPDATE... and now, the "next week" mentioned in the thread title... is here:

R.I.P.

A buddhist monk chants next to coffins of unidentified victims of the December 2004 tsunami, to be buried at Bang Maruan cemetery, in southern of Thailand's Phang Nga province. Thailand began burying the last of its unknown victims from the devastating December 2004 tsunami, in a quiet ceremony attended by a handful of officials and Buddhist monks.

AFP

Thais carry the body of an unidentified victim of the December 2004 tsunami, to be buried at Bang Maruan cemetery, in southern of Thailand's Phang Nga province. Thailand began burying the last of its unknown victims from the devastating December 2004 tsunami, in a quiet ceremony attended by a handful of officials and Buddhist monks.

AFP

Thais bury the coffin of an unidentified victim of the December 2004 tsunami, at Bang Maruan cemetery, in southern of Thailand's Phang Nga province. Thailand began burying the last of its unknown victims from the devastating December 2004 tsunami, in a quiet ceremony attended by a handful of officials and Buddhist monks.

AFP