More than 800 tsunami victims remain unidentified
As the first anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami approaches, 805 of the 3,750 bodies received by Thailand’s victim identification centre remain unidentified, officials said today.
More than 700 people are still listed as missing.
Officials say 5,395 people – about half of them foreign tourists – died as the tsunami struck the Andaman Sea coast resort area of Thailand on December 26.
Many victims’ bodies were claimed prior to the set up of the Thai Tsunami Victim Identification Centre, which has helped return nearly 3,000 victims to their families, centre official Howard Way told a press conference.
“We hope to bring (the number of unidentified) down gradually over the coming months, but the identifications are harder now, so they’re at a much slower rate than earlier in the year,” he said.
The remaining bodies, he said, are being relocated to Bang Maruan cemetery in Phang Nga, the province hardest hit by the killer wave.
Way was unable to say how many of the remaining victims are foreign or Thai, but he said there remain 160 non-Thais and 548 Thais reported missing.
The remaining bodies will continue to be kept in refrigerated containers as authorities try to identify them. Officials had successfully identified many victims through dental records, but now they’re relying more and more on DNA matches, Way said.
When the centre started work in early 2005, it had received 3,750 tsunami victims’ bodies.
Approximately 45% of the identifications have been made through dental records, 35% by fingerprints, and the remaining 20% through DNA analysis.
He said Thai police have been re-examining their list of missing victims, going to the addresses reported to get DNA samples of close relatives, and finding some people that were reported missing alive and well.
Police Lt Gen Ajiravid Subarnbhesaj, assistant commissioner-general of the Royal Thai Police, said the bodies that remain unidentified at the end of 2006 will be transferred to cement-walled graves.
The centre’s information office is being relocated from southern Thailand to Royal Thai Police headquarters in Bangkok and will be fully operational by January 4, Way said.
“This facility here will have the capability to be a regional disaster victim identification centre should there unfortunately be some kind of catastrophe in the region which would require a similar response in the future,” Way said.
Nearly 2,000 personnel from 31 nations have been involved in the identification process – collecting DNA samples, conducting forensic analysis, logging data and helping with repatriation of victims’ remains.
