The international operation to identify the victims of the tsunami in Thailand may take more than a year, according to a leading member of the forensic team.
The world’s largest missing persons investigation has been complicated by the inadequate handling of thousands of bodies in the chaotic aftermath of the disaster.
”We are re-examining all the bodies,” said Kotaro Hara, the head of the Japanese forensic delegation.
”The Thais were supposed to have done this thoroughly, but the information they have provided has not been up to international standards. Without proper records we won’t be able to reconcile bodies with missing people.”
Hundreds of bodies stored at temporary cemeteries have had to be exhumed.
Each one is returned to the morgue for an inspection of clothing, tattoos, scars, decorative piercings and jewellery. Pathologists take fingerprints, DNA samples from the teeth or bone, and x-rays of the mouth for possible matches with dental records. The information is then stored on a microchip and surgically implanted inside the cheek of each victim.
Depending on the condition of the body, the process takes about 30 minutes, but it will have to be done thousands of times.
At the Krabi morgue, where many of the British victims from Phi Phi island are thought to be, pathologists estimate it will take them between a week and 10 days to re-examine all the corpses.
Teams from Thailand, Britain, Japan, Portugal, Canada, Italy and Switzerland are working eight-hour shifts at Krabi to try to speed up the process.
Marrying the information with records of missing persons will take considerably longer. Hara, who works as a pathologist with the National Police Agency in Tokyo, said the Thai government’s claim that the operation would last about two months was too optimistic.
”It could take a year, because we are still looking for missing persons, and we will never be able to identify all the victims because some will have no relatives or friends,” Hara said.
”I have never seen anything like this. It is the first time, and hopefully the last time.”
The death toll in Thailand stands at 5 303, including 1 790 Thais and 1 354 foreigners who have been identified.
A further 3 396 are missing. Among them are many of the estimated 440 British victims; but only 50 UK bodies have been identified.
The process has been complicated by political wrangling about where the DNA data should be collated.
China initially offered to perform the task as a demonstration of its growing technical expertise and influence in Asia, and the Thai government accepted.
But the Thai decision was then criticised by the heads of local DNA laboratories, who said they were capable of doing the job themselves.
Western countries, meanwhile, appear to have little faith in either option. It was recently announced that data from ”foreign-looking” victims would be processed in the US.
Collecting the data is a harrowing task. Experienced pathologists have been shocked by the disfigurement of the victims, the primitive conditions at the open-air morgues, and the huge number of child victims.
Along with having to deal with the grief of so many in the region, forensic officers are under immense stress.
This is clearly taking its toll on the 65-strong British team engaged in Operation Bracknell — as the Metropolitan police computer has randomly named the task.
While pathologists from other countries are willing to update journalists, British pathologists refuse to speak publicly about their work. ”We are far too busy, already behind schedule,” said one UK officer at Krabi morgue.
Sri Lanka’s president wants to adopt tsunami orphan
Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga wants to adopt a minority ethnic Tamil child orphaned by last month’s tsunami, the state-run Daily News reported on Tuesday.
Kumaratunga, who is from Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority, was ”visibly shaken” at a meeting she was heading to discuss rehabilitation efforts.
She said ”she will adopt a Tamil girl victim of the tsunami disaster,” the newspaper said.
Kumaratunga, who has two children, is against sending youngsters to orphanages, it said.
The tsunami on December 26 killed more than 30 000 people in this island nation, and people have expressed hope that the disaster will help Sri Lankans come together across the ethnic divide.
A truce between Tamil rebels and the government has held with few infractions since 2002, but peace talks broke down in April 2003.
A civil war between the two sides has killed 65 000 people since 1983. The rebels seek to carve out a Tamil homeland. – Guardian Unlimited Â