Thailand exhumes tsunami victims for DNA testing

Thailand exhumes tsunami victims for DNA testing

Eileen Ng, Agence France-Presse/Phuket, Thailand

Thailand forged ahead on Tuesday with the grisly task of exhuming tsunami victims for DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) testing as the largest ever international forensics operation to identify the thousands killed was launched.

Authorities repeated assurances that all the bodies they had of tsunami victims, including some which had already been interred, would be DNA-tested amid fears people have been buried without proper identification.

Some bodies have also been cremated but only after being positively identified.

The interior ministry said in a daily update on Tuesday that it had 5,309 people confirmed dead, including 1,728 Thais, 1,240 foreigners and 2,341 bodies that could not be identified by nationality.

The number of missing was put at 3,370, including 1,102 foreigners.

Many of those missing would likely be confirmed dead in time, Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula said.

The final death toll may change slightly, "but if we match the DNA tests of the dead and their relatives, we will likely find that the missing people are the unidentified dead," he said.

Thailand at the weekend announced a dramatic tenfold increase in the number of corpses listed as having unknown national origin, saying their initial identification had proved unreliable.

Bhokin said bodies of up to 800 people who had already been buried were being exhumed. Any whose DNA samples had not been appropriately taken would be tested and fitted with a microchip containing the data, and then placed in refrigerated containers.

"The figure was between 600 and 800" bodies to be exhumed, Bhokin said. "There were many bodies and we could not keep them at the temple so we had to bury them."

DNA sampling would continue apace for another two weeks, he said.

The world's largest disaster victim identification (DVI) center meanwhile opened on the resort island of Phuket to begin compiling and cross-referencing DNA and other forensic data from victims and similar ante-mortem data from relatives.

"This is the world's first such integrated operation using the world's best and latest technology and specialist expertise from all over the world," said Australian police Inspector Jeff Emery, who heads up the DVI information center.

About 60 experts from around the globe will man the center which is squeezed onto the third floor of a telecommunications company building. It will work with dental records, fingerprinting and DNA samples.

Emery said it could take nine months or longer to complete the process, which foreign governments are watching closely. "Countries must have patience," he told reporters.

"This is a very, very large operation, a large number of people have died. The process must be very thorough," he said. "We cannot make mistakes in regards to identification."

Some 400 forensics personnel from at least 30 countries were in Thailand, experts told AFP, and Emery said they were considering working 24 hours a day.

U.S. Marine Col. Jim Reilly, who is coordinating the U.S. search operations here, said Thailand's goal to identify every one of the victims was admirable but ultimately unachievable.

"They want 100 percent accountability of the bodies but I know it's not possible. And if we have that level of expectation, we are going to be disappointed," Reilly told reporters.

Meanwhile clean-up efforts gathered pace in the tourist island of Phuket and neighboring Phang Nga, the province worst hit by the giant waves which were produced by a massive earthquake off Indonesia.

Roads have been cleared, piles of sand and mud leveled and debris bulldozed into stacks.

The cabinet on Tuesday approved 5.25 billion baht (US$134 million) in aid for thousands of Thais and foreigners whose relatives were killed, wounded or missing from the disaster.

The funds would also assist thousands of fisherfolk whose livelihoods were washed away, create jobs for those left unemployed and rebuild destroyed homes.

A 54.25 billion baht ($1.39 billion) soft loan scheme from the finance ministry was also approved for entrepreneurs whose businesses including hotels were devastated by the tsunami.