Australian, South African Killed in Indonesia Plane Crash

A South African pilot and his Australian passenger were killed when their Susi Air plane crashed in eastern Indonesia, officials said Thursday, in the airline’s third fatal accident in a year. They were the only people on board the Pilatus PC-6 aircraft, which was carrying the Australian photographer on a chartered flight, the airline’s operations director Christian Strombeck said. “The pilot was South African and the photographer was Australian. Both were killed,” he said. “The plane crashed Wednesday at around 5:30 p.m. local time (0930 GMT), and the bodies were found at around 1:30 a.m. Thursday,” he said. “The Pilatus PC-6 aircraft was flying in East Kalimantan to do some aerial photography when it crashed,” Strombeck added. The plane went down near a village in the Kutai Kartanegara district, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency. “The aircraft crashed at the edge of a ravine,” he said. Susi Air is a small domestic airline that operates mostly Cessna Grand Caravan planes usually configured to carry 12 passengers and two pilots. It also operates a few smaller Pilatus aircraft. In November, one of the company’s Cessna aircraft crashed while trying to land in Indonesia’s remote Papua region, killing a Spanish pilot. Another of its aircraft crashed in September in Papua province, killing an Australian and Slovakian pilot. The Indonesian archipelago of more than 17,000 island relies on air transport to reach remote areas and has a poor aviation safety record. Fri 27 April 2012 http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/update-indonesia-plane-crash-victims-identified/514196

Nadra offers AFIS help to identify disaster victims

The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has volunteered its services to Pakistan Army for identification of soldiers trapped in Gayari snow-slide once they are found as it is in close contact with the relevant authorities for the purpose. This has been revealed in a report submitted by the Nadra here Tuesday. According to the report it deployed its Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) Unit in the rescue and recovery operation after the Bhoja Air crash on the orders of Chairman Nadra Friday last. The DVI Unit, headed by Director General, National Data Warehouse, Syed Muzaffar Ali, provided critical assistance and technical support in the identification of the bodies of the deceased. The report claimed that in many instances, bodies are charred or decomposed beyond recognition rendering them unidentifiable through conventional means. The DVI uses its Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) for establishing identification of the victims. The fingerprint samples taken by Nadra teams are compared with the existing records in the database and then identity is verified before handing over the remains to the respective families. The Nadra identified 7 bodies of the Bhoja air crash without delay through AFIS. It has the capacity to use facial imaging and recognition tools for identification and can help local law enforcement authorities with DNA identification as well. The first body was identified within a few hours of recovery; the speedy identification was greatly appreciated by the media and the relatives of deceased. The Nadra has previously helped in rescue and relief operations in many parts of Pakistan, including the floods of 2010, 2011 and Air Blue crash and other disasters. The report suggested that one can easily determine that if this would had not been there, many days must be needed in identification of dead bodies. In that case their relatives will have to undergo the stress and agony for fairly long time. The report noted that the federal Minister for Interior Rehman Malik and the relevant authorities appreciated the Nadra staff efforts, dedication and devotion during the rescue operation. Thursday, April 26, 2012 http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-6-105035-Nadra-offers-AFIS-help-to-identify-disaster-victims

Widow sues funeral home, crematorium after receiving stranger's ashes

SALT LAKE CITY — Marilynn Flynn opened the urn containing her husband's ashes for the first time while preparing for a memorial service marking one year since his death. Flynn intended to spread some of his remains in the Sacramento Mountains near her home in Alamogordo, N.M. But what she says she saw inside the urn stunned her: a dental bridge fragment, a dental crown and three porcelain fragments — none of which belonged to her husband. "She feels devastated. She feels she let her husband down because she didn't secure his remains," said John Wheeler, an Alamogordo attorney representing Flynn in a federal lawsuit. The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City alleges McDougal Funeral Homes and Independent Professional Services were negligent in handling the remains of Michael Wayne Flynn. It contends the ashes given to Marilynn Flynn could not have been those of her husband. Mike Flynn, 59, and two other men died April 25, 2009, when the airplane he was co-piloting crashed in the Oquirrh Mountains in Tooele County. The men were traveling from Missoula, Mont., to southern New Mexico to fight a wildfire. Marilynn Flynn positively identified her husband's remains shortly before they were cremated, Wheeler said. After discovering the dental fragments, she questioned whether the remains were her husband's. "Mr. Flynn never had that type of dental work done," Wheeler said. Marilynn Flynn took the fragments to a forensic dentist who determined they did not come from her husband. She also consulted with the widow of the pilot and found he had not had that kind of dental work done either, he said. Flynn intended to combine and inter her husband's ashes with her own after she dies. The purpose of the lawsuit is to locate Mike Flynn's remains and to find out "where the system broke down" so it doesn't happen again, Wheeler said. The crematory at Independent Professional Services is cleaned with a fine-bristle brush before each body goes in, and workers go over the remains with magnets to remove any metals before placing them into a heavy plastic bag, says owner Gerald Newlon. McDougal Funeral Homes, 4330 S. Redwood Road, took custody of the body from the state medical examiner's office and arranged with nearby Independent Professional Services for the cremation. Gerald Newlon, owner of Independent Professional Services, said Mike Flynn's body arrived in a "disaster pouch," which he said is typical of crash victims. An identification tag is attached, he said. Bodies are cremated one at a time. "We don't really know what we get in the disaster pouches," Newlon said. "In a case like this, everything we get goes into the crematory." The crematory is cleaned with a fine-bristle brush before each body goes in, he said. Workers go over the remains with magnets to remove any metals before placing them into a heavy plastic bag. Newlon said his company's patron contract advises them of the possibility of foreign objects. A woman who answered the phone at McDougal on Tuesday declined to comment. 25 April 2012 http://www.ksl.com/?nid=960&sid=20135237

Identifying bodies a dilemma again

ISLAMABAD: Local administration is once again facing the dilemma of identifying air crash victims as it had faced after the Airblue crash in the Margallas in July 2010. Relatives have collected the bodies of 118 of the 127 persons who perished in Friday’s Bhoja Air crash but nine remain unclaimed. What makes the identification task difficult is that the remains of the victims fill 45 boxes. Frankly, most of the bodies were badly mutilated in the unfortunate crash. It were mostly body parts that we collected from the crash site. Only a few were intact,” a senior health officer told Dawn. Asked how they handed over the bodies to the heirs, he said: “Nadra helped us a lot and it was through finger marking and visual recognition.” When a similar question was raised by this reporter with the deputy commissioner of Islamabad, Amir Ali Ahmed, he said visual recognition by heirs was the key method also mentioned in the law and followed globally.” The second is DNA testing which takes a week or so. “We can’t say no to the heirs if they claim that a body belongs to them because visual recognition is the key to any claim,” he added. When told that some 45 coffins still remained with the local administration, Ahmed said: “Those 45 boxes are a symbol of respect given by my administration to the body parts of the victims. As Muslims, we respect every part of the body and keep them in separate coffin boxes.” He said the body parts would remain at the cold storage till the final DNA test reports were available after which it would be handed over to the heirs. “Once we receive a scientific report, we will hand over the bodies to the heirs.” Asked what he would do if several boxes still remained in their custody, he said: “We will bury them as per the defined Islamic rules and principles separately.” The DC said after the Airblue crash, they had faced a similar situation when they were left with some 20 coffins. But they followed the standard procedures. Meanwhile, Ahmed said the PC-I for establishment of a new mortuary was being prepared by the ICT administration and in this regard the help of Pims management had also been sought. It may be noted that the outpatient department (OPD) of Pims remained closed after the bodies of the air crash victims were kept in the hall. The executive director of the hospital, Prof Mahmood Jamal, said the OPD had now been opened. However, the DC said nowhere in the country a mortuary was managed by the district management; instead it was under the administrative control of hospitals. “However, to ease the load of Pims we have decided to go for an independent mortuary since we have to take a cold storage on rent during disasters.” 24 April 2012 http://dawn.com/2012/04/24/identifying-bodies-a-dilemma-again-2-fm/

ISLAMABAD - The victims of an airline crash near Islamabad that killed all 127 people on board were laid to rest on Sunday, as investigators probed the causes of the fatal incident. The Bhoja Air flight from Karachi came down in fields near a village on the outskirts of Islamabad on Friday evening, second major fatal air crash in less than two years. Thirteen of those killed were buried late Saturday in Islamabad and funerals for 36 other victims were held in Karachi and other cities early Sunday, with more ceremonies expected in different cities throughout the day. Television broadcasts showed footage of distraught relatives, weeping and hugging each other, as the dozens of coffins left Islamabad’s Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital where the remains had been taken. Some nine dead bodies have not yet been identified and will undergo DNA tests, a hospital official said. Doctor Waseem Khawaja, in charge of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) told AFP that most of the bodies were beyond recognition and mutilated. An AFP reporter who visited the hospital late Saturday said some of the remains still at the hospital were no more than body parts, stored on stretchers and covered by white sheets. Most of the bodies, handed over to the relatives were identified by their identity cards, jewellery, shoes, passports, watches, clothes and body parts, witnesses said. An AFP photographer at the crash site on Sunday witnessed policemen cordoning off the whole area and not allowing local residents near.Investigation teams were busy collecting evidence from the site where the wreckage of the plane, along with victims’ clothes and shoes, were visible.The disaster is the city’s second major plane crash in less than two years - an Airblue plane came down in bad weather in July 2010, killing 152 - and victims’ families have voiced fury at the authorities. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Director General Nadeem Khan Yusufzai said the plane suddenly dropped from 2,900 feet to 2,000 feet as it made its final approach to land, and vanished from the airport radar. He said another plane from the private Airblue airline landed safely from the same approach about 10 minutes afterwards and there was no indication from the Bhoja pilot that he was in distress. The flight data recorder has been recovered and will be sent abroad for analysis, and the overall investigation could take up to a year to complete its work, he told reporters Saturday,Interior Minister Rehman Malik said a committee had been set up to investigate the crash and the head of the airline Farooq Bhoja had been put on an ‘exit control list’, banning him from leaving Pakistan. All 127 people on board - 121 passengers and six crew - were killed when the plane crashed and burst into flames at around 6:40 pm on Friday. There were 11 children among the dead.In July 2010 an Airbus A321 operated by Airblue crashed into the hills overlooking Islamabad while coming in to land in heavy rain and poor visibility, killing all 152 people on board. Friday’s flight was Bhoja’s first evening trip from Karachi to Islamabad since resuming operations last month after a 12-year suspension for not paying Civil Aviation Authority dues. Mon 24 April 2012 http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/islamabad/23-Apr-2012/victims-of-plane-crash-laid-to-rest

Identities of 60 victims of dictatorship will be known in a year

Within about a year, a team of forensic anthropologists from Argentina could lead the identification of the bones of 60 victims of the military dictatorship in Panama.

The news comes from officials of the Panamanian Foreign Ministry says La Prensa.

Since March 7 a group of anthropologists, Mercedes Salado, Carlos Vullo and Ute Hofmainer, the Panamanian government have worked ona report explaining the procedures they will follow to begin studies of human remains in custody of Panama’s Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences.

No starting date has been set because the Institute, has not received the comments of the Argentine forensic report submitted to the board members.

After the fulfillment of this phase, anthropologists will coordinate with the Institute of Legal Medicine to begin their work.

The investigations will be carried out in several stages, including the study of the bones and DNA testing ofrelatives of the victims.

The documentation available for each case will be collated and, the evidence divided into groups to create a genetic database of human remains with DNA samples from relatives. Some of the analyzes will be made in Argentina. .

The Argentine forensic experts were hired by the Panamanian government after the forming on January 5 of the committee to identify victims of the dictatorship. This committee is made up of by the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared, the Attorney General, Office of the President, the Red Cross and the Foreign Ministry.

The bones were exhumed by the Truth Commission (2001-2002).

MONDAY, 02 APRIL 2012

http://www.newsroompanama.com/panama/4118-identities-of-60-victims-of-dictatorship-will-be-known-in-a-year.html

Mexico bus-truck crash leaves 43 dead

XALAPA, Mexico — A truck crashed into a passenger bus Friday in Mexico's eastern Veracruz state, killing 43 and injuring around 20 others, officials said. "In total, 43 people died in this accident" near the town of Alamo, Veracruz government spokeswoman Gina Dominguez told Milenio television late morning. The bus was traveling from the port of Coatzacoalcos to the northern border state of Coahuila when the crash occurred at around 4:30 am (0930 GMT) in the north of Veracruz state on the Gulf of Mexico. As rescue workers recovered bodies from the wreckage, officials organized the transfer of the injured to hospitals in the nearby port city of Tuxpan. "The first report we have, which we need to confirm with investigators, is that the truck's trailer came loose and hit the bus," Dominguez said. The bus passengers were agricultural workers traveling to work, according to local newspaper El Diario del Golfo, citing witnesses, on its website. Another collision between a passenger bus and a truck on a road in Jalisco state, western Mexico, left 36 hurt and one dead Friday, a state civil protection official told AFP, without giving further details. On April 5, 14 sugar cane workers died and nine were hurt when the bus they were traveling in crashed into a tree and overturned, also in Jalisco. Around 24,000 people die from road accidents in Mexico each year, according to insurance companies -- a figure almost double the annual drug violence death toll. Fri 20 April 2012 http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iRAW2whNRnb_nH6H3QCAvvK4bi5w?docId=CNG.f07951d248e08c101c9eefe7c8769715.81

Charred wreckage litters Pakistan plane crash site

HUSSAIN ABAD, Pakistan — The smell of burning filled the air at the scene of Friday's deadly plane crash on the outskirts of Islamabad, where chunks of charred wreckage lay scattered across farmland. The Bhoja Air Boeing 737 from Karachi came down at dusk as it tried to land at the city's airport in a thunderstorm and officials say there is no hope of any of those on board, believed to number up to 130, surviving. Rescue workers in orange jumpsuits and local residents used torches to search through the wreckage after nightfall, assisted by soldiers carrying assault rifles. Part of the airline's name could be read on a large section of ripped white fuselage from the passenger cabin. Witnesses described seeing human limbs strewn over a wide area spattered with blood and an AFP reporter saw plane oxygen masks and luggage littering the wheat fields around the village of Hussain Abad. A long row of coloured sheets at the edge of the fields covered the remains of victims recovered from the crash site so far. Part of the plane's wing fell on a house in the village. The owner Intezar Hussain said it damaged a balcony but caused no casualties. "The plane came down with huge noise," his son Jaffer Hussain said. "Its pilot perhaps tried to land into the farmland. It hit trees and exploded," he said. "It all happened in front of my eyes. I rushed away to save my life. When I looked back I saw flames were coming out of the plane. "It crashed in heavy rains. There was thunder also." A large section of wing with the airline logo and an engine could be seen among the debris. There were emotional scenes at Islamabad airport as distraught relatives wept bitterly for the victims of the crash. "I had come to receive my newly wed son and daughter-in-law. My son Sajjad Ali married only 20 days back. He was coming with his wife Sania Abbas today, I had come to receive the couple," said one heartbroken old man. In the southern city of Karachi, hundreds of people gathered outside the airport to inquire about relatives who had departed on the flight to Islamabad. Women, men and children were seen crying after finding the names of loved ones on the list of passengers displayed by the airline. "My wife was on the plane, she was alone, going to see her parents," said Arshad Hussain, 27, tears rolling down his cheeks. He had married just a few months ago. "I have seen the name of my sister and her infant girl," said Mohammad Usman. "Our lives have been devastated." Fri 20 April 2012 http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ipq46Vq-aps5nN1X0jSezGFf6pXQ?docId=CNG.fbce75d2eba2ecc24710f72328c3b9d9.4b1

15 dead found in southern Tamaulipas

A total of 15 dead were found in two southern Tamaulipas cities Thursday and Friday, according to news accounts.

To date, no information has been released by authorities, since the government of Tamaulipas state is observing restrictions to news releases under Article 41 of the Mexican Constitution which forbids government propaganda during federal elections.

Ten unidentified dead, nine men and one woman, were found Friday aboard an abandoned soft drink truck in Ciudad Mante. Ciudad Mante is about 25 kilometers along Mexico Federal Highway 85, south of Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas.

Meanwhile in Ciudad Victoria, five unidentified dead were found in Colinas del Valle colony of the city. The count was four young men and one woman.

A recent news repors in Milenio news daily said that two new Mexican Army bases, for units of the Mexican 106th Infantry Regiment were recently completed, one in San Fernando municipality and one in Ciudad Mante. Mexican army bases typically house roughly a rifle company compliment, or between 100 and 150 personnel.

Tamaulipas of one of the most heavily fortified states in Mexico, with 8,000 Mexican Army troops at last count since last January.

San Fernando was the location a year ago where 193 dead were found in the aftermath of a murder spree by a Los Zetas group operating in the area. The find was the second biggest mass grave in modern Mexican history eclipsed only by the 331 dead found over last year in Durango state, 301 of those in Durango city alone.

San Fernando is located approximately between Ciudad Victoria and the northern border with the United State, about 120 kilometers northeast of Ciudad Victoria.

Wedn 18 April 2012

http://usopenborders.com/2012/04/15-dead-found-in-southern-tamaulipas/

Colombia: disappearance

Disappearance is a source of constant pain for families who never stop searching for their loved ones. Unsolved cases, the persistence of the problem and the neglect of many affected families are a cause for serious concern.

There may be no trace of those who are missing, but each has a story. Behind each missing person lies the uncertainty and anxiety of a family tirelessly searching, suffering constantly and in silence. Their pain is only eased when they discover the fate of their loved ones.

The exact number of missing persons in Colombia is not known, but we do know that there are many more than the 51,000 names on the State's national register. This is a cumulative, large-scale problem. Every year, more names are added to a long list whose first entries date back more than half a century.

There are two specific scenarios that result in people being declared missing: forced disappearance in connection with the conflict and other situations of violence (when the perpetrator intends to make the person disappear); and disappearance as a result of bureaucracy, lack of information or oversight. The latter category includes those who die in combat or other violent circumstances, without any explicit intention to make them disappear. In some cases, bodies are simply left behind on the battlefield when the fighting ends. Due to shortcomings with the procedures for recovering, identifying and burying bodies, many have been buried in unmarked graves bearing no information whatsoever, or in mass graves in cemeteries around the country, thereby drawing out the search and uncertainty of their families.
Although in recent years there have been major advances in searching for and identifying missing persons (thanks to inter-organizational agreements and harmonized forms, protocols and procedures, among others), there is still a great deal of concern about the number of unsolved cases, the persistence of the problem and the neglect of many families of missing persons.

Although the missing persons are the direct victims of the violation, their relatives, who suffer their loss and embark on a campaign in search of them, are also victims. Another factor compounding the situation in Colombia is the fact that families experience innumerable difficulties when navigating the complex legal and forensic procedures in pursuit of their loved ones. In many cases, they are unfamiliar with the system and with their rights, or they get lost in all the bureaucratic steps.

Apart from this lack of knowledge, relatives may also be afraid to report a disappearance. This fear arises from suspicion and from the ongoing underlying threat, since the search goes on against a backdrop of persistent armed conflict and may result in the disappearance of more people. Their search is therefore not made official, denying families the chance to receive proper State assistance to ascertain the fate of their relatives. Families of missing persons have the right to know the truth about what happened to their loved ones.

Wedn 18 April 2012

http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/feature/2012/colombia-report-2011-missing.htm

The Pathribal Aftermath

Pathribal was a part of three successive and related killings which claimed 50 lives between March 20 and April 3, 2000. On March 20, unidentified gunmen killed 35 Sikhs at Chittisinghpora followed by the Pathribal killings on March 25 and then the killing of nine civilians at Brakpora on April 3 who were part of a protest over the Pathribal killings. Vakil Manzoor recounts.

On 25 March 2000, Indian military forces killed five men in (Vuzkhah Zontangri peak) Pathribal village of Anantnag district, claiming that the victims were “foreign militants” responsible for the attacks on Sikhs in South Kashmir’s Chittisinghpora.

Official reports claimed that security forces after a gunfight, blew up the hut where the ‘militants’ were hiding, and had retrieved five bodies that had been charred beyond recognition. The bodies were buried without any postmortem examination.

Over the following days, local villagers began to protest, claiming that the men were ordinary civilians who had been killed in a fake encounter. According to them, the police between March 21 and 24 of 2000, had detained many men.

On 30 March, authorities in Anantnag relented to growing public pressure and agreed to exhume the bodies and conduct an investigation into the deaths.

On 5 April 2000, Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah ordered the exhumation of the bodies killed in Pathribal. DNA samples were collected from the 5 bodies, as well as 15 relatives of the missing young men, and were submitted to forensic laboratories in Kolkata and Hyderabad.

However, in March 2002 it was discovered that the DNA samples taken from the bodies of the Pathribal victims (all of whom were men) had been tampered with. According to reports, samples had in fact been collected from females.

Later, experts collected fresh samples in April 2002 from Kolkata and Hyderabad. That verified the five people killed in Pathribal were locals and not foreign militants as claimed by the police.

In January 2003 the case was handed to the CBI by the state government. The CBI investigation alleged that officials of 7 Rashtriya Rifles had in fact staged the fake encounter wherein they had killed the five innocent civilians and later on labeled them as “foreign militants”.

25-year-old youth Zahoor Ahmad Dalal was among the five persons killed. The other four civilians killed in the fake encounter included Muhammad Yousuf Malik of Halan Verinag, Bashir Ahmed Bhat of Halan Verinag, Juma Khan (son of Faqeerullah Khan) of Brari Angan and Juma Khan (son of Ameerullah Khan) of Brari Angan.

Zahoor Ahamd Dalal

For the last 10 years, the house of Raja Bano (mother of Zahoor Dalal) is locked and she is living with her brother in a nearby house. She doesn’t talk much of her son but says in a low voice. “I have kept every belonging including the clothing of Zahoor locked in almirah and each time he comes in my dreams, he asks me to donate them to poor,” says Raja.

Nazir Ahmad Dalal identified the maroon sweater and the shirt of his nephew as soon as the first grave was opened. The villagers had buried the half-burnt clothes of Dalal as well.

Zahoor Ahamd Dalal was picked up just outside their home at Mominabad.

Raja Begum says, “Now the world knows we were not lying. Our stand has been vindicated. The guilt of the officials involved has been proved beyond any shade of doubt.”

Juma khan
Roshan Jan, had no doubts left that her husband, Juma Khan was no more. “Main nay uski thudi aur nak pehchan lee (I identified his bearded, chin and nose),’’ she says. When asked whether she has any doubts left regarding the identity of her husband’s body as there is just half of the face left, she screamed, `I have lived my entire life with him, how can I make a mistake in identifying him?’’

Roshan Jan had come all the way from village Brariangan for the identification. Her son was among the eight villagers killed in the police firing upon the demonstrating villagers, who were seeking exhumation of these bodies.

She says the Army came in the night on March 24 and asked him to accompany them. They were not aggressive. They told us they wanted my husband to guide them through the hilly track. So we happily let him go. Our relative from Pathribal Moulvi Qasim identified the dead body of my father and he informed us about that. They (army) buried these dead bodies at different places.

Bashir Ahmad Bhat
A second grave was dug up at Chogam where Ghulam Rasool Bhat, whose brother Bashir Ahmad Bhat was also missing, says it was his brother’s body lying in the grave. The rest of the graves, spread over a radius of 2 to 3 km in the Pathribal area where the security forces had claimed to have killed five “foreign guerrillas” involved in the March 20 massacre of 35 Sikhs at Chittisinghpora.

He was arrested from Islamabad. He went there to collect money from the borrowers. It was 24th March, Friday. Around 7:45 pm they were arrested in the Shirpora area of Anantnag. We came to know about them only after my brother went to Islamabad on the very next morning. He asked shopkeepers about Bashir.

On 24th they were arrested and the same day they were killed and on the next morning their pictures were shown on newspaper and televisions. We staged protest for 13 consecutive days. No local was allowed to enter the graveyard. Their corpses indeed spoke how they had been tortured. We couldn’t identify them. One family recognized their son only after they saw the remaining of trousers and warmer. I recognized when I saw hand of one corpse, I shouted it is my brother.

Tuesday, 17 April 2012

http://nvras.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/pathribal-aftermath.html

Most mass graves in C'nawabganj now 'a matter of indifference'

Freedom fighters said, a large number of people were killed by the Pakistan occupation forces with the help of local collaborators and buried in those places, 1971.

Due to lack of maintenance, a number of the identified mass graves have turned into abandoned places while others are about to be obliterated, they said.

Some of the places where the mass graves are located are Shmashan Ghat, Rehaichar and BGB camp in the town, Zamindar House of Baroghoria, Poragaon, Teroroshia and Dashroshia villages in Islampur union under Sadar upazila.

The killing ground known as 'Pakistan Bagan' near Shibganj Girls' College in Chapainawabganj has almost been devoured by Pagla River, while the mass grave near Gomostapur police station is now about to be obliterated.

Most of the mass graves of Liberation War martyrs in different upazilas lie uncared for while a few face obliteration largely due to indifference of the authorities.

Besides, there is one at Doroshia village, two mass graves at Monakasha union, several at Kalabari village, Dhobra, Baliadighi, Kansat Musa Chowdhry's mango orchard and two other at Pakistani Bagan and Selimabad in Shibgonj upazila.

The other graves are at Shahpurgarh in Bholahar upazila and Gomostapur village, Rohonpur Rail Station Para, Rohonpur AB High School, Tikrampur village, Ginarpur village, Enayetpur village and Gomostapur Smriti Mandir in Gomostapur upazila.

Major portion of Rehaichar mass grave has been devoured by Mohananda River while Shmashan Ghat mass grave is also in bad shape. People built houses in Shmashan Ghat mass grave area almost obliterating the spot.

Pakistan army killed and dumped the bodies of a large number of people at Shmashan Ghat, Rehaichar and former EPR camp (BGB headquarters) in Chapainawabganj town.

Locals built houses on the mass graves at Zamindar House in Baroghoria and now there is no sign of any mass grave.

Major portion of the two mass graves in Pakistani Bagan in Shibgonj has been devoured by Pagla River. From July to August, Pakistan army and their collaborators killed several hundred people in these places.

Pakistan army killed at least 200 people in Poragaon, Dashroshia and Teroroshia village under Islampur union of Sadar upazila and dumped their bodies at different spots.

Doroshia village mass grave in Shibgonj upazila has been lost forever due to river erosion. On October 10, 1971 Pakistan army killed 38 villagers in the village.

Pakistan army in collusion with the local collaborators raided Gomostapur Hindupara village and caught a large number of villagers. They forced them to stand in a row, shot them dead and dumped their bodies under earth.

On April 23, Pakistan army raided Gomostapur village again and caught and killed 35 villagers. During the liberation war, they killed 14 freedom fighters at Shahpurgarh and buried in the area.

Most of the aforesaid mass graves are still without any memorial, while the memorials at several places are lying neglected, said local freedom fighters.

Only Baliadighi mass grave and Rohonpur Rail Station Para mass grave have memorials, they said.

Leaders of Chapaianwabganj district unit of Muktijoddha Sangsad have demanded steps for proper maintenance of all identified mass graves and build memorials where martyrs were killed and buried by the Pakistan occupation forces during the liberation war.

“During the liberation war, a number of massacres took place in the district. There are mass grave everywhere, of which only 25 to 30 have so far been identified,” said Dr Mazharul Islam Toru, writer of Chapainawabganjer Itihas (History of Chapainawabganj).

Proper steps should be taken to identify and preserve the mass graves, he said.

Wedn 18 April 2012

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/photo_gallery.php?pid=230551

8,000 jars of human remains are to be given a proper burial

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- A group of relatives of Palestinians killed by Israel demanded Tuesday that the Israeli government exclude their remains from a state plan to bury unidentified remains.

Israel's Haaretz daily reported that 8,000 jars of human remains are to be given a proper burial, under a national program unveiled Sunday by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv.

Palestinian relatives insisted that Israel follow through on its agreement with the Palestinian ministry of civil affairs in summer 2011 in which it agreed to release nearly 200 bodies of slain Palestinians.

In a statement, the group condemned Israel's "defiance of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions of 1949, in which Israel is obligated to return victims of war to their families."

It was not immediately clear if the unidentified remains kept by Israel would include Palestinians.

The burial process will start on May 20, Haaretz reported.

Families who wish to have their loved ones' tissues and organs buried together with relatives, instead of in a mass grave, will be permitted to do so, according to the report.

Published 18/04/2012

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=477375

Remains' burial project underway

"Final Resting Place," a joint venture by the Health Ministry and the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute, which aims to entomb 8,288 organs and tissue samples removed from deceased during autopsies, was officially launched on Sunday.

Health Ministry Director-General Ronny Gamzo told reporters that the first phase of the program will focus on increased efforts to contact all of the families.

The ministry has also set up a special information hotline for any public inquiries.

The Abu Kabir Forensic Institute (AKFI) is scheduled to begin referring remains for burial in May.

The families will be asked to choose between burying the remains in their relatives existing graves or in a specially designated gravesite.

However, the ministry said that families who choose to use an existing gravesite will have to bear the cost. The statement was met with ire from both families and Knesset members alike.

Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, who heads ZAKA (Disaster Victim Identification) also voiced his objection to the project, saying that Judaism mandates that each and every part of a deceased's remains, no matter how minute, be buried.

However, Rabbi Yaakov Rosa, who works with the Forensic Institute, said several rabbis have endorsed the project.

The project was launched following a legal controversy regarding AKFI's right to keep forensic evidence over time.

The Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee weighed in on the matter, eventually ruling that AKFI will only be allowed to maintain minimal samples and not entire organs.

The first civil suit in the matter was filed against AKFI last week. The family claims that their loved one's tissues were removed and kept without their consent.

04.17.12

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4216664,00.html

Remains of missing Spitfire pilot feared to have ditched in the Channel found 70 years later in French farmer's field... and now his family can lay him to rest with full honours

Ever since Sergeant William Smith's spitfire was shot down over the English Channel during a World War Two dogfight, his family have hoped that one day his body could be found.The brave pilot was presumed to have crashed and died in the middle of the sea after his plane was targeted by an enemy aircraft in 1942.

For the next seven decades his relatives held on to the slim hope that a fishing trawler might one day drag up the wreckage so that they could bury their loved one.

Incredibly, their wish has now come true after Sgt Smith's remains were unearthed in his wrecked Spitfire - in a French farmer's field 30 miles inland.

It was discovered by a British historian and film crew who were looking for the wreckage of another downed Spitfire whose pilot had been taken prisoner by the Germans.

Their research and eye-witness accounts of a plane crashing led them to excavate a site near Cassel in northern France.

Unsurprisingly, they found parts of a Spitfire 25ft down but were shocked when they also discovered the skeletal remains of the pilot.

And the mystery of who the dead airman was was soon cleared up when a dogtag with Sgt Smith's name and service number on was also discovered.

Parts of a Spitfire were found by the search party, but they were stunned to also discover skeletal remains

It is assumed the pilot was either knocked unconscious or killed in his cockpit at 20,000ft over the Channel and his plane flew 50 miles out of control before crashing.

Now the hero's younger brother Bert, 84, is preparing to lead his family at a funeral with full military honours that is due to be held for Sgt Smith in Cassel on Thursday.

Mr Smith's son Mark, 55, said: 'My family had assumed that my uncle had been shot down and he and his plane had ended up in the Channel.

'When my father found out Bill's body had been found without hearing anything for 69 years he was stunned, shocked and some what relieved at the same time.

'We are relieved to finally find out what happened to Bill and it is important that there will be a resting place for him where family members can go and visit and pay their respects for years to come.'

Sgt Smith, from Melbourne, joined the Royal Australian Air Force before going off to war in 1941.

He was stationed at Redhill in Surrey with 457 Squadron and on May 9, 1942, his Spitfire helped escort a number of Boston bombers in a raid over northern France.

On their return to England the squadron was attacked by up to 30 Fock-Wulf Fw 190s midway between Mardyck and Dover.

Sgt Smith, who was 24 at the time, was last sighted at 20,000ft in combat with a number of Fw 190s and wasn't seen again.

Mr Smith, a school teacher, said: 'Bill's disappearance had a devastating impact on the family, especially his mother Freda who was very close to him.

'She used to scan and re-scan the photos of prisoners of war in the newspapers and look for someone that looked like Bill and would almost be convinced that some of them were him.
'She came to terms that he had died after the war when there was no returning hero.
'Dad didn't talk a lot about him but Bill's picture was always present on the mantlepiece of my family home as we were growing up.'

Send-off: This image shows an identification disc belonging to Sergeant Smith. The hero's younger brother Bert, 84, is preparing to lead his family at a funeral with full military honours

Historian Andy Saunders, from Hastings, East Sussex, found Sgt Smith's remains last November during the excavation of farm land.

Mr Saunders and a film crew from the Discovery History Channel were searching for a Spitfire that had been donated by the Parker Pen Company at the time. He said: 'The pilot of the Parker Pen Spitfire bailed out and that plane came down about two weeks before or after Sgt Smith's. 'All our research pointed us to this site for the other Spitfire.

'We had removed various parts of the aircraft when we started to find human remains.
'As soon we realised that we stopped work straight away and called the MoD in England and the local mayor.

'Obviously we hadn't expected to find any remains and there were no records at all for Sgt Smith in the area because he disappeared over the English Channel.
'We found his identity disc which was on a chain along with a lucky sixpence and a St Christopher.

'We have been in contact with William Smith's family and they are delighted that we have been able to solve this mystery.'

Sgt Smith's funeral will take place on Thursday at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission section of Cassel cemetery.

A documentary on the find and the funeral is due to be broadcast on Discovery History on Friday.

17 April 2012

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2131075/Remains-missing-Spitfire-pilot-feared-ditched-Channel-70-years-later-French-farmers-field--family-lay-rest-honours.html#ixzz1sK5umQcY

8 die in Jalandhar factory collapse

Jalandhar, April 16 - At least eight employees of a blanket-manufacturing unit were killed and 55 others hurt after a four-storey building in Focal Point Extension here collapsed late last night. Several workers are feared trapped inside even as the rescue operations are on.

Tragedy struck at Shital Fibres around 11.30 pm on Sunday when over 300 employees were working over-time, according to some workers. Most of the employees were migrants from UP and Bihar.

Factory owner Shital Vij said the exact number of workers in the unit could not be ascertained as the attendance register lay buried as well. He said around 70 workers could have been inside when tragedy struck. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Commandant SK Verma said two bodies had been extricated whereas six were spotted under a collapsed beam.

While the exact cause of the accident is not known, NDRF Assistant Commandant Musaphir Ram said the building seemed to have collapsed due to poor construction. Shital Fibres MD Abhishek Vij said the factory was constructed four years ago. Relatives and friends of the trapped workers complained of the tardy pace of rescue operations and raised slogans against the administration. Police Commissioner Gaurav Yadav managed to persuade the mob to allow smooth conduct of operations.

Residents living near the factory were among the first to reach the site along with police and fire brigade personnel. The Army and the NDRF were called in after Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti and other officers realised the magnitude of the disaster.

Kuldeep Patial of nearby Guru Amar Dass Nagar told The Tribune that he along with 10-odd youths of the locality reached the accident site shortly after hearing a loud noise. They rescued 10 workers.

The entire 30-member staff of the local fire brigade led by additional divisional fire officer Kashmir Singh began rescue operation soon after. “Firemen reached the spot within five minutes of getting information and saved many precious lives,” Kashmir Singh said.

The Punjab Government has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the next of the kin of each of the deceased, Rs 65,000 for the seriously hurt and Rs 45,000 for those who sustained minor injuries. Of the injured, 16 have been discharged, whereas 39 are still in hospitals.

The injured were rushed to the Devi Talab Mandir Hospital and Civil Hospital here. Factory owner Sheetal Vij is also president of the Devi Talab Mandir Management Committee that runs the hospital of the same name. Several teams of NGOs, including Pahal and sewadars of Dera Sacha Sauda, also joined rescue work. A 45-member NDRF team led by its Assistant Commandant Musaphir Ram reached the site from its Bathinda Headquarters. It started rescue operations at about 6.30 am.

“Rescue operations are on in full swing, but teams are finding it difficult to reach the buried survivors,” Musaphir Ram said, when asked about the slow pace of rescue operation.“We are using various type of equipment to tear through the debris and reach the trapped persons and have rescued several workers,” he said.

A column of army engineers of Vajra Corps led by Colonel Simrajeet Singh also reached the spot at 7.30 am. It also pressed sniffer dogs into service to reach out to survivors. After initial operations, another NRDF team was rushed in from Bathinda, which reached the site today afternoon.

Divisional Commissioner Anurag Verma and Deputy Commissioner Priyank Bharti were supervising rescue operations. The NDRF Assistant Commandant said it would take at least two days to clear the debris and know the exact loss of human life and property.

The Divisional Commissioner has been asked to look into the incident. Soon after visiting the site, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, SK Sandhu, said building experts would assist in the probe. He also said that all commercial and industrial buildings in the state would be put through a safety review to avoid recurrence of an untoward incident.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120417/main1.htm

Deadly chase: Arizona desert becomes immigrant deathtrap

Arizona remains the deadliest state for illegal border crossings, with 71 bodies recovered in the past six months alone. Beefed-up US security along the Mexican border does not stop immigrants from trying – instead, it pushes them into a killer desert.

­With its rocky valleys and spectacular peaks, the Sonora desert in Arizona is said to be a treasure of the American southwest. But at the same time is a frontier land where a deadly conflict is underway.

Every year thousands of people from Mexico and other parts of Latin America try to make it to the US by illegally crossing the border. But scores of people never reach the American dream for which they risked their lives.

In 2011, there were nearly 200 (figures vary from 183 to 192) migrant body remains recovered. Even though the number has decreased about 20 per cent compared to 2010, the rate of migrant deaths remains consistently high.

”It’s deadlier. The border is absolutely deadlier,” says Kat Rodriguez, from the Arizona NGO Coalición de Derechos Humanos.

More than 6,000 have died along the US-Mexico border since 1994, according to human rights groups. That is when Operation Gatekeeper – a program fortifying the international crossing with high-priced fencing, thousands of agents, and high tech surveillance – was launched.

“It’s almost a mass disaster situation,” says Dr. Gregory Hess, chief medical examiner at Pima County, Arizona.

The disaster Hess faces is the growing number of unidentified bodies being found in Arizona’s southern desert. Bodies are stacked high in a fight for space – and perhaps even a proper burial.

“It becomes not so much an effort to determine why that person died… it becomes an effort to sort out who this is,” Hess says.

Many remains found in the desert are merely bone fragments, making them difficult to identify. In other cases, remains of the missing are never found.

The Pima County cooler at the Medical Examiner’s office has a capacity to hold hundreds of bodies. The facility is much larger than others around the country, specifically because of the issue of bodies being found along the border.

Even so, the lack of storage is a major headache.

“We had 300 remains. We had a refrigerated truck parked out here to help us with the overflow,” Hess says.

April 16, 2012

http://www.freedominfonetwork.org/profiles/blogs/deadly-chase-arizona-desert-becomes-immigrant-deathtrap

Five more Concordia victims identified

The bodies of two Germans, two Americans and an Italian recovered from the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise liner have been formally identified, local authorities said in a statement on Tuesday.

The corpses, which were recovered in March, were identified as those of Christina and Norbert Ganz from Germany, Barbara and Gerald Heil from the United States, and an Italian member of the ship's crew, Giuseppe Girolamo.

The bodies were among five that were recovered in the past three weeks from the liner, which capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio after hitting rocks on January 13.

Two are still unaccounted for.

A total of 32 people are believed to have died when the ship crashed into rocks off an Italian island in January, with two people -- an Italian passenger and Indian crew member - still unaccounted for, according to the prefecture in Grosseto.

Of the 30 identified victims, 12 are German, six French, six Italian, two Peruvian, two American, one Hungarian and one from Spain.

The Costa Concordia, which had 4 229 people on board, ran aground and keeled over, prompting a panicked evacuation in which dozens of people threw themselves into the sea.

Nine people are under investigation for manslaughter, including captain Francesco Schettino, who is also accused of abandoning ship before everyone on board could be evacuated.

Three of those being investigated are executives from the ship's company, Costa Crociere, Europe's biggest cruise operator. - AFP

April 17 2012 at 12:18pm

http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/five-more-concordia-victims-identified-1.1277739

Landslide Kills 6 in Southwest China's Chongqing

CHONGQING, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Six people were killed and another two wounded in a mountain collapse Saturday morning in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, local authorities said.
A section of a mountain near the Egongyan Bridge collapsed at 1 a.m. Saturday, crushing nearby work sheds and killing six people inside, said an official with the city government.

The victims were employees of a construction company and a lighting company.

The injured only suffered minor wounds, said the official.

Authorities are probing the cause of the tragedy.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-04/14/c_131526537.htm

12 confirmed dead in NE China colliery flood

CHANGCHUN, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers have retrieved the bodies of 12 colliery workers who died in last week's coal mine flood in northeast China's Jilin Province, authorities said Monday.

Eight bodies were retrieved from the pit of the Fengxing Coal Mine in the city of Jiaohe early on Monday, 10 days after the accident, the local work safety bureau said in a press release.

The statement said that at least 20,000 cubic meters of water poured into the shaft on April 6. Of the 70 people working in the pit, 58 escaped.

Rescuers spent about a week draining flood water from the shaft before they were able to reach the first four trapped miners, all of whom were found dead, on April 13.

Fengxing was a licensed, privately-run mine.

Investigators said the flood water came from a neighboring state-owned colliery.

In another recent mining tragedy, five miners were killed and four remained trapped in a flooded colliery pit in central China's Henan Province.

The flooding in the city of Pingdingshan was reported Saturday afternoon, and rescue work continued on Monday.

2012-04-16

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-04/16/c_131529348.htm

Garage blast kills nine, injures dozens

BEIJING, Apr. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- A four-story residential building in the Xinluo district of Longyan, in East China's Fujian province, collapsed on Sunday after an explosion at a nearby auto repair facility, killing at least nine people and injuring 55, according to the Longyan information office.

It wasn't clear whether people were still trapped in the debris.

According to a preliminary investigation by police, the blast was caused by the illegal storage of explosive materials by a man surmaned Chen, said You Buzheng, spokesman of the Longyan Public Security Bureau.

Chen is under arrest and the investigation is continuing, You said.

"The rescuers are using life detectors and their hands, digging to find trapped people," You said.

A sudden downpour on Sunday evening forced the suspension of rescue work, an anonymous rescuer told China Daily.

At the scene, a China Daily reporter saw the blast had created a crater at least 3 meters deep and 10 meters wide. The hole was covered with a plastic sheet by local police.

More than 10 trucks parked inside the facility were overturned by the explosion, and broken glass shards were everywhere.

The collapsed building was still standing, though one side was destroyed.

Ambulances took the injured to hospitals all afternoon.

Guo Zhaolong, an official of the Xinluo district who arrived at the scene, told Xinhua News Agency that the explosion is still under investigation.

Local media reported the residential building belongs to the coal mine of Subang village in Yanshi town, while the auto repair facility is managed by the village head, who was eating with the staff inside.

Wang Chengqiong, a worker at the Subang coal mine, was slightly injured. From the Longyan hospital, he told taihainet.com, a website managed by the Fujian Daily, that he was sleeping on the third floor of the residential building at the time of the blast.

After hearing the explosion, he ran as fast as he could downstairs.

Zhang Zhaomin, mayor of Longyan, and Huang Xiaoyan, secretary of the Longyan Party committee, said a comprehensive building safety inspection campaign will be carried out in the city.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-04/16/c_131528458.htm

Bus accident kills 12 people in Zimbabwe

HARARE, April 16 -- At least 12 people died early Monday morning in southern Zimbabwe when a Beitbrigde-bound bus overturned, police chief spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena told Xinhua.

"The accident occurred around 2 a.m. this morning at the 92 km peg along the Masvingo-Beitbridge highway," he said.

He said police were still gathering further details. The accident took place after the death of 49 people during last week' s Easter holiday, up from 43 recorded last year.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-04/16/c_131530178.htm

192 bodies given a decent burial in Musha

192 bodies of victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, on Friday were accorded a decent burial in Musha genocide memorial site found in Rwamagana district.

About 18.310 bodies of genocide victims are buried in Musha genocide memorial site.

The bodies are mainly of Tutsis who were killed in Musha catholic parish, where they had sought refuge.

Internal security Minister Sheik Harerimana Mussa Fazil, during the event criticized people who don’t want to provide information on where the bodies were dumped during the genocide.

He said it’s sad to see, after 18 years, since the genocide against the Tutsi was stopped, bodies of victims are still being buried and searched for.

According to UWIMANA Collette who survived from the church, said that they had gone to the parish thinking that a church is a sacred place where killers would not dare come, and this explains the big number of people who died in churches.

They were wrong, because in few hours after their arrival, grenade and bullets rocked the church, painting the once holy place, with blood of innocent lives.

The killing spree at Musha Parish was led by former head of Bicumbi commune, SEMANZA Laurent, Interahamwe militias, the army and police officers.

Bikoro commune, where Musha Parish was found, was headed by BISENGIMANA Paul at the time of the genocide.

After killings, in a move that was aimed at destroying evidence, Interahamwe ferried the bodies and dumped them in Musha mining site, which was 5 meters deep.

This makes it difficult to discover the bodies.

13 April 2012

http://www.orinfor.gov.rw/printmedia/topstory.php?id=5338

Officials: Human remains at Titanic shipwreck site

NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal official says there may be human remains embedded in the mud of the North Atlantic where the New York-bound Titanic came to rest when it sank 100 years ago.

The director of maritime heritage at the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration says forensic evidence indicates signs of human remains at the shipwreck site.

James Delgado said Saturday that one 2004 photograph shows a coat and boots in the mud. He says the way they are "laid out" makes a "compelling case" that it is where "someone has come to rest."

He released the full image this week to coincide with the disaster's centenary. It was previously seen in a cropped version.

They were taken during a NOAA expedition.

The luxury liner went down April 14, 1912, after striking an iceberg.

Published : Sunday, 15 Apr 2012

http://www.wtnh.com/dpps/news/international/officials-human-remains-at-titanic-shipwreck-site_4139402

Women and children last? In real sea disasters, chivalry takes a back seat - TWICE as many men survive sinking ships

When the Titanic sank beneath the waves, men famously stood back from the boats, and women and children fled to safety first.

But a new study suggests that the chivalrous rule of 'women and children first' rarely happens - and may only have happened on the Titanic because the captain threatened to shoot men who got into the lifeboats.

A new analysis of 18 maritime disasters where 15,000 people died only 17.8 percent of the women survived versus 34.5 percent of the men.

Of the Titanic's passengers, 70% of the women were saved, but just 20% of the men.

The idea of saving 'women and children first' has been described as 'the unwritten law of the sea'.

But a new analysis of maritime disasters suggests that women and children are often left to last - and that even on the Titanic, the 'chivalry' was helped by the fact that the captain threatened to shoot men who got into the lifeboats before women.

Economists Mikael Elinder and Oscar Erixon of Uppsala University analyzed 18 of the world's most famous maritime disasters from 1852 to 2011.

'The Titanic disaster has generated immense public and scholarly interest, and as one of the most extensively covered events in history obtained an almost mythological status,' say the researchers.

'The evacuation of the Titanic serves as the prime example of chivalry at sea. Men stood back, while women and children were given priority to board the lifeboats.

They found that men actually have a distinct survival advantage.

Elinder said Thursday when it comes to sinking ships ‘it appears as if it is every man for himself.’

The actual iceberg which sank the liner Titanic in April 1912 photograaphed from the German ship Prinz Adalbert

Meanwhile, new research into the behaviour of passengers onboard the Titanic, continues to puzzle scientists.

Whilst women and children were given priority, men stood on the deck smoking cigars and the ship's band infamously 'played on'.

David Savage, an economist at Queensland University in Australia said: 'There was no pushing and shoving. (It was) very, very orderly behavior.'

Savage was contrasting the behaviour of the passengers on the ancient ship with those on the Lusitania, another ship, which also sank around the same time.

He eventually concluded that the the panic on the Lusitania was a direct result of the sheer speed in which the boat sank.

Savage affirmed that given the Lusitania was under water in just 17 minutes, a stark contrast with the two-and-a-half hours it took to floor the Titanic, that passengers instinct won out as they raced for the lifeboats.

Those that managed to swim to them were rescued, increasing the chances of men surviving as many women were responsible for their children.

Friday, 13 April 2012

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2128812/Women-children-Sadly-quite-chivalrous-real-life--twice-men-survive-sinking-ships.html

Click here to find out more! More Sharing ServicesShare | Share on facebook Share on twitter | Share on email Print Text Size With morgues full, Philippine flood victims buried

ILIGAN, Philippines - With funeral parlors overwhelmed, authorities in a flood-stricken southern Philippine city on Monday organized the first mass burial of some of nearly 700 people who were swept to their deaths in one of worst calamities to strike the region in decades.

For the first time in a day, the staggering death toll from Friday night's disaster, spawned by a tropical storm, remained little changed but the number of missing varied widely. Official figures put the missing at 82, while the Philippine Red Cross estimated 800.

The disparity underscores the difficulty in accounting for people who could be buried in the mud and debris littering much of the area or could be alive but lost in crowded evacuation centers or elsewhere.

"We lost count of how many are missing," said Benito Ramos, head of the government's Office of Civil Defense.

In Iligan, a coastal industrial hub of 330,000 people, Mayor Lawrence Cruz said the city's half a dozen parlors were full to capacity and no longer accepting bodies. The first burial of 50 or so unclaimed bodies was to take place later Monday in individual tombs at the city cemetery, he said.

"For public health purposes, we're doing this. The bodies are decomposing and there is no place where we can place them, not in an enclosed building, not in a gymnasium," Cruz told The Associated Press.

He said many of the Iligan dead — 279 by official count — "are just piled and laid outside the morgues," which ran out of formaldehyde for embalming and coffins.

"We're using plastic bags, whatever is available," Cruz said.

In nearby Cagayan de Oro city, the situation was more chaotic and people were resisting mass burials, instead demanding that bodies be interned until relatives can claim them.

About 340 died in Cagayan de Oro, most of them women and children and many of whom lived along river banks. Flood waters came gushing after 12 hours of pounding rain, catching most of them in their sleep.

Residents told local officials that plans for a mass burial was "un-Christian," said Cagayan de Oro city administrator Griscelda Joson.

Mayor Vicente Emano called a meeting later Monday to discuss the problem. Funeral parlors have asked authorities to do something about the unclaimed bodies because of the stench and complaints from neighbors, she said.

More bodies continue to be found. While city officials were meeting Sunday, more than 40 bodies were seen floating off an island but the coast guard could not recover them, Joson said.

In a grim sign of desperation, a funeral parlor dumped about 30 badly decomposed bodies in a city garbage dump over the weekend, sparking protests from distraught villagers who were looking for the missing loved ones.

Ramos, the head of the agency that is spearheading the recovery and relief operations, attributed the high casualties "partly to the complacency of people because they are not in the usual path of storms" despite warnings by officials that one was approaching.

"We've had flooding before but nothing like this," Cruz, the Iligan mayor said, recalling floods in the early 1950s. "We have a good drainage system but it as simply overwhelmed. The rainfall fell heavily on the mountains and this flowed down to two of our river systems and they overflowed and swept away houses and covered the highway and residential areas."

About 143,000 people were affected in 13 southern and central provinces, including 45,000 who fled to evacuation centers. About 7,000 houses were swept away, destroyed or damaged, the Office of Civil Defense said.

An estimated 35 percent of evacuees are children, said Trevor Clark, head of UNICEF in the southern Mindanao region. Running water and hygiene were major concerns, followed by a lack of clothing, blankets and even shoes for young children, he said.

Although he said government agencies were responding in a quick and efficient manner, they were overwhelmed and the United Nations was preparing an appeal for urgent assistance from donors and foreign governments.

11 December 2011

http://www.cbs8.com/story/16353370/with-morgues-full-philippine-flood-victims-buried

Benue church victims to be buried April 20

The 22 victims of the collapsed St. Robert's Church in Vandeikya Local Government Area of Benue will be buried on April 20, a statement from the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi has said.

The statement, signed by the Rt. Rev. William Avenya, the Auxiliary Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, said the burial would take place at St. Robert's, Adamgbe, near Vandeikya.

It expressed the hope that the families involved would allow the burial take place at the venue.
``We are hoping that the families involved will allow us to bury the 22 corpses in one location and the vestments shall be white," the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the church as saying in the statement.

The statement also said that those who sustained injuries and in different medical centres around the area were responding to treatment.

The 22 persons were killed, while many others injured when a storm pulled down St. Robert’s Church building in Vandeikya, Benue, on Holy Saturday.

Wall Of Water: The Tsunami Explained

During a tsunami the ocean suddenly floods the coast, smashing everything in its path, and then just as quickly recedes.

Large quakes are the main cause of tsunamis, but they can also be sparked by other cataclysmic events, such as volcanic eruptions and even landslides.

During a strong quake, oceanic plates can lurch many metres and rupture the ocean floor.
This movement can suddenly move a massive amount of water.

Major quakes that rupture the ocean floor are usually shallow quakes occurring at a depth of less than 44 miles (70km).

The 9.1 magnitude quake that caused the devastating 2004 Boxing Day tsunami was 18 miles (30km) below the seafloor.

The movement of the quake can also affect the likelihood of a tsunami occuring.
The vertical movement of some earthquakes can cause the seabed to heave and displace water vertically, sending towering waves racing toward shores.

The 2004 tsunami, which killed nearly a quarter of a million people, and the 2011 disaster in Japan were both caused by these "mega thrust" quakes.

Strike-slip quakes cause a horizontal - instead of vertical - movement, with the tectonic plates sliding against each other, creating more of a vibration in the water.

On the ocean surface, tsunamis start as an insignificant ripple capable of passing under a ship unnoticed, but they become giants as they approach land and the ocean becomes shallow.
A tsunami is not a single wave, but a series of waves.

They can travel across the ocean at speeds of up to 620mph (1,000km), the speed of a jet aircraft.

A tsunami can travel across the Pacific Ocean in less than a day. As the trough of the wave drags along the sea floor, slowing it down, the crest rises up dramatically and sends a giant wall of whitewater onto land. And the first wave may not be the biggest.

The destructive force of a tsunami comes not from the height of the wave, but from the volume of water moving inside it.

The word tsunami is derived from the Japanese words for "harbour" and "wave".

Wedn 11 April 2012

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16206542

The Victims Affairs Discusses Cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Victims Affairs Office of the Central Operation Headquarters in the Abu Dhabi Police discussed mutual cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the case of crisis and disasters. The cooperation will be in the field of providing data and information regarding expatriates who are residents in the country and communicating with them during crisis or disaster situations.

A delegation headed by Major Raed Ali Al Muhairi, Director of the Victims Affairs Office visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and met with Mohammed Jasem Al Nwais, Deputy Director of Citizens Affairs Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Al Muhairi gave a summary about the work of the Victims Affairs Office, which provides complete information during and after crisis in order to identify those victims in major accidents and natural disasters within a short period of time, and contact their families.

He pointed out that the office focuses on receiving notifications in case of accidents and possible crisis, calling the families of victims and answering their questions and inquiries. The office also contributes to fulfilling specific social goals in the local community such as providing social and psychological support to the families of victims, missing, and injured, as well as offering support to survivors.

The meeting was attended by a number of officers from the Victims Affairs Office in Abu Dhabi and Departments Directors in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Wednesday, 11 April, 2012

http://www.adpolice.gov.ae/en/News/victm.aff.meeting.aspx

DNA lead in search for Anton Hammerl's body

DNA taken from a coffin found in a mass grave in Libya may match that of South African photographer Anton Hammerl, according to a report on Tuesday.

As Libya does not have the capacity to do DNA testing, it was understood officials were in the process of sending the genetic material -- from coffin number 57 -- to the headquarters of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in Bosnia, the Star newspaper reported.

Hammerl was covering the conflict in Libya when he was shot by militia loyal to then Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi near the town of Brega on April 5 last year.

Brigadier Leonie Ras from the SAPS victim identification centre told the daily newspaper that the ICMP was aware of the sample but had not yet received it.

Ras was planning to send DNA samples from Hammerl's parents to the ICMP on Tuesday in a bid to compare them with those found in coffin number 57.

Dodgy bonuses
In other news, Libya's interim authorities have stopped paying bonuses to former rebels due to widespread fraud costing millions of Libyan dinars, the official LANA news agency reported on Monday.

"Payment of rewards to rebels have been stopped due to violations and abuses," Mohammed Harizi, spokesperson for the ruling National Transitional Council, was quoted as saying.

"Millions of [Libyan] dinars allocated to revolutionaries were lost in [illegitimate] payments to non-beneficiaries," he said.

The interim authorities referred the violations to the offices of the attorney general and audit bureau for investigation, the spokesperson added.

Apr 10 2012

http://mg.co.za/article/2012-04-10-dna-recovered-in-libya-could-belong-to-sa-photographer/

Identifying the Titanic’s Victims

For the 328 people whose bodies were recovered at the site of the Titanic disaster, unique fatality reports were created. They speak volumes about those whose bodies were retrieved. From third-class passengers to millionaires, these reports document their lives through what they had on their person that fateful night.

Dr. John Henry Barnstead, a Halifax physician, developed the system for identifying Titanic’s dead. He used a numbering system based on the order in which they were retrieved from the ocean. Mortuary bags were used to hold clothing and personal effects found on the body. This system was used again after the 1917 Halifax Explosion and countless times in other disasters with great loss of human life.

Using Barnstead’s system as its base, these reports document physical characteristics of bodies (typically sex, age, colouring, any identifying marks) and track potentially identifying papers and items found on their person. The reports were used to ensure that family members could claim their loved one’s body and personal effects. Each Fatality Report includes the Medical Examiner’s record listing physical characteristics and belongings, followed in the file by any other documents generated during disposition of the body and its effects. Some include extensive correspondence between White Star and the province of Nova Scotia.


Body No. 124 John Jacob Astor

The record of John Jacob Astor, who was in first class, begins with a description of his person and his belongings:

NO. 124 – MALE – ESTIMATED AGE 50 – LIGHT HAIR & MOUSTACHE

CLOTHING – Blue serge suit; blue handkerchief with “A.V.”; belt with gold buckle; brown boots with red rubber soles; brown flannel shirt; ”J.J.A.” on back of collar.

EFFECTS – Gold watch; cuff links, gold with diamond; diamond ring with three stones; £225 in English notes; $2440 in notes; £5 in gold; 7s. in silver; 5 ten franc pieces; gold pencil; pocketbook.

FIRST CLASS NAME-J.J.ASTOR

Managing the bodies and communicating with families, was the responsibility of the Provincial Secretary’s Office in Halifax. The correspondence in each file was either addressed to or signed by Frederick F. Mathers, the Deputy Provincial Secretary, or sometimes by George Murray, who was both the Provincial Secretary and Premier of Nova Scotia at the time.

Only 209 bodies were brought in to Halifax. The other 119 files in the Fatality Reports are for individuals buried at sea, and are identified as such.

10 April 2012

http://blog.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/blog/posts/identifying-the-titanics-victims/

BENUE: Government plans mass burial for those killed by collapsed church building

The Benue state government on Monday assured the families of those who died in the collapse building of St Roberts Catholic Mission Church, Adambge in Vandekikya local government area of Benue state, that it will carter for their needs while the victims will be given mass burial at the church premises.

Eyewitnesses said the number of casualty was high because help could not reach those trapped on time.

Lack of proper medical facilities led to higher number of casualties

The state government, in the wake of the incident, ordered the immediate construction of a comprehensive health care facility in Adamgbe and also ordered that the road leading into the village be graded for easy access.

Eyewitnesses opined that the number of casualties would have been less if there had been a proper medical centre in the village or if the victims could have been taken out of the village on time to a proper medical facility.

Adamgbe is located on the high brow landscape of Vandeikya Local government, about 11 Kilometers away from the main Vandeikya town, few miles to the border between Benue and Cross River states.

It was gathered that the pillars of the church suddenly uprooted from the ground, leading to the collapse of the building on the multitude of worshippers. The development was said to have led to abrupt end of the Easter mass vigil.

When our correspondent visited the area yesterday, the priest in charge of the St. Robert's Catholic Mission, Rev. Fr. Cosmos Jooli, said the mass was arranged to be held under the mango trees (outside the church building).

He added that the development was due to the fact that the worshippers were over populated and that the church could not accommodate the capacity of the congregation.

The cleric further disclosed that the incident occurred between 8.30pm and 9pm when he had gone to his apartment to prepare for the mass, saying that heavy rainstorm forced the worshippers to rush to the church building to take refuge.

He also claimed that the cause of the collapse was as a result of the storm and not the dilapidated or old nature of the building as was being speculated, adding that the ugly situation led to the cancellation of the inauguration of a new Hilux pick up Van purchased by the church to ease the problem of transportation.


The Benue state commissioner for information, Conrade Wergba who said this, disclosed that twenty two persons died in the incident while the medical bill of those injured and receiving treatment at the hospital will also be settled by the state government.

Mr Wergba and the state’s commissioner of Education, Elizabeth Ukoh had accompanied the Deputy Governor, Steven Lawani to the church to commiserate with the church and affected families on the sad incident.

Following the assessment of the incident, the state government ordered the establishment of a comprehensive health care facility in Adamgbe and grading of the road for easy accessibility to the village.

At least 22 persons were on Sunday confirmed dead as the church building collapsed on Saturday night while parishioners were worshiping during the Easter vigil service.

Eyewitnesses said the number of casualty was high because help could not reach those trapped on time.

Monday 9 April 2012

http://www.channelstv.com/home/2012/04/09/benue-government-plans-mass-burial-for-those-killed-by-collapsed-church-building/

Grief to joy: Misidentified crash victim alive

A plane crash victim who was assumed dead has been found alive in a hospital under a different name. The tragic incident killed 31 people a week ago. Information emerged on the man’s social network page, where friends have been mourning his death.

Dmitry Ivanyuta, 25, was listed among the dead after ATR 72-200 plane crashed near the western Siberian city of Tyumen last Monday. However, on April 7, a post appeared on his social network page claiming that Dmitry is very much alive and in a hospital, though registered under a different name.

This information has not been officially confirmed.

“Dima is alive. He was in intensive care. While there are no positive or negative trends, but there is a chance that he will get better,” one of Ivanyuta’s friends wrote on his “wall”.

This message reversed the flood of mourning posts on Dmitry’s page. People went from mourning to rejoicing in a matter of minutes.

Details emerged 12 hours later with a new post saying: “He was mixed up and identified as a different man. In fact he was in intensive care, and remembers everything and can move, so everything should be fine. The doctors said he would get better!!! Light a candle and pray with us for his health!!!! He is alive!!”

Ivanyuta’s former college professor, Denis Trushnikov, said Dmitry spent a week in the intensive care unit registered as Konstantin Pail, while his own name was on the list of those who died in the crash.

Rumors about the confusion in the lists of victims and survivors emerged after the preliminary results of the DNA examination that was unable to identify four bodies. This allegedly prompted Dmitry’s relatives to search for him among the 11 hospitalized survivors.

Ivanyuta has already been identified by his relatives, reports Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.

“Even though the results of the DNA test are not ready, we are positive that Dima is alive,” said his sister, Anastasiya Ivanyuta. “I don’t want to talk about it right now. It must be so hard for the relatives of Konstantin Pail.”


Following Anastasia’s statement, the parents of Konstantin Pail immediately took a blood test that confirmed their son had indeed been killed in the crash. His funeral will take place in his hometown on Monday.

No comments from Tyumen’s region health department have been available so far. The final results of the DNA test will be revealed on Monday.

A total of 11 survivors remain in Tyumen hospitals. Two of them have been transferred to a general ward and another nine remain in a critical but stable condition.

The French-Italian-built ATR-72 heading to Surgut crashed 30 kilometers from its departure point of Tyumen shortly after takeoff. The aircraft burst into flames and broke into three pieces upon impact. Forty-three people, among them 39 passengers and four crew members, were on board. Thirty-one were killed and 12 seriously injured.

Investigators name failure to de-ice the ATR 72-200 as the most likely cause of the disaster.

09 April 2012

http://rt.com/news/tyumen-misidentified-victim-alive-550/

Nigerian church targeted in Easter bomb attack

A car bombing near a church in northern Nigeria on Easter Sunday killed at least 20 people and put the country on alert over fears of further attacks, rescue officials and residents said.

The explosion, a stark reminder of Christmas Day attacks that left dozens of people dead in Africa's most populous nation and largest oil producer, hit the city of Kaduna, a major cultural and economic centre in the north.

Motorcycle taxi drivers and passers by appeared to have borne the brunt of the blast, and body parts littered the area.

As news of the attack spread, security forces boosted patrols in key areas, including in the capital Abuja, where soldiers were sent to reinforce police posted near churches.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Details were still emerging of the attack, but at least one car said to be driven by a suicide bomber was believed involved. A rescue official speaking on condition of anonymity said two vehicles packed with explosives detonated.

"Now we have 20 dead from the twin explosions," said the rescue official, who was not authorised to speak publicly. Officials were still counting the number of wounded, he added.

"Bombs concealed in two cars went off just opposite this church," he said.

A police officer at the scene said a man believed to be a suicide bomber driving a car was stopped at a checkpoint near another church, the Evangelical Church of West Africa, and turned back.

KADUNA, NIGERIA - Apr 08 2012

http://mg.co.za/article/2012-04-08-church-targeted-in-easter-bomb-attack-nigerias-north

Bus crash in Argentina kills at least 10, hurts 40

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — A bus ran off a road in northern Argentina and plunged into a ravine, killing 10 people and injuring about 40 others, officials said Saturday. Two Germans were reported among the dead.

The bus operated by the company Potosi left Villazon, Bolivia, on Friday night and was traveling on a route to Buenos Aires when the crash occurred in the province of Jujuy, prosecutor Alejandro Maldonado said.

Maldonado said six of the 10 victims had been identified by Saturday evening, including two Germans identified as Sophie Colombine Aring and Herman Schneider. He said the other four victims identified so far were Bolivians.

Police said a 6-year-old girl and a 6-month-old girl were among those killed.

The bus was carrying 69 passengers as well as two drivers and another employee, Maldonado said by phone from Jujuy province.

"The vehicle fell into a ravine of about 200 meters (650 feet)," he said.

The rugged location as well as the badly wrecked bus and scattering of passengers' bags and documents complicated the task of identifying victims, Maldonado said.

"We're trying, with the help of the Bolivian consul and some of the relatives, to establish the identity of all the deceased people," the prosecutor said.

The cause of the crash was still under investigation.

The Argentine news agency Infobae said the 69 passengers were mostly Bolivians but included three Peruvians, three French people, two Germans, a Panamanian, a Spaniard and a British citizen.

April 7, 2012

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501715_162-57410867/bus-crash-in-argentina-kills-at-least-10-hurts-40/

Five electricity workers die after boat capsizes in eastern Turkey

ASKALE, TURKEY (BNO NEWS) — Rescue workers in eastern Turkey have found the bodies of five electricity workers who went missing earlier this week when their boat capsized on a lake during a repair job, officials said on Thursday.

The incident occurred late Tuesday night at the Karasu 2 dam reservoir in the Aşkale district of Turkey’s eastern province of Erzurum when the five Turkish Electricity Distribution Company (TEDAŞ) workers were aboard a pedal boat to repair a power line on the reservoir.

The workers were crossing the ice-covered lake when the boat reportedly hit a large piece of ice, ultimately causing the boat to capsize. The five workers grasped on to pieces of ice desperately as they awaited for rescue teams, but they eventually disappeared before emergency teams reached the scene.

Aşkale District Governor Asalet Karabulut told the Hurriyet Daily News that emergency teams consisting of a helicopters and seven divers were deployed to the scene, but after failing to find any trace of the workers, the team’s operations were stopped at around 1 a.m. local time on Wednesday.

The first body was found on Wednesday, and all five victims had been recovered by Thursday. They were identified as TEDAŞ workers Feridun Öztürk, Mustafa Arifoğulları, Sait Turan, Rıdvan Takım, and Şahin Baykal, the newspaper reported on its website.

Witnesses told the media outlet that emergency teams were slow to respond, adding that the workers held on to pieces of ice for some two hours before they disappeared. The incident happened on the same day that Turkey’s Parliament discussed the drafting of a new labor safety law to regulate working conditions in order to provide workers’ needs.

Fri, Apr 6th, 2012

http://earththreats.com/2012/04/five-electricity-workers-die-after-boat-capsizes-in-eastern-turkey/

Unidentified disaster victims have devoted guardian

ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi--A mortuary employee has pledged to take care of the remains of 117 unidentified people killed by the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami until all of them are returned to their families.

Ken Nakai, a 37-year-old employee at a mortuary in Miyagi Prefecture, has been in charge of returning the remains of disaster victims to bereaved families for more than 10 months. His job is filled with human drama, with families looking for their missing kin and the remains of loved ones waiting to be identified.

As of March 28, the city had declared 3,417 people dead or missing from the March 11, 2011, disaster. It is the largest figure among the municipalities most severely hit by the disaster.
Nakai clasped his hands in prayer with his colleagues, who run the mortuary, during a ceremony last month to mark the first anniversary of the deaths of the unidentified victims.

The tsunami flooded Nakai's house, but his wife, four children and other relatives were safe. A few days later he lost his job at the seafood processing company where he worked because the firm was going out of business.

It was difficult for him to find a new job during the aftermath of the quake and tsunami. He finally found a temporary job with the city hall in May and was assigned to the mortuary, where his main job is to hand over victims' remains to their bereaved families.

When he started work it had already been two months since the disaster. Still, more remains were brought in to the mortuary every day and many people continued to visit, searching for their missing family members.

Nakai said he was unsure if he could continue working there because of the extremely somber, depressing atmosphere.

In July, after he had become used to the job, he met a woman of nearly the same age. She visited the mortuary from Sendai, about 40 kilometers away, to look for her missing mother once every three days.

He remembered that she always brought a paper crane and a small bouquet to place at an altar and then left after seeing photos of the bodies and their belongings. Nakai exchanged greetings with her but hesitated to get too close and try to comfort her.

In January the remains of her mother were identified as a result of DNA testing.

The woman visited the mortuary a few days later and expressed her gratitude to Nakai, bowing repeatedly. She was in tears, but seemed to be relieved. Seeing her, Nakai felt bereaved families were relieved to have found the remains of their loved ones.

Since then, every morning when Nakai opens the container where the urns of the unidentified remains are stored, he offers a silent prayer with his hands clasped together: "Don't give up; keep waiting for your families. I will wait for them with you until the last returns home."

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020826&docId=l:1638827118&isRss=true&Em=4

April 6, 2012

Pakistani troops buried in Kashmir avalanche

Rescue mission under way near Siachen glacier where at least 117 soldiers and personnel are reported to be trapped.

Rescue operations are under way after an avalanche hit a Pakistani army base in the disputed Kashmir region, burying more than 100 soldiers under the Himalayan snow.

The soldiers were operating near the Siachen glacier in the northern tip of Kashmir when the avalanche hit in the early morning hours of Saturday.

"At six o'clock this morning this avalanche hit a [military] headquarters," Major-General Athar Abbas, the Pakistan military spokesman, said.

"Over 100 soldiers and personnel are trapped."

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Abbas said a rescue operation using helicopters, search dogs and soldiers is under way but warned "it will take days to complete the rescue operations" due to the climate and the difficulty of terrain.

Despite describing the slide as "a massive scale avalanche", Abbas said Pakistani forces remain hopeful.

A team of doctors and paramedics has also been rushed to the high-altitude region, which suffers extreme weather conditions, with temperatures on the Siachen glacier plummeting to as low as minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94F) during the winter.

More than 12 hours after the disaster, no survivors have been found so far.

The Associated Press news agency quoted a security official as identifying the trapped battalion as being headquartered in Gayari sector.

Military sources have told Al Jazeera that helicopters had been flown to what has been described as the "very remote location" on the glacier.

Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said,
"This is an extremely remote region, and it would be difficult to continue the rescue effort at night."

"And so far, there is no good news coming out, despite the fact that military is still saying that this is a rescue operation," he said.

Hyder said that with more than 150 military outposts surrounding the glacier, the Pakistan and Indian sides face not only each other but "also face nature ... [on] the highest battleground in the world".

Difficult terrain

Shaukat Qadir, former Brigadier in the Pakistani army, who has been to Siachen on numerous occasions, told Al Jazeera: "This is the biggest casualty that has ever happened."

"We have fantastic accommodation for the soldiers. When you walk on this terrain you never know when it would come down, and certainly you cannot predict an avalanche," he said.

The Siachen glacier, on the tip of the Kashmir region that both Pakistan and India claim, is home to an estimated 15,000 soldiers from both nations.

Siachen, rising to 6,000 metres above sea level, has seen more soldiers die near the Karakoram base from weather-related incidents than gunfire since 1984.

Qadir said: "Well, the fact of matter is that 70 per cent of the people have died because of natural causes, and I think this is the time we ended this damn conflict, which has absolutely no explanation."

"I can just hope [President Asif Ali] Zardari talks about this with [Indian Prime Minister] Manmohan Singh [on his India visit] and settles this issue for both, us and Indians."

Pakistan army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told the BBC some bodies had been recovered but could not say how many had survived.

The avalanche hit a military camp near the Siachen glacier in the Karakoram branch of the Himalaya mountains. A rescue operation is underway.

India and Pakistan both claim the area and have deployed thousands of troops.

Long rescue mission
The avalanche struck the base in the Gayari district at about 06:00 local time (01:00 GMT).

The soldiers are from the Northern Light Infantry regiment, trained in mountain operations, including avalanche rescue.

The military says its "priority is to save lives", and helicopters, sniffer dogs and troops have been sent to the area to help with the rescue.

The BBC's Orla Guerin, in Islamabad, says the remote region is a particularly difficult place to launch a rescue mission, but improving weather conditions are expected to help the operation.

Maj Gen Abbas said the avalanche that hit the military camp had been "very massive" and it could take several days to complete the rescue operation, which was unprecedented in scale for such a location.


The Siachen glacier is in a remote mountain area claimed by both Pakistan and India
He said there had been no communication with any of the missing soldiers.

"It's too early to say how many survived and how many bodies have been recovered," he said.

Although the region is prone to avalanches, the general said, they tend to occur in "forward bases" at higher altitude, where only 10 or 20 troops are located.

The numbers involved in this incident were so high, he said, because avalanches were not expected in the immediate area of the camp that was struck.

An avalanche killed 24 Pakistani troops in 2010 - this is believed to be the heaviest loss of life in a previous such incident until now.

Kashmir has been partitioned between India and Pakistan since 1947.

Failure to agree on the status of the territory by diplomatic means has twice brought India and Pakistan to war.

The Siachen glacier is known as the world's highest battlefield, and soldiers have been deployed at elevations of up to 6,700m (22,000 feet).

However, more soldiers have died from the harsh weather conditions there than in combat.

Saturday, 07 Apr 2012

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2012/04/20124755454785414.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17643625