Long wait for relatives a month after Bangladesh disaster

Relatives said Friday they were still waiting for news of their missing loved ones, as many gathered to mark one month since Bangladesh's worst industrial tragedy.

A government official said on Friday that more than 300 people were still formally unaccounted for after the collapse of the garment factory complex on April 24 that killed 1,127 people.

Family of the dead and missing along with labour activists and students gathered to lay floral wreaths at the site.

Nasima Begum, 40, said she had searched tirelessly since the tragedy for her son who had been working on the third floor of the doomed building.

"I have checked everywhere, at hospitals, at mortuaries, at graveyards, but I did not find my son or his dead body," Begum told AFP at the site on the outskirts of Dhaka, clutching a photograph of him.

Authorities have stopped searching for bodies at the nine-storey Rana Plaza complex in Savar district since the tragedy that highlighted appalling safety conditions in the sector.

Most of Bangladesh's top garment factories, which make clothing for a string of major Western retailers including Walmart, H&M, Tesco, Inditex and Carrefour, are based at Savar.

Authorities say at least 2,438 people -- mostly female garment workers -- were rescued from the site, including 968 people who were seriously injured.

But the chief government administrator of the local district said that "some 316 people are still unaccounted for".

Many of those are thought to be bodies recovered from the rubble, which were too badly damaged to identify. They were buried at a graveyard in Dhaka after DNA samples were collected for later identification, authorities have said.

"We have kept DNA profiles of unidentified bodies before burial. We will match those profiles with their relatives' to confirm identity and compensation beneficiaries," the official, Kamrul Hasan Molla, told AFP.

Begum said she had given her DNA sample to the authorities to match it against those collected from the bodies, but had heard nothing.

Some of those gathered at the site angrily demanded that the government improve safety standards in the nation's 4,500 garment plants, as well as punish those responsible for the collapse.

"This is no way an accident, this is murder of so many workers, which is unprecedented in our history," said Anik Biswash, a university student in Dhaka.

"We demand exemplary punishment to the culprits and the government upgrades factory safety standards to prevent such disasters in future."

Friday 24 May 2013

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130524/long-wait-relatives-month-after-bangladesh-disaster

Oklahoma officials identify all tornado victims

The death toll from this week’s monster tornado in Oklahoma stands at 24, with all victims positively identified.

The Oklahoma medical examiner’s office says 10 of those who died were children, including two infants. The eight other children range in age from 4 years old to 9 years old.

While mourning their dead, many residents remain stunned that the twister didn’t claim more lives during its 17 miles and 40 minutes on the ground.

Even as rain and storms hit the state again on Thursday morning, the massive cleanup continued.

All that is left of Shayne Patteson’s three-bedroom home is the tiny area where his wife hunkered down under a mattress to protect their three children when a tornado packing winds of at least 200 mph slammed through his neighborhood.

Patteson vowed to rebuild, likely in the same place, but said next time he will have an underground storm shelter.

“That is the first thing that will be going into the design of the house, is the storm shelter and the garage,” he said as he looked around piles of bricks and plywood where their home once stood.

Patteson’s home was among as many as 13,000 homes damaged or destroyed Monday when the twister plowed through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore. About 33,000 people were affected, officials said, though the number left homeless was still unknown because most of the displaced were believed to be staying with friends or relatives; only two dozen or so have stayed overnight at Red Cross shelters.

At the same time, more details emerged on the human toll, including heartbreaking stories about the final moments of some of the children who were among the people killed. One elementary school was reduced to rubble when the tornado hit. Another was heavily damaged.

While anguish over the deaths was palpable as residents began to pick up their shattered neighborhoods, many remained stunned that the twister didn’t take a higher human toll during its 40 minutes on the ground.

“The tornado that we’re talking about is the 1 or 2 percent tornado,” Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management Director Albert Ashwood said of the twister, which measured a top-of-the-scale EF5 with winds of at least 200 mph. “This is the anomaly that flattens everything to the ground.”

The medical examiner reported that six of the children who died at the Plaza Towers Elementary School suffocated after being buried under a mass of bricks, steel and other materials as the building collapsed. A seventh child who perished there, 8-year-old Kyle Davis, was killed instantly by an object—perhaps a large piece of stone or a beam—that fell on the back of his neck.

With all of the missing now accounted for, response teams transitioned into cleanup and recovery, and authorities formally allowed residents back into the damage zone Wednesday to start the monumental task of rebuilding their lives.

Residents clearing massive piles of debris were trying to get hold of essentials such as mobile phones and prescription drugs lost in the destruction. Cellular service providers set up mobile retail outlets and charging stations. At least one was offering free phone calls and loaner phones.

Elsewhere in town, several hundred volunteers took it upon themselves to clean the city cemetery, which was covered in debris, so it would be ready for Memorial Day. Some veterans are buried there and it’s where the town’s residents gather on the holiday, placing flowers and flags among the gravestones.

Friday 24 May 2013

http://www.khou.com/news/national/Okla-medical-examiner-identifies-tornado-victims-208604161.html

Philippines cemetery provides Manila's poor a place to live among the dead

Every morning, Alberto Lagarda Evangelista, 71, leaves the two-storey, lemon-yellow home he has lived in for the past decade and walks to work at the cemetery next door. As a caretaker of about 20 graves, Evangelista earns just 20,000 pesos (£315) a year, a sum so small that he must share his house with seven other people – all of whom are dead.

Evangelista lives and works in the Cementerio del Norte, a sprawling, 54-hectare green space in north Manila that is also home to some 1,000 other families. Here in the Philippines' largest public graveyard, century-old tombs have been converted into stalls selling sachets of shampoo and instant noodles, clothes lines are strung between crosses and car batteries power radios, karaoke machines and television sets. Evangelista's home is a mausoleum housing eight graves. The breezy second storey where the owners pay their annual respects to the dead doubles as his bedroom. "Just look at my view," he says, pointing his cigarette out towards the grave-studded horizon.

Today, the shady lanes are busy with the sundry activities of any normal neighbourhood: a group of boys plays basketball; adults while away the afternoon heat with sodas and playing cards; couples canoodle atop the graves that double as their beds; and women prepare chicken adobo in their mausoleum cafes.

The cemetery's inhabitants rank among the poorest of the poor in Manila, a capital where roughly 43% of the city's 13 million residents live in informal settlements like this one, according to a 2011 Asian Development Bank report. This Roman Catholic country has one of Asia's fastest growing populations and a massive housing shortage – meaning that the urban poor must usually find, build or cobble together housing anywhere there is space: under bridges, along highways, in alleys, perched atop flood channels, or even among the dead.

No one knows exactly when the cemetery became a living village. But many of Manila North's 6,000-odd residents were born here and expect to spend their whole lives here. Gravedigger Steve Esbacos, 52, a muscular man with blue-rimmed eyes, was born and raised in the same mausoleum where he now raises his own four children. "Sometimes I don't like living here, because it's dirty and it smells bad," he says, before admitting that he's never wanted to live anywhere else. "My father is buried just over there and I don't know where else I'd go."

Ramil and Josephine Raviz run a stall selling instant noodles and peanuts to residents and mourners. They earn enough money to send their 10-year-old daughter to school, and say they prefer life here to the possibilities "outside" the cemetery's four walls.

"When I first came to Norte 30 years ago, there weren't so many families here – it was quiet and peaceful and safe, very different to the outside slums in Manila," says Ramil, 46, in his mausoleum housing a fan, fridge, rocking chair, microwave, blankets and mattresses, and six graves. "But once people realised they could work here and live here for free, they moved in."

The cemetery hasn't retained that peaceful aura. Robberies and muggings are common, residents admit, with gangs said to be working different corners of the sprawling greenery. Youth unemployment is high and alcohol cheap. City authorities have repeatedly threatened to evict those living here. But grave-dwellers have found a way to stay on despite the pressure, using ad-hoc "deeds" from the families whose graves they maintain, allowing them to live and work on-site.

The issue is not so much people living in the cemetery – where quarters can be more spacious and cleaner than in a shanty on one of the city's easily flooded riverways – but the fact that Manila is not properly addressing the needs of the urban poor, says Father Norberto Carcellar, director of Philippine Action for Community-Led Shelter Initiatives. "Poor people can pay as much as four times [the normal rates] for electricity and water in their shanties because mafia syndicates take over and they have no choice but to pay [the higher rates]," he says.

"These people are 'invisible' – they can be evicted at any time, they face floods, they live on the periphery and the government generally likes to send them very far away to other provinces [to deal with the problem]."

Under a $1.2bn (£800m) government mandate to clean up Manila, that may soon change. Recent official figures show 104,000 families live in danger areas such as graveyards and riverbeds, and the city aims to move 550,000 of the most vulnerable residents to safer destinations. Some will be residents of Manila North, yet no one in the cemetery seems ready – or willing – to go.

"I often think, what would have happened if I had finished school," Evangelista says quietly as he navigates the steep ladder from his open-air verandah back downstairs into the main mausoleum. "I only made it to third grade. Maybe I would have had a better job to live somewhere else." As he knocks on the solid mausoleum walls, he says: "This is the best house I've lived in; the strongest, safest, with the best view."

Friday 24 May 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/philippines-cemetery-urban-poor-home

BGMEA evades paying wages of deceased collapse victims

The garment factory owners have said they would not pay the wages of the dead victims of the Savar Rana Plaza collapse.

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has claimed that the money that the prime minister has started distributing among the families of the dead victims included the wages.

“We think that [prime minister’s compensation] is enough. If the family members of a dead garment worker get the money, it is a huge relief for them,” said Md Abdul Ahad Ansary, chairman of the BGMEA standing committee on labor education and welfare.

He also claimed that disbursing the package was a government decision.

However, Mikail Shipar, secretary of the labour and employment ministry, yesterday told the Dhaka Tribune that the money disbursed from the Prime Minister’s Relief and Welfare Fund did not include the wages.

“This is a grant from the premier, not a compensation. The BGMEA has no connection with this,” he said, adding that the fund comprised of contributions from different organisations and individuals.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is supposed to pay financial grants worth Tk200,000 to each of the families of the 1,127 dead victims of the April 24 collapse of Rana Plaza that housed five factories.

The PMO has so far handed over grants to the families of 221 dead victims.

The BGMEA has already paid each of the 2,614 workers, who survived the deadly collapse, minimal compensation packages that included their outstanding wages.

It said it would hand over the payment to the few remaining survivors very soon.

Meanwhile, the fate of the workers reported missing since the tragic collapse, hangs in the balance.

Authorities have so far buried a total of 291 unidentified bodies at the capital’s Jurain Graveyard and samples of all of their DNA have been preserved, even though relatives had reported that 304 workers were still missing.

Relatives of the missing ones have so far filed a total of 134 general diaries (GD) with Savar police station.

The GDs are to serve as documentation for their compensation claims.

Whether their families would get the prime minister’s grant would totally depend on finding out their identities by matching the DNA samples with those of the relatives.

BGMEA officials said after the DNA test reports are finalised, they would prepare a final list of the missing ones which would then be verified by district administrations and police.

They, however, assumed that most of the missing victims were not garment workers; rather staff who worked at the building.

According to sources from Dhaka Medical College Hospital, conducting all the DNA tests would take at least two more months.

“It will take more time. We do not know when the families of the missing victims will finally receive the wages,” said Md Rafiqul Islam, joint secretary (labour) of BGMEA.

Kamrul Hasan, upazila executive officer of Savar, said: “We will match the DNA collection list with the missing victims’ list to prepare a final list.”

Friday 24 May 2013

http://dhakatribune.com/labour/2013/may/24/bgmea-evades-paying-wages-dead-victims

5 officers killed in helicopter accident in Venezuela

Five officers from Venezuela's Bolivarian National Police (PNB), members of the crew of a police helicopter, were killed Thursday when their aircraft crashed in western Caracas during an operation to rescue two kidnapped engineers, official sources said.

PNB Director Luis Karabin said that the accident occurred Thursday morning at 7:30 local time (1200 GMT) in the highway Mamera-El Junquito, in a sector called El Naranjal, in the western region of Caracas.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, but Karabin cited weather conditions. Some versions said the helicopter suddenly fell after crashing against high voltage cables.

Karabin said all the members of the crew died, including the pilot, the copilot, one technician and two policemen, adding local forensic team arrived at the accident's site to remove the bodies, according to judicial procedures.

He said that the helicopter was supporting the land policemen during an operation to rescue the two engineers who were kidnapped by several criminals from the state-owned electricity company Corpoelec.

He added the criminals were running away with the two engineers in a Ford Power vehicle and at some point in Antimano sector, a shooting between policemen and the criminals occurred.

During the operation, one of the criminals was shot and two escaped towards a wooded area, while the two engineers were rescued, said Karabin.

One house was affected by the spiral of the helicopter model Bolkow Bo 105 blue, which destroyed the ceiling and part of the kitchen, said Karabin.

Friday 24 May 2013

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.asp?id=143619

Nigeria: Ancient tree tragedy in Imo State

[Updated: see post] This is not the best of times for Imo State and its people given the harvest of tragedies recorded in the state recently. The most recent is the ancient ancestral tree that fell in Umudagu, Ihitte Isi Mbieri community, Mbaitoli local council area of the State late Thursday night of May 16, killing no fewer than 50 people, with a yet to be ascertained number critically injured. The tall tree known as Osisi Ukwu Uko, collapsed on buildings as well as those transacting their businesses in a market located under the tree.

Vanguard Metro, VM, gathered that the collapse of the tree followed a heavy torrential rain that was accompanied by a ferocious windstorm and thunder. The devastating rainstorm, which started at about 6pm on the fateful day, continued throughout the night and spilled over to the morning hours of Friday. It was also gathered that most of the victims were either traders, who were selling their wares in the market, their customers, some passers-by and others who were taking shelter in the town hall building and the surrounding houses.

Lamenting over the ugly incident, the former state chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Marcellinus Nlemigbo, whose ancestral home is a shouting distance away from the tragic scene said "the incident is most devastating and has thrown the entire community into deep mourning".

Continuing, Nlemigbo said: "The tree was a symbol of the community and no living person in our community can fully narrate the history attached to the tree. The tree had always been there until yesterday (Friday night)".

While debunking the rumour now making the rounds that the tree had fetish attachments to it, Chief Nlemigbo, however, expressed unhappiness that some elders in the community had severally resisted earlier arrangements to fell the tree. He said he was not at home when the incident occurred and was only told about it through the telephone and had to rush home to assist in evacuating the casualties.

"I am aware that the tree provided a natural canopy for people. There is also a market set up by our ancestors in the place, which was sustained till date. There is also the likelihood that some people must have run into the town hall building to take shelter. So, the casualty figure can be any person's guess," Chief Nlemigbo said.

He, however, recalled with grief that when some parts of the tree were trimmed about 20 years ago, the two individuals, who were engaged to execute the job, died unexpectedly after about a week, adding that this lent credence to the belief that the gods residing in the tree had been angered.

Some villagers around the scene confirmed to VM that a middle aged mad woman had May 14, 2013, warned the traders, who usually sold their wares close to and under the tree, to relocate from the place soonest or be prepared to face the looming but unpleasant consequences.

Obviously, the villagers ignored the advice, especially as it came from a mental patient!

Most sympathisers could not help but join close relations of the dead in a chorus of wailing and lamentations the scene of the tragedy. This was while joint rescue operation from patriotic and sympathetic Umudagu youths, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, the Fire Service, policemen and men of the State Emergency Management Agency led by the Executive Secretary, Mrs. Uche Ezeonyeasi was on to evacuate the dead and the injured, and restore a semblance of order at the place.

A lot of credit must be given to Mbieri youths who came out in their numbers, defying the uncertainties of the dark night, the devastating torrential rain, lightening and thunder, to assist their dying relations and friends.

But for the determination and patriotism of these youths, more people would have died, even as it is being speculated that the death toll may have increased in view of the severity of the injuries and the distance from the scene of the incident to the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri.

Some people willingly made their private cars available for the evacuation of the dead and injured. Some were seen giving first aid to the victims of the tragedy before they were taken to the hospital. The eventual arrival of government's emergency team added some fillip to the efforts of the youths.

Meanwhile, the lifeless bodies of the victims, most of which are yet to be identified, were deposited in morgues, including the Federal Medical Centre, the State Specialist Hospital and Aladinma Hospital, all in Owerri.

But the tragedy is one that will haunt the villagers for a long time. The picture was gory. Human limbs scattered all over the place. Although rain water washed away the blood coming from the dying people, traces of human blood and stench can still clung to the scene.

For the people, it was a colossal loss of life and property. Their prayer is that such should never come the way Umudagu, Ihitte Isi Mbieri.

Friday 24 May 2013

http://allafrica.com/stories/201305230850.html?page=2

Drones: The future of disaster response

First responders to Monday's massive tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, were greeted with a blighted expanse of destroyed homes, blocked roads, downed power lines and a limited window of time to unearth survivors before the sun set.

Navigating the area on foot or by car was a challenge because of the debris. News and law-enforcement helicopters filled the air above, but while they gathered useful information for rescue crews, the noise they created was drowning out cries for help from trapped survivors.

The entire area was declared a no-fly zone.

But one airborne technology will soon make responding to these kinds disasters easier: unmanned automated vehicles (UAVs), more commonly called drones. These portable, affordable aircraft can launch quickly in dangerous situations, locate survivors and send data about their whereabouts to responders on the ground.

There is a lot of excitement about drones in the public-safety world, and they are very close to being used in the field after natural disasters. However, they still face lengthy regulatory hurdles, privacy concerns, and a public image problem inherited from their armed, military cousins.

Still, the UAV industry and emergency responders are preparing for the day when they can launch drones after tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and any other disaster.

"The public just isn't really in the habit of depending on them," said James Stuckey, CEO of Fireflight, an Oklahoma-based drone company. "When they start, they won't be able to do without them."

Drone power

The benefits of drones in an emergency are reach, speed, safety and cost. When there is no power, a UAV can fly through the dark and live-stream night-vision footage to people on the ground, its paths automatically programmed so it doesn't miss a spot. A mounted infrared camera can pick up on heat signatures of bodies, pinpointing the locations of survivors so rescuers know where to go.

Unlike manned helicopters, drones create very little sound and can even be outfitted with advanced listening devices to pick up hard-to-hear audio. They can go into dangerous situations that would pose a risk to pilots or responders on foot. While helicopter propellers can stir up debris and dust, UAVs weigh as little as three pounds and don't disturb what's on the ground, even when they're hovering just 10 feet above it.

Fireflight's unmanned aerial vehicles were designed to be used in wildfires. They're outfitted with infrared cameras that can see through smoke.

Prices for commercial UAVs range from $15,000 to $50,000 - a fraction of what a helicopter costs. They can fit in the trunk of a car and be up in the air in no time.

"It's usually 45 minutes to an hour after you arrive on scene on an incident before you get real information," said Fireflight's Stuckey, a veteran firefighter of 27 years. "We can have [a UAV] up in the air in three minutes."

Roadblocks to use

The American Red Cross of Central Oklahoma was considering using Fireflight's UAVs immediately after the tornado, but didn't because of the no-fly zone, according to Steve Klapp, the regional disaster assessment manager.

The Red Cross chapter has used UAVs in tests before, such as in a disaster-assessment exercise in March. On Wednesday it considered using the aircraft to gather boundary data at the tornado scene, but Klapp said he would probably end up getting the information from other sources this time.

"We're definitely planning to use them more in the future," said Klapp. "It's a question of the right situation."

The Oklahoma National Guard is also on the ground in Moore and has trained with drones for use in Afghanistan, but said it did not deploy any in the disaster area.

The main delay, according to Ben Gielow of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), a non-profit trade association for drone companies, is that the Federal Aviation Administration is very restrictive about who can fly a drone and how they can fly it. Congress has given the FAA until 2015 to come up with rules for flying UAVs in U.S. airspace, including safety regulations, how pilots need to be trained, how an aircraft is certified, and the process for notifying local air-traffic controllers.

Until those regulations are in place, any civilian or military organization that wants to fly drones above 400 feet needs to get a special waiver from the agency. This is a lengthy process that can take one or more years, according to Gielow, although the FAA claims to have shaved it down to an average of 60 days.

There is an exception for emergencies, which would expedite the application process, but it does not appear to be wildly used for disasters.

A life saver

Disaster response is just one use for drones by public safety agencies, which the AUVSI predicts will account for 10% of the future drone industry. Stuckey created Fireflight's unmanned aircraft specifically to help fire departments gather information during Oklahoma's wildfire seasons, the last three of which have been especially vicious.

Thermal-imaging cameras can be used to see through smoke, and the UAVs can go into areas that would be too dangerous for manned aircraft.

One of the first reported cases of a drone saving someone's life occurred three weeks ago. A man was driving along a highway at night in Canada when his vehicle rolled of the road, knocking him unconscious. It was dark, with near-freezing temperatures, and emergency workers were unable to locate the car and injured driver, even with night-vision goggles and a helicopter.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police deployed an unmanned aircraft with an infrared camera, which picked up on the man's heat signature.

And the types of tools that can be attached to a UAV are growing beyond cameras and weapons. New equipment allows drones to hear gunshots, detect chemical levels, track RFID tags, and measure radiation.

Privacy concerns

The most controversial domestic use is by law enforcement agencies interested in using drones for surveillance and to fight crime, a prospect that has privacy advocates and other citizens on edge. According to Gielow, only three law-enforcement agencies currently have approval to fly drones in the U.S.: The Mesa County Sheriffs office in Colorado, the Grand Forks Sheriff's Department in North Dakota, and the Arlington Police Department in Texas.

Privacy advocates fear the drones could be used for surveillance of anyone. The UAVs track people with the same advanced software being used in regular surveillance cameras.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been pushing the FAA to release details on all the public-safety agencies, military and security organizations and other groups that have been given permits to fly drones in U.S. airspace. The civil liberties group has even plotted all the known drone programs on an interactive map.

People in the drone industry don't think a blanket ban on UAVs is the answer to privacy concerns.

"The issue should not be focused on how you take that picture," said Gielow. "You can get the same thing from a manned helicopter, satellite, security camera or smartphone."

Instead, Gielow thinks people should focus on how the government uses and stores images of citizens, not the tools used to capture them.

A booming industry

Many other government agencies are already testing out drones. NASA is using them to monitor hurricanes, NOAA employs them in the Arctic to monitor wildlife and the USGS is using them for mapping and environmental studies.

While public safety and the military get the most attention for drone use, the biggest market for UAVs will actually be agriculture, according to the AUVSI. Up to 80% of drones will be used on farms, where they will track cattle, check on the health and hydration of crops, and even dispense pesticides.

The UAV industry is set to break open in the coming year. According to the AUVSI, the drone industry will create 70,000 jobs and have an economic impact of $13.6 billion in its first three years once the FAA establishes regulations.

Meanwhile, the aerospace industry is getting ready for the potentially lucrative drone age. Twenty-six states, including Oklahoma, are currently competing for six coveted FAA contracts for UAV test sites that will be used to collect more information about how to regulate the technology. The winning states will be announced later this year.

Silicon Valley also is paying attention. Earlier this month, a startup called Airware that's developed an open operating system for UAVs raised $10.7 million in investment funding. Most of Airware's customers are in countries like Japan and France, where the technology is more wildly used.

Friday 24 May 2013

http://whatsnext.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/23/drones-the-future-of-disaster-response/?hpt=te_r1

19,000 children missing in Colombia

Some 19,000 children are missing in Colombia, authorities said Wednesday. More than 4,000 unidentified remains of children have been found in mass graves and are being identified.

The identification process of the 4,210, which is aimed at “ending the pain and uncertainty” will be carried out by Colombian family welfare institute ICBF and the national coroner’s office.

“We know that to identify the bodies of these children is a major technical challenge that requires time and thoroughness, but we also know that it helps the families to mourn and to heal this deep wounds is a priceless achievement, both for them and for the country,” said Carlos Eduardo Valdes, director for the Institute of Forensic Science.

According to Valdes the remains found belong to victims of violence, who went missing, were displaced or ended up recruited by illegal armed groups involved in the country’s armed conflict.

ICBF director Adriana Gonzalez said that the identification process contributed to the right to truth for the victims of violence and ended the phase of uncertainty and guilt for thousand of families.

This identification process represents a new phase in the decade-long cooperation between ICBF and the coroner’s office that claim to provide “a solid contribution to the construction of historical memory and reconciliation.”

According to the coroner’s office public database on disappeared persons, 50,000 people are still registered missing.

Friday 24 May 2013

http://colombiareports.com/identification-of-4210-children-skeletons-to-offer-truth-and-reconciliation/

Despite 18 reminders, cops are yet to dispose unclaimed bodies in Sion

Even after 18 reminders from the civicrun Lokmanya Tilak Hospital at Sion, the police have not yet disposed three unclaimed bodies lying in the morgue over three months.

With two mortuary attendants suffering from tuberculosis and many others falling ill often, the head of the post-mortem centre says that the staff are exposed to infections due to these decaying corpses.

A government regulation clearly states that unclaimed bodies must be disposed of after seven days, unless required for solving crimes, or if the police have clues which make identification possible. According to the hospital, however, police tend to wash their hands of a body once it's sent to the morgue.

"It's the responsibility of the assistant commissioner of police to ensure that police stations under him dispose unclaimed bodies in time. But the police simply don't bother," said Dr Rajesh Dere, who heads Sion hospital's PM Centre.

The body of a 35-year-old Bangladeshi woman has been in the morgue for 122 days, and the Manpada police from Dombivli have not come forward to dispose it.

The second unclaimed body is of a man identified as Ravi Kanse. It has been there for 123 days, and the Vakola police have not turned up so far.

The body of 50-year-old man identified as Ramesh Dudani has been there for 80 days, and the Antop Hill police are yet to do the needful.

"We've written six letters to each of these police stations. We also wrote to senior inspectors, the ACP and even Deputy Commissioner of Police, but to no avail," said Dr Dere.

According to him, these three bodies apart, all other bodies too have been there beyond the permissible time limit. "Almost 99 per cent of bodies have been here for over seven days," said Dr Dere. He added that the morgue has 29 cabinets which accommodate one body at a time, but with five to six more bodies at any given time, they have to somehow cram the bodies in the cabinets.

Experts say that despite being kept in a morgue, bodies begin decomposing after two months. This puts other recently brought bodies at risk of quicker decomposition.

"Also, the staff have to enter the premises over 20 times a day. While the stench is unbearable, the risk of infection is higher due to the bodies kept there for long," Dr Dere added.

Friday 24 May 2013

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/civic/Despite-18-reminders-cops-are-yet-to-dispose-unclaimed-bodies/articleshow/20233508.cms