Refugees drown in attempted Sudanese smuggling

At least eight asylum-seekers have drowned trying to cross a river in Sudan during an attempt to smuggle them out of a refugee camp, the UN refugee agency said Thursday.

The accident happened as a group of from the Shegarab-1 camp in the eastern state of Kassala tried to cross the Atbara river on Wednesday evening.

"There was an attempt to smuggle some of these asylum-seekers out of the camp and they were being transported on four rickety, small fishing boats," said Mohammed Adar, the UNHCR representative in Sudan.

One of the boats sank and "eight bodies have been found and two are still missing," he said, adding that another 10 people swam to safety and returned to the camp.

The other boats crossed successfully, Adar said, without saying how many people had managed to leave the camp.

Adar said the United Nations had not verified the nationality of the dead but said the government had sent a team to investigate.

Their intended destination was unknown, but eastern Sudan has a significant refugee population, the majority Eritreans fleeing a military regime at home.

Nearly 110,000 Eritreans currently live throughout Sudan.

The Shegarab-1 camp is jointly run by the Sudanese government and the UN and houses 15,000 people, mostly asylum-seekers.

Thursday 25 December 2014

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-2887005/Refugees-drown-attempted-Sudanese-smuggling.html

Hundreds of victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami have still not been identified

With the bodies of almost 400 victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami still unidentified a decade on, Thai police were holding out little hope of gleaning any new information from opening a cargo container packed with unclaimed personal items.

Watches, chunky gold necklaces with Buddhist amulets, an Egyptian souvenir coin purse, and a wad of $1,800 in cash were pulled from tattered cardboard boxes and police evidence bags stashed in the container that has not been opened since 2011.

The three meter by 12 meter container was passed to various Thai police agencies after the 2004 Boxing Day disaster that killed at least 226,000 people in 14 countries. It was handed over to Takua Pa district police in southern Thailand in 2011.

But the Takua Pa police never looked inside until recently when, after requests from Reuters, they opened the container ahead of the 10-year anniversary of the Dec. 26 tsunami when the items can, by official regulation, be put up for auction.

They initially believed the container held the belongings of unidentified victims, but found some items were identification cards and credit cards and could be claimed by relatives.

"I’m a bit surprised by the large number of valuables," Lieutenant Colonel Voravit Yamaree from Takua Pa district said as his team surveyed the items on a long, white table.

"I think back then everyone was so busy focusing on identifying the corpses they may have forgotten about this."

The tsunami left 5,395 dead and 2,932 missing in Thailand, including about 2,000 foreign tourists, when a wall of water several meters high ripped through resorts and fishing villages on the Andaman Sea coast in southern Thailand.

In the aftermath of the tsunami, forensics experts from 39 countries convened in Phang Nga, where about 80 percent of the victims in Thailand perished, to identify the bodies.

The Thai Tsunami Victim Identification unit was considered one of the largest and most successful projects of its kind, putting names and faces to the thousands of tourists, Thais and migrant workers killed in the Boxing Day disaster.



NUMBERS, NOT NAMES

However, 10 years after the one of the most devastating humanitarian disasters in recorded history, about 400 unclaimed bodies – 369 of them still unidentified – rest in metal coffins, marked with coded numbers.

In the past four years, just 24 bodies have been claimed, all but one Thai nationals, according to various reports.

In Ban Nam Khem, a sleepy fishing village on the north end of Phang Nga, the tsunami left 661 dead and 765 missing.

Ban Nam Khem resident Hin Chan-ngern lost five family members in the tsunami - his wife, brother and three daughters. In the three years after the disaster, four of their bodies were found, but his eldest daughter remains among the missing.

"We provided all of the information – dental records, tissue and DNA samples ... but they still can't find her. I don't know what more I can do," said Hin, sitting amid photos of his loved ones killed in the tsunami.

The unidentified and unclaimed bodies are all in a cemetery in Bang Maruan village, just south of Takua Pa.



The graveyard, with a metal plaque at the gate listing the nations involved in the project, is often overgrown with weeds.

Of the bodies there, authorities have identified 26 Thais and 26 Burmese, but their families have not come to claim their bodies, according to Colonel Yuthaphong Intaraphone, the police superintendent overseeing the Police Forensic Science Office.

"It would cost them (the relatives of Burmese migrant workers) a decade of life savings to come to Thailand and reclaim the bodies," Yutaphong said in an interview at the Disaster Victim Identification Centre in Bangkok.

What happens now to the personal possessions that have been stashed in the container for years remains unknown with the police headquarters in Bangkok to make that call.

Even if the items in the container do not go up for auction, the chances of victims' families claiming the possessions of their loved ones are narrowing as the boxes holding the contents deteriorate, said Voravit.

"We have records with code numbers listed on each box, but it is rather difficult to check as the numbers are fading," he said.

Thursday 25 December 2014

http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-exclusive-thai-police-see-little-hope-of-putting-names-to-about-370-tsunami-victims-2014-12?r=US http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/12/23/uk-tsunami-anniversary-unclaimed-idUKKBN0K10H820141223

10 killed in Jhalakati bus plunge

At least ten people have been killed and 25 injured as a passenger bus plunged into a roadside ditch in Rajapur upazila of Jhalakati on Tuesday afternoon.

The identities of the deceased could not be known immediately. The injured were rushed to Rajapur Health Complex. Of them, nine were shifted to Barisal Medical College Hospital as their condition deteriorated.

Quoting Jhalakati ASP AFM Anwar Hossain, our Barisal Correspondent said: “Eight people were killed and 25 others injured in the accident.”

Rajapur police station Officer-in-Charge told the Dhaka Tribune: “A passenger bus plunged into a roadside ditch after the driver of the bus lost his control over the steering near the under construction Rajapur-Biswasbari Bridge around 3:45pm, leaving seven people dead on the spot.”

“Later, one person died at the upazila health complex. The death toll may climb further as some 20 to 25 people received serious injuries.”

Mohammad Abdul Aziz Bepari, deputy assistant director of Jhalakati Fire Service and Civil Defence, said: “We have recovered seven bodies from inside the bus so far. Some passengers are still trapped inside it and the fire fighters are trying to rescue them.”

“We are facing obstacles while conducting the rescue operation as the Barisal-bound bus from Satkhira fell in a way that it cannot be lifted from the ditch easily.”

He also suspected that the death would rise further.

Thursday 25 December 2014

http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2014/dec/23/7-killed-jhalakathi-bus-plunge

Ten years of tsunami: Disaster management still a pipe dream?

C. G. Kanagasundaram of Kameswaram, 11 km away from Nagapattinam, was the only person to run eastwards on December 26, 2004, when residents from coastal villages were on an exodus in the opposite direction.

Even before reaching the coast, he used a public telephone on the way to inform the police and Village Administrative Officer of a ‘disaster’ at sea. On looking at bodies scattered on the shore, he used his mobile phone to call drivers of autorickshaws known to him to shift the injured to hospital and the electricity staff to cut off power.

“At that time, I had a fair knowledge of disasters, except earthquake. But tsunami was unknown. Still, my swift reaction helped in saving some lives,” recalls Mr. Kanagasundaram, president of Tirupoondi East panchayat.

It was a similar case with Samiyarpatti panchayat in Cuddalore district, where the loss to life and property was reduced due to the ability of the local body leader to manage disasters.

These two were among the 16 heads of panchayat to be trained in disaster preparedness and management by the Department of Political Science and Development Administration of Gandhigram Rural Institute in Dindigul district in early 2004 under a UNDPA programme. After a decade, not all panchayat heads, especially those in coast and hills, are empowered to encounter disaster. Section 41 of the Disaster Management Act 2005 says that “local authority shall ensure that its officers and employees are trained for disaster management; ensure that resources relating to disaster management are so maintained as to be readily available for use....”

The situation now is the same as it was 10 years ago, says G. Palanithurai, professor of the department. There is a State plan and a district plan to confront any disaster but there is no such plan at the village-level. “The panchayat president has to get permission from revenue officials even to use the cyclone shelters in the village,” says Dr. Palanithurai. Such a plan is essential not only to manage disaster but also to undertake follow-up rehabilitation. Post-tsunami, a “people’s plan” was got ready for 17 panchayats by GRI in association with The Hunger Project. It was also approved by the then Collector, J. Radhakrishnan.

“Grass-root empowerment is essential in disaster management. Heads of local bodies should be trained in disaster preparedness and provided with a tool kit. The panchayat president is empowered to convene special gram sabhas to plan management or relief operations. The empowerment exercise should include constitutional and community panchayats,” says Dr. Palanithurai. “The State requires a comprehensive training policy for leaders of local bodies,” he adds.

Mr. Kanagasundaram, along with two other panchayat heads, attended a disaster management training programme in Chennai in the last week of November, about 10 years after tsunami hit the coastal districts.

Thursday 25 December 2014

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/ten-years-of-tsunami-disaster-management-still-a-pipe-dream/article6720610.ece

Aichi doctors to form disaster teams to examine corpses

An association of doctors in Aichi Prefecture, plans to create teams next spring that specialize in examining the bodies of victims in major natural disasters and accidents, according to people familiar with the plan.

The Aichi Prefectural Government estimates that up to 29,000 people could die in the prefecture if a major earthquake strikes in the Nankai Trough off the Pacific coast and generates a huge tsunami.

The Aichi Medical Association will be the first such entity in the country to form a team dedicated to examining corpses following major disasters and accidents, the sources said.

In its discussions to set up the teams, the Aichi group included aircraft accidents. The prefecture is home to Central Japan International Airport, or Centrair, and Nagoya Airfield, also known as Komaki Airport.

The eruption earlier this year at Mount Ontake, on the border between nearby Gifu and Nagano prefectures, prompted the group to accelerate the talks. The natural disaster left 57 people dead and six missing.

The teams will act at the request of police to examine bodies at the scene, mainly to identify cause of death. Each team will have three or four doctors.

Thursday 25 December 2014

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/12/24/national/aichi-doctors-to-form-disaster-teams-to-examine-corpses/