Cyprus: Hopes rise in bid to find mass grave containing bodies of Greek Cypriots

New efforts were underway in the occupied north yesterday to locate a mass grave thought to contain the bodies of dozens of Greek Cypriots missing since the Turkish invasion in July 1974.

This is the 12th attempt to locate the mass grave in question. The excavation is being carried out in the area of Trahonas in Nicosia.

“We started an excavation in a (Turkish) military area in a bid to locate a mass grave,” said Nestoras Nestoros, the Greek Cypriot member of the Committee on Missing Persons.

The case concerns Greek Cypriots killed in the Nicosia areas of Kaimakli, Trahonas, and Omorphita in July 1974.

In 1977, Turkey filed a document at the Council of Europe that around 200 bodies had been collected by Turkish Cypriot forces from those areas, loaded on trucks and taken to Ledra Palace hotel to be handed over to the Greek Cypriot side for burial.

But the bodies were not received and were eventually buried in a mass grave, the document claimed.

This has never been confirmed and the Turkish side has since revised the number downwards.

Nestoros said their information suggested between 40 and 45 Greek Cypriots were buried in the area.

Turkish Cypriot CMP member Gulden Plumer Kucuk said the excavation near the central prison started with the permission of the Turkish military.

Kucuk told BRT that around 40 to 50 Greek Cypriot fighters who died in separate areas in 1974 were gathered and an effort had been made to return them through the UN “however, the Greek Cypriot side rejected this” and the bodies were buried in the location.

Eleven previous attempts to find the grave did not yield any results.

But this time the CMP was optimistic.

Nestoros said there was testimony, which the Turkish Cypriots had looked into.

“The Turkish Cypriots intensified their efforts to see if there is something because we had always insisted on that area,” he said. “It is a huge area and we hope to find the location.”

The CMP employs a bi-communal forensic team of more than 60 Cypriot archeologists, anthropologists and geneticists, who conduct excavations throughout the island and anthropological analyses of remains.

Nicos Theodosiou, the Executive Secretary of the Committee of Relatives of Missing Persons, when asked by the Cyprus News Agency to comment on the development, also expressed hope for a successful outcome.

He said that the time that passes, makes the venture ever more difficult.

According to Theodosiou, the existence of witnesses at a burial site raises the chance for success. “In this case, the information coming from the other side indicates that there must have been witnesses during the burial, for them [the CMP] to be so optimistic,” he said.

He also said that only 30 per cent of the families of missing persons have received the identified remains of their loved ones. Tthe rest of the families were still waiting.

Theodosiou urged the Turkish Cypriot side to actively support the efforts to locate burial sites in line with the good will expressed by the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mustafa Akinci.

According to the CMP, to date, 1,508 Greek Cypriots and 493 Turkish Cypriots are on the missing list. At the end of last year, the number of identified remains of individuals returned to their families are: Greek Cypriots: 509 and Turkish Cypriots: 127, while 927 sites had been excavated. Another 35 people were identified in the first six months of this year.

It also emerged late last year that remains had been moved in the north to cover up mass executions. Around 280 of those identified to date were found buried in different places from where they had reportedly disappeared. The news was condemned in a European Parliament resolution last February that angered Turkey.

Tuesday 18 August 2015

http://cyprus-mail.com/2015/08/18/hopes-rise-in-bid-to-find-mass-grave/

Rescuers stopped from reaching Indonesia plane crash site by bad weather

A plane that went down in eastern Indonesia two days ago was “completely destroyed” and 38 bodies have so far been found, officials said, after rescuers finally reached the remote crash site today.

There was little chance of finding survivors at the densely forested, mountainous location in Papua province where the Trigana Air plane went down in bad weather during a short flight on Sunday.

“The plane has crashed, it is completely destroyed,” Soelistyo said of the ATR 42-300 after rescue teams reached the site.

“Everything was in pieces and part of the plane is burnt. We could see burn marks on some pieces.” Photos of the site show a clearing in thick forest that appears to be fire-blackened and scattered with debris.

The plane was carrying 54 people -- 49 passengers and five crew. Transport ministry spokesman JA Barata said that 38 bodies, including one child, had so far been found at the crash site.

“We are unable to evacuate them as the weather is very bad,” he added. As well as checking for survivors, rescuers were also searching for the plane’s flight data recorders, or “black boxes”, which could shed light on what caused the twin-turboprop plane to crash, Soelistyo said.

There was no immediate news on the fate of 6.5 billion rupiah ($637,100) that were being transported by the plane in cash, intended for distribution to poor families as social assistance funds.

Thick fog and rain had hampered attempts by more than 250 rescuers and 11 aircraft to reach the wreckage on Monday, and they had been forced to turn back.

The disaster is just the latest air accident in Indonesia, which has a poor aviation safety record and has suffered major disasters in recent months, including the crash of an AirAsia plane in December with the loss of 162 lives.

The Trigana plane crashed as it flew from Papua’s capital Jayapura to Oksibil, a remote settlement in the mountains to the south.

The plane lost contact with air traffic control about 10 minutes before reaching its destination, soon after the crew requested permission to start descending in heavy cloud and rain to land.

Officials suspect bad weather may have caused the crash.

There was no immediate news on the fate of 6.5 billion rupiah ($637,100) that were being transported by the plane in cash, intended for distribution to poor families as social assistance funds.

Thick fog and rain had hampered attempts by more than 250 rescuers and 11 aircraft to reach the wreckage on Monday, and they had been forced to turn back.

The disaster is just the latest air accident in Indonesia, which has a poor aviation safety record and has suffered major disasters in recent months, including the crash of an AirAsia plane in December with the loss of 162 lives.

The Trigana plane crashed as it flew from Papua’s capital Jayapura to Oksibil, a remote settlement in the mountains to the south.

The plane lost contact with air traffic control about 10 minutes before reaching its destination, soon after the crew requested permission to start descending in heavy cloud and rain to land.

Officials suspect bad weather may have caused the crash.

Relatives of passengers waiting at Jayapura airport have become increasingly frustrated at the lack of hard news since the weekend, with some shouting “We want confirmation!” and throwing a table at a crisis centre in angry scenes on Monday.

Small aircraft are commonly used for transport in remote and mountainous Papua and bad weather has caused several accidents in recent years.

Last week a Cessna propeller plane crashed in Papua’s Yahukimo district, killing one person and seriously injuring the five others on board. Officials suspect that crash was also caused by bad weather.

Trigana Air, a small domestic Indonesian airline, has experienced a string of serious incidents and is banned from flying in European Union airspace.

Last year’s AirAsia crash was one of two major air accidents that Indonesia has suffered in the past year alone.

In June, an Indonesian military plane crashed into a residential neighbourhood in the city of Medan, exploding in a fireball and killing 142 people.

The aviation sector in Indonesia is expanding fast but airlines are struggling to find enough well-trained personnel to keep up with the rapid growth in the archipelago of more than 17,000 islands.

Tuesday 18 August 2015

http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/rescuers-stopped-from-reaching-indonesia-plane-crash-site-by-bad-weather/story-fnizu68q-1227487694579

Zimbabwe: SA Accident Victims to Be DNA Tested

The identification process of nine Zimbabweans who died in an accident last Thursday is expected to take time as most of the victims were burnt beyond recognition and would need to undergo DNA tests, South African police have said. The nine died when a commuter omnibus they were travelling in rammed into a stationary Zambian haulage truck near Naboomspruit along the N1 Highway in Limpopo Province, South Africa.

Limpopo police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Ronel Otto, said the identification process was ongoing at Naboomspruit government mortuary.

"The identification process is underway. DNA tests are also being done to confirm the identity because some of the bodies were burnt beyond recognition," she said.

Col Otto said the other victim was still hospitalised and in a stable condition at Naboomspruit Hospital.

The DNA profiling is expected to take more than 14 days.

She said they were working with the Zimbabwean Consulate staff in the identification process.

Col Otto said the truck driver and his passenger were not injured adding that the driver will appear at Naboomspruit Magistrate Court charged with culpable homicide today.

The accident comes shortly after seven other Zimbabweans were killed when a commuter omnibus they were travelling in collided with a haulage truck two kilometres from Beitbridge Border Post along the N1 Highway.

The N1 Highway is one of the busiest roads in South Africa as it links that country to the rest of Africa and it is a route that handles a lot of cargo movement.

The road has also become a death trap for Zimbabweans and citizens of countries north of the Limpopo and Zambezi Rivers

Tuesday 18 August 2015

http://allafrica.com/stories/201508170947.html

Midnight killer: The 1976 Moro Gulf tsunami

It was 10 minutes past midnight of August 17, 1976, a Tuesday.

While most people were sleeping, a massive earthquake, registering magnitude 8.0 on the Richter scale, rocked most of Mindanao and parts of the Visayas.

The tremor was most strongly felt in the cities and towns surrounding the Moro Gulf, particularly in Cotabato City, which now hosts the regional center of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

What made the 1976 Moro Gulf Quake most devastating, however, was not just the degree of the earth shaking.

With its epicenter near the town of Lebak in Sultan Kudarat, in a region of the Celebes Sea where earthquakes frequently occur – the 1976 Moro Gulf quake brought with it one of the most terrifying natural forces known to man: a tsunami.

Without warning, about 2-5 minutes after the earthquake struck, waves as high as 9 meters reached the shore and inundated communities along the Moro Gulf.

The tsunami affected 700 kilometers of coastline, with Pagadian City, Cotabato City, Zamboanga City, and Lebak in Sultan Kudarat experiencing the highest waves.

About 8,000 people died, including those missing and were never found, making it the most disastrous tsunami to hit the Philippines.

It is more than the number of casualties recorded after Super Typhoon Yolanda, the strongest typhoon in the world, hit the country.

Midnight killer

Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) director Renato Solidum said the high number of deaths – many of whom were children – could be attributed to the time the tsunami struck and the number of people residing near the shore at that time.

"Many people lived near the coast. Also, it was very dark. [It was] past midnight… Why many [died]? It's because it was sudden. If it happened in the morning when children are in school, a lot of people would probably be able to run for their lives," Solidum explained.

It’s important to note the type of the tsunami, he added. "It was a local tsunami. The onset of the first event (wave) occurred 2 to 5 minutes after the earthquake. Definitely, the height of the wave would matter in terms of the number of deaths."

While the earthquake caused fire and some buildings to collapse, the tsunami caused most of the damage.

The massive devastation brought by the Moro Gulf earthquake and the tsunami that followed resulted in a change in the country's disaster preparedness plans. It also led then president Ferdinand Marcos to revise the provisions of the National Building Code a year after the tragedy.

In 1978, Marcos created the National Disaster Coordinating Council, the predecessor of what is now known as the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Tsunami generators in PH

The Philippines is more vulnerable to geological hazards such as earthquakes and tsunamis, according to the Phivolcs, due to its geography as an archipelago located along the Pacific Ocean's Ring of Fire.

Located along every side of the Philippine archipelago are different trenches that can generate tsunamis should the trenches move enough to create an earthquake.

According to Solidum, tsunamis in the Philippines are more dangerous compared to those that occur in other countries such as Indonesia and Japan.

“The tsunamis in our country arrive much faster than those in Indonesia and Japan because the source of the earthquake or the trenches are closer to the shorelines. If the trenches are closer to the shoreline, then the source of the tsunami will be much closer to the shoreline, so the distance will only be short and the lead time will be shorter,” he explained.

While chances of tsunamis are higher in large bodies of water, inland seas like in Bohol and Cebu can also generate tsunamis and landslides.

In Metro Manila, which lies near the Manila Trench and beside Manila Bay, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake can generate a tsunami as high as 4 meters, which could kill about 3,100 people. This is based on the 2004 Metro Manila Earthquake Impact Reduction Study conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Communities need to be prepared

In 2004, more than 200,000 people died after an earthquake and tsunami struck off the Sumatra Coast near Banda Aceh, Indonesia, where more than half of the casualties came. The tragedy painfully highlighted the need for reliable tsunami early-warning systems along coastal areas.

Following the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, Phivolcs developed a tsunami detection system by setting up dry and wet sensors in 10 sites all over the Philippines.

The agency also produced tsunami hazard maps for coastal areas.

Phivolcs has also set up 19 tide gauges to warn communities of a coming tsunami. “The sensors are to confirm if the earthquake did or did not generate a tsunami. Or if there is a tsunami, the sensors will also be used to tell us if the tsunami waves are over,” Solidum said.

But Solidum emphasizes that the agency can only do so much. While the Phivolcs is ready to monitor and give warnings, nothing can compare to the vigilance and readiness of local communities.

“The issue here is how people will respond. Remember, it’s a local tsunami event - we cannot beat the two minutes," Solidum said.

Solidum adds that the 1976 Moro Gulf tsunami serves as a lesson for local communites to prepare for any disaster.

“It is a very good example of a threat of a sudden onset of an event after an earthquake that people need to know... People need to know which areas will be affected, where they will go if they will be evacuated and where the safe evacuation centers should be located.”

Tuesday 18 August 2015

http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issues/disasters/102827-1976-moro-gulf-earthquake-tsunami

South Africa taxi collides with train near Ballito

A minibus taxi has collided with a train near Ballito in South Africa, killing at least 14 people, according to KwaZulu-Natal emergency services.

The BBC's Milton Nkosi says it is believed the taxi was carrying 20 passengers when it went over a bridge and hit a train as it plunged onto a railway line below.

South Africa has an exceptionally high accident rate on its roads.

At least 10,000 people die on the roads a year, mostly due to reckless driving.

No-one on the train was injured, according to ENCA news.

Tuesday 18 August 215

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33967398