Global platform for Disaster Victim Identification established

INTERPOL and the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) have signed a formal cooperation agreement to manage and operate a permanent global platform centralizing disaster victim identification (DVI) efforts.

The INTERPOL Permanent Platform for Disaster Victim Identification (PDVI) will be established at the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation in Singapore. The cooperation agreement between INTERPOL and the ICMP outlines the roles each organization will play in the management and operation of the platform.

The INTERPOL PDVI will serve as a global resource and center of excellence to enhance preparedness and build on existing capabilities to respond to large-scale disasters more effectively.

In particular, the PDVI will create a rapid deployment model for DVI assistance to provide the necessary expertise whenever and wherever required to speed up the international response to natural or man-made disasters.

Signed by INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble and ICMP Director General Kathryne Bomberger, the agreement delineates how the ICMP’s expertise in the forensic aspect of victim identification – including DNA analysis, genetic data processing and biological sampling – will benefit the PDVI and international disaster victim efforts.

“The ICMP has made a significant contribution to international disaster victim identification efforts via its expertise in the application of forensic science to human identification,” Noble said.

“Through this partnership and the combined experience of INTERPOL and the ICMP, we can continue to offer member countries the fastest and most professional response when disaster strikes, and ensure the resources are available to support the DVI process until every victim is identified,” the INTERPOL chief added.

INTERPOL will lead the DVI operations by managing the logistics and infrastructure of the PDVI and coordinating the identification areas of fingerprints and dental records, in addition to other DVI-related activities.

“The establishment of a Permanent Platform for Disaster Victim Identification by INTERPOL and ICMP represents a positive development in addressing the global problem of missing persons cases from natural and man-made disasters,” said ICMP Director General Kathryne Bomberger.

“Given that all countries are vulnerable to both natural and man-made disasters, and given that very few of them have the means or capability to reliably identify victims, this platform will offer governments around the world access to state-of-the-art forensic mechanisms and standards to respond to a DVI scenario,” she said.

The agreement builds upon the longstanding partnership between INTERPOL and the ICMP in the area of disaster victim identification including the 2004 Asian tsunami, Typhoon Frank in the Philippines in 2008, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Westgate shopping center terrorist attack in Kenya in 2013, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines 2013 and most recently the Malaysia Airlines MH 17 crash in Ukraine.

Friday 26 September 2014

http://www.hstoday.us/briefings/daily-news-analysis/single-article/global-platform-for-disaster-victim-identification-established/44c930ce7cf4c27fde5f87f300c130c3.html

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New technology set to 'revolutionize' the identification of disaster victims

 New online tooth atlas will enable experts to assess people's teeth Forensics across the world will be better equipped to identify the age of people who die in natural disasters.

Scientists at Queen Mary, University of London have developed an online interactive tool which will enable experts to assess people's teeth and accurately estimate their age.

The London Tooth Atlas is a culmination of years of research from Dr Helen Liversidge and her team at Queen Mary dedicated to dental development. Dr Liversidge said: "This interactive tool builds on the creation of our London Tooth Atlas hard copy version which was used in a number of disasters such as the New Zealand earthquake (2011). "We expect the new software will revolutionise the way forensics determine the age of victims."

Thursday 14 June 2012

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-06/qmuo-nts061212.php

The London Tooth Atlas was underpinned by the need to estimate the ages of victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami using dental data. It enables experts and students to see how teeth change between the ages of 30 weeks in utero to about 23 years.

Dr Sakher AlQahtani who works with Dr Liversidge at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry (part of Queen Mary), developed the London Tooth Atlas for his post-graduate research project. "The interactive version enables people to better understand and see the differences in tooth development up to the age of 23," he said. "It will be extremely useful for educating dental students, and assisting forensic odontology, disaster victim identification teams and archaeology, as well as in estimating the age of asylum seeking minors."

The software is available at www.atlas.dentistry.qmul.ac.uk and an app to support this will soon be available for downloading.

Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology at the University of Dundee, Sue Black, said: "When working in a forensic environment, immediate access to information can be vital.

The Tooth Atlas app will prove to be invaluable as a ready source of instant detail for the forensic odontologist, forensic anthropologist and forensic pathologist."

Professor Jules Kieser, Head of the Department of Oral Sciences at the University of Otago, said: "The Atlas has been a superb help to myself and my forensic odontology colleagues. Not only do we now use it routinely, but we used it to identify victims of the Christchurch earthquake.

Importantly, if it were available as an app, it will clearly be more accessible. This is an exciting prospect that I support fully and enthusiastically!"

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Search for bodies ends at site of Nigeria air crash

Nigerian rescuers have ended search operations at the site of a plane crash that killed at least 159 people in the country's largest city to concentrate on clearing debris, an official said Wednesday.

While formal searches have ended, workers will remain on the lookout for human remains while clearing debris from the site on the northern outskirts of Lagos. A total of 153 bodies have so far been recovered. "We're not doing full searching operations," said Yushau Shuaib, spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency. "What we are doing now is we are trying to clear the place and fumigate the area."

All 153 people on board the Dana Air MD83 died when it crashed into a neighbourhood near the airport in Lagos on Sunday afternoon, while at least six people on the ground were killed. The 22-year-old plane plowed into a two-storey apartment block, a church, a house and a textbook warehouse.

The ruins of the apartment block were torn down on Tuesday. "The search and rescue operation has ended with the demolition of the affected building. We are now moving the next phase which is disaster victim identification," National Emergency Management Agency official Ibrahim Farinloye told AFP. Farinloye said DNA tests would be conducted to enable relatives to claim the the remains of their relatives.

Nigerian aviation authorities on Tuesday suspended the operating licence of Dana Air pending investigation into the crash. Local media said the crash was Nigeria's worst since 1992, when a military C-130 went down after takeoff in Lagos, killing around 200 people on board.

The plane's two engines were reported to have failed before it crashed, the country's civil aviation chief has said. Wednesday 6 June 2012 http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/631716-search-for-bodies-ends-at-site-of-nigeria-air-crash.html

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The Russian government promised to bring a team of DNA analysis to help identify the bodies of victims Sukhoi Super Jet 100 at the Police Hospital, East Jakarta. It was submitted by the Chief of Police Hospitals Bhayangkara Brigadier Agus Prayitno a news conference after receiving five body bags, on Saturday (05/12/2012). "The Russians have not got here, but they will help the DVI teams from Indonesia to DNA identification," said Agus. In addition to teams from Russia, Disaster Victim Identification team (DVI) Police also assisted by a number of experts from universities, including University of Indonesia, University of Padjadjaran, UB and a team of forensic doctors from Banten. All results will be reported periodically indetifikasi DVI DVI Indonesia at the International center in Lyon, France. "There is a forensic pathologist, odontologi forensics, forensic DNA, forensic anthropologist who helped identify it," he explained. In the meantime, it's been five body bags brought to the Police Hospital. The victim's family began to arrive to meet the post DVI. They were given a special place to wait. Access to the pouch where the bodies are still barred from two pieces of fabric and the police line. Only the police team is allowed to enter. All the families who came, asked to register the name, address and phone number in the guest book that has been prepared. Saturday 12 May 2012 http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/12142999-russian-team-helps-identify-victims-of-sukhoi

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Fifteen killed and scores injured as two trains collide head-on in worst Polish rail disaster in living memory

Two trains running on the same track collided head-on in southern Poland last night, killing 15 people and leaving 56 injured.

The accident, which is the worst train disaster in Poland in more than 20 years, happened late last night on the Warsaw-Krakow mainline in the small town of Szczekociny.

As the severity of the crash became known army helicopters were deployed to the scene to race the most seriously injured to hospital while a fleet of 450 emergency vehicles, 100 policemen and dozens of volunteer firemen clawed at the wreckage.

Officials have said it is too early to say what had caused the crash and Polish prosecutors have opened an investigation into how the head-on collision happened.
The two mangled trains, comprising 10 carriages in total, were carrying an estimated 350 passengers at the time of the crash.
Several of the passengers were foreigners, including people from Ukraine, Spain and France, but none of them appeared to be among the dead or badly injured.

'The rescue is difficult and complicated,' firefighter Jaroslaw Wojtasik told Polish television.
'The damage to the wagons is huge. We have contact with victims. We are approaching very cautiously

Home News U.S. Sport TV&Showbiz Femail Health Science Money RightMinds Coffee Break Travel Columnists News Home Arts Headlines Pictures Most read News Board My Profile Logout Login Find a Job M&S Wine Our Papers Feedback Sunday, Mar 04 2012 12PM 7°C 3PM 3°C 5-Day Forecast Fifteen killed and scores injured as two trains collide head-on in worst Polish rail disaster in living memory
One of the trains was on the wrong side of the tracks on the Warsaw-Krakow mainline
Polish prosecutors have opened an investigation but officials have said it is too early to say what caused the crash
'Even more dramatic than the pictures are the facts' said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk
By Jill Reilly

Last updated at 11:39 AM on 4th March 2012

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Two trains running on the same track collided head-on in southern Poland last night, killing 15 people and leaving 56 injured.

The accident, which is the worst train disaster in Poland in more than 20 years, happened late last night on the Warsaw-Krakow mainline in the small town of Szczekociny.
As the severity of the crash became known army helicopters were deployed to the scene to race the most seriously injured to hospital while a fleet of 450 emergency vehicles, 100 policemen and dozens of volunteer firemen clawed at the wreckage.

Tragic: Fifteen people were killed and up to 50 injured when the two trains collided head-on late last night on the Warsaw-Krakow mainline in the small town of Szczekociny

Head-on collision: The crash happened after one of the trains ended up on the wrong side of the tracks and army helicopters were deployed to the scene to race the most seriously injured to hospital

Mangled wreck: Three coaches are reported to be especially damaged, and the rescue operation focused on finding passengers there, although rescue workers ended their search for the wounded early this morning

Investigation: Officials have said it is too early to say what had caused the crash and Polish prosecutors have opened an investigation into how the head-on collision happened

Officials have said it is too early to say what had caused the crash and Polish prosecutors have opened an investigation into how the head-on collision happened.
The two mangled trains, comprising 10 carriages in total, were carrying an estimated 350 passengers at the time of the crash.
Several of the passengers were foreigners, including people from Ukraine, Spain and France, but none of them appeared to be among the dead or badly injured.

'The rescue is difficult and complicated,' firefighter Jaroslaw Wojtasik told Polish television.
'The damage to the wagons is huge. We have contact with victims. We are approaching very cautiously.'

Rescue effort: The two mangled trains, comprising 10 carriages in total, were carrying an estimated 350 passengers at the time of the crash

Shocking: Prime Minister Donald Tusk, left, called the accident the most tragic train catastrophe in Poland in recent years after visiting the site in the early hours of today as bodies were being retrieved from the wreckage


Surveying the damage: A fleet of 450 emergency vehicles, 100 policemen and dozens of volunteer firemen clawed at the wreckage
Three coaches are reported to be especially damaged, and the rescue operation focused on finding passengers there.
Rescue workers ended their search for the wounded and prosecutors opened their investigation early Sunday.

One passenger estimated that his train was travelling about 120km/h (75 mph), when it started braking very sharply.

'Then we felt a powerful impact, and we were thrown about the compartment,' the passenger told TVN24.
Andrzej Pawlowski, a member of the board of the state railway company PKP, said in an interview that one of the trains, which was traveling south from Warsaw to Krakow, should not have been on the track.

The other train, headed from the eastern city of Przemysl to Warsaw, was on the correct track, Mr Pawlowski said.

It wasn't immediately clear how the southbound train ended up on the wrong track.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the accident the most tragic train catastrophe in Poland in recent years after visiting the site in the early hours of today.

'Even more dramatic than the pictures are the facts,' Mr Tusk said. 'This is our most tragic train disaster in many, many years.'

He arrived at the scene early on Sunday morning, with three other cabinet ministers.
Maintenance work was being carried out on one of the tracks where the collision occurred.

4 March 2012

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2109981/Polish-train-crash-15-killed-2-trains-collide-head-worst-rail-disaster-living-memory.html#ixzz1o9dEThz0

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Relatives storm Honduras morgue demanding remains

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras Hundreds of relatives of inmates who burned or suffocated to death in a Honduras prison fire have forced their way into a morgue to demand the remains of their loved ones.

Prosecutors spokesman Melvin Duarte says women and a few men pushed into the morgue, broke into a refrigerated container and opened at least six body bags.

He says police used tear gas to chase the people from the morgue in Tegucigalpa, which is Honduras' capital. He says no one was injured during Monday's confrontation, although at least one woman fainted.

The fire in a crowded prison last week in the city of Comayagua killed 359 prisoners. There were 852 inmates at the prison, more than double the capacity.

20 Febr 2012
Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/02/20/1834085/relatives-storm-honduras-morgue.html#storylink=cpy

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Honduras Prison Fire: International Forensics Teams To Help Probe

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- Countries are reaching out to Honduras after its deadly prison fire, sending medical aid and forensic doctors, with the United States dispatching an investigative team to help find the cause of the blaze.

Mexico and Chile are sending forensic experts to help identify the 355 dead, many of whom were burned beyond recognition in the inferno at the Comayagua prison north of Honduras' capital. France and Spain are offering medical aid for survivors of the deadliest prison fire in a century.

The fire that began late Tuesday night exposed a dysfunctional and underfunded prison system with overcrowded facilities, and insufficient staff. Honduran President Porfirio Lobo issued a plea for international assistance in carrying out a thorough investigation "to determine beyond any doubt what led to this tragedy and determine responsibility."

The U.S. State Department said Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigators arrived Thursday in Honduras. The team includes forensic chemists, explosives enforcement officers and dogs that can sniff out explosives and accelerants.

"The purpose of the mission is to establish how the fire started," the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.

Five forensic doctors who work for the Mexican Attorney General's Office arrived Thursday to help identify the dead, that country's Foreign Relations Department said in a statement.

The department said Mexico also sent medical supplies and medicine to treat burn victims after Lobo requested the aid in a telephone conversation with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

Chile announced plans to send a team of 14 experts to also help identify the dead. The team helped in the aftermath of a fire that killed 81 in a Chilean prison and was set during fighting between rival gangs in 2010.

France and Spain have sent medical supplies to help treat survivors, and Spain offered to send a police team to help with the investigation.


Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary-general of the Organization of American States, said he has asked the president of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission to send a delegation to Honduras to investigate the fire. He expressed "deep shock at the dramatic events."

Israel's ambassador to Honduras, Eliau Lopes, said he planned to meet with Lobo on Friday to present a proposal by an Israeli company to build four modern, safe, high-security prisons.

Lopes said the cost of the project is high but "it can be achieved with international aid."

"We are talking about facilities where no one will escape, where there won't be fires," he said.

19 Febr 2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/18/honduras-prison-fire-international_n_1286315.html

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Funerals begin for Honduras fire victims

Forensic experts from seven other Latin American countries are joining the Honduran team identifying the bodies.

Hondurans are burying victims of one of the world's worst jail fires as they search for answers about what caused the disaster.

On Saturday, the death toll rose to 358 after two severely-burned inmates died in a hospital.

Several funerals took place in various towns around the country Friday after authorities released the bodies of the first 24 victims of a horrific inferno that has rattled this Central American nation.

"This was a barbaric crime," said Trinidad Varela, who bid a final farewell to her 28-year-old son, Edwin Ortega, in the town of Talanga, northwest of the capital.

"We cannot leave it just like that."

Four days after the blaze swept through the overcrowded Comayagua jail - which had held double its capacity with 852 inmates - the cause of the fire still was unclear.

A US team from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrived late Thursday to investigate and Chilean experts also searched the jail.

About 60 per cent of the prisoners in Comayagua had not yet been sentenced.

In the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, exhausted families waited for their relatives' bodies, kept at a distance because of a strong odour from the morgue.

Forensic experts from seven other Latin American countries are joining the Honduran team identifying the bodies.

Under tents set up outside the morgue, the team drew blood samples from relatives of the victims for DNA testing.

"There are bodies that can only be identified with DNA testing," coroner Antonieta Zuniga said after explaining that many bodies were charred beyond recognition.

Lindolfo Hernandez, brother of one of the victims, said: "They told me that it would be difficult to give me my brother's body because it is in a bad state, but I'll stay here until they've done it."

His brother, jailed for 10 years for rape, was due to be released in two months.

Delmi Matute could not understand the fate of her husband's remains.

"We have been waiting here four days but they have not given him to me. My husband died of smoke inhalation, he should be easy to identify, and they still have not given him to me," she sobbed as she sat with loved ones.

Honduran President Porfirio Lobo suspended top officials from the country's prison system and called for foreign assistance in the investigations, amid accusations that authorities had been overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster.

He pledged compensation for the victims' families.

Human rights groups and witnesses questioned the role of the guards and the authorities, suggesting negligence or even premeditation.

The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights said in a statement that firefighters arrived too late, the prison director was absent and guards failed to open cell doors to save lives.

The Committee of Families of Missing Prisoners expressed concern about a complaint from a non-identified prisoner who told local media the fire was started by police to cover up a planned escape.

National police spokesman Hector Ivan Mejia denied the suggestion and added that no prisoners had escaped.

But President Lobo acknowledged that some inmates caught up in the fire did escape, without saying how many.

Besides those killed in the blaze, "other inmates fled, but they will be caught," Lobo told reporters at a press conference.

He also ordered a safety review of the nation's 23 other jails.

Leftist opposition parties blamed the blaze on "criminal negligence."

Some 500 inmates who survived the fire remained inside the jail in a wing that was not affected.

"I don't want to stay in this prison," said Marco Valladares, who communicated with his wife by mobile phone from inside the jail.

"It's cursed. We knew for a long time that the fire would happen."

Another survivor, Hector Martinez, said: "The facilities are damaged. I'm afraid."

Honduras, which has the world's highest murder rate - 80 per 100,000 people according to the United Nations - has 24 detention centres with a capacity of 8000. The prison population is currently around 13,000.

19 Febr 2012
http://news.msn.co.nz/worldnews/8422053/funerals-begin-for-honduras-victims

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‘Keep records of moles, scars, tattoos’

A leading forensic pathologist has urged families, especially those living in disaster-prone areas, to keep files on each member’s distinguishing marks such as scars, tattoos and moles, and have copies of fingerprints and dental records on hand to make identification easier in case tragedy strikes.

Dr. Raquel del Rosario-Fortun of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine pathology department said the suggestion was prompted by the experience of a group of UP alumni who went to Iligan City last month to help find survivors of Tropical Storm “Sendong.”

Fortun said she was haunted by the photos of missing persons and the numerous corpses in varying states of decomposition awaiting identification that she saw in two funeral parlors.

Had there been more detailed descriptions accompanying the photos, it was possible the authorities would have been able to make faster matches with the corpses, she said.

Fortun, who joined Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III at the Kapihan sa Senado media forum last week, was part of a five-woman forensic team that volunteered their services in Iligan City for three days.

“All details (on one’s body) can potentially help. You cannot anticipate (incidents like this). Once the bodies are fragmented and markedly decomposed, details found in soft tissues, like moles and tattoos, are the first to go,” she said.

Other descriptions such as body piercings, height, weight, build and hair color can help. Even medical histories could provide vital leads.

“Locations of fractures are significant, especially when the soft tissues (are gone). A healed fracture could give us clues, so could postoperative scars,” Fortun explained.

“Once a body is retrieved, a possible match could be made (more quickly). Even a person’s handedness could help. An anthropologist could help us determine even (left- or right-handedness) of a headless body. These details taken altogether (could), at least, give presumptive identification clues,” she said.

Geologist and geohazard expert Mahar Lagmay, another UP alumnus, said Fortun’s suggestions were applicable even to families not living in known disaster-risk areas.

Lagmay said natural calamities had become so unpredictable that even those who believe they are out of harm’s way should take precautions.

Fortun said “definitive” information such as fingerprints, dental records and DNA samples provided the best clues.

Fingers gone

However, as in the case of a family that brought along a missing relative’s NBI clearance that had his fingerprints, it would not be much help if the fingers had decomposed.

Fortun also recalled the case of a family that showed a photo of a missing man with decayed front teeth and a large mole near his lower lip.

“Obviously, since he had dental caries that were visible in photos, it could mean we could do away with dental records. But pictures of smiling people that show obvious facial characteristics are a big help,” she said.

Fortun noted that children comprised a large number of the flood victims.

Newborn DNA

“Children usually do not have fingerprint records. This is where dental records can become crucial. Although now I think that with mandatory newborn screening, they have DNA records on file,” she said.

Fortun said the authorities retrieving cadavers should also record where and how the bodies were found.

“Those areas should be treated as crime scenes since they could provide vital clues. In the case of Iligan, it would have helped if those who retrieved the bodies also noted the flow of the water, where the bodies had come from and, if possible, how many kilometers from the communities the bodies were found,” she said.

Fortun noted that while the National Bureau of Investigation was involved in national disaster efforts, it seemed that it was not coordinating with the Philippine National Police in collecting details about missing persons.

“Antemortem information would be useless if it cannot be compared with an examination of the dead. Here is where coordination comes in,” she said.

Philippine Daily Inquirer
4:14 am | Monday, January 9th, 2012

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Reaching Out To Save Lives - Haredi Rescue Group Builds Interfaith Cooperation

ZICHRON YAAKOV, ISRAEL — The image of Israel’s Haredim has taken a public battering over the past few months, particularly over the issue of discriminatory conduct toward women, which even a few Haredi groups have disavowed. But in an unusual act of outreach, some of these ultra-Orthodox Jews have recently found an original way of engaging with people outside their own closed religious world: cooperating to save lives.

Leaders of ZAKA, an Israeli medical and rescue organization best known for its work in the aftermath of suicide bombings, has launched a program that seeks to work with Muslim and Christian counterparts on emergency rescues.

In January, ZAKA announced its own interfaith platform. It came just as tensions between religious and secular society were boiling over the issue of gender segregation. At the tensions’ peak, some Haredim rioted in the town of Beit Shemesh, even donning death camp outfits to dramatize their own sense of victimhood. Against this backdrop, ZAKA has assembled two dozen of Israel’s most respected religious leaders — from Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger to Muafak Tarif, head of Israel’s Druze community, and Mohamad Kiwan, who leads an association of imams in Israel — to sign a declaration committing themselves to a shared humanitarian vision.

The the declaration, signed on January 4 in Zichron Yaakov, reasons that because man is created in God’s image, people of all religions are obliged to “respect each and every person as he is, and to educate and transmit values and messages of peace.” On a practical level, this means that ZAKA will increase minority involvement — with outreach programs like a first aid course for Arab women — and increase the number of volunteers from Israel’s non-Jewish communities.

ZAKA’s chairman, Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, who himself was once a leader in the anti-Zionist fringes of the Haredi world, told the Forward that this new initiative represents a more sustainable form of interfaith relations than dialogue. “Every dialogue without actual action doesn’t have a future,” he said. Greek Melkite priest Touma Haddad, a signatory to the declaration, commented, “Sometimes talking is just not enough.”

Looking a little out of place in his Haredi clothes and side curls, Meshi-Zahav has spent the weeks since the declaration touring Arab villages, asking sheiks to support it by encouraging their followers to become ZAKA volunteers. Though the effect has not yet led to an increase in participation, he expects that it will do so over the next few months.

ZAKA already has 350 volunteers from Israel’s minority religions, who serve alongside the organization’s 1,150 Haredi volunteers and 350 non-Haredi Jews. When many of them gathered for the January interfaith declaration, the warm embraces and intimate conversations among them were testament to strong friendships formed over shared — and sometimes harrowing — experiences. Haredim chaired the proceedings, the Christians who provided the hall for the evening did the (strictly kosher) catering and a Muslim volunteer took photographs. “It’s the same God and the same values that make us volunteer together,” said Salach Badir, a volunteer from the Arab city of Kfar Kassem, which is located near Tel Aviv.

ZAKA was established in 1995 by Meshi-Zahav, who until a few years prior was known as the public face of the Eida Haredit, one of the most hard-line and extremist Haredi groups. He established ZAKA (the Hebrew acronym for Disaster Victim Identification) primarily to pick up body parts that were strewn about at the scene of terrorist attacks. ZAKA’s yellow-jacketed volunteers became a common sight on news reports from Israeli bomb scenes.

ZAKA expanded to provide medical and search-and-rescue services, and established an international unit that has helped after disasters occurred in Haiti, Japan and elsewhere. Its domestic operation relies on volunteers who, tapping into networks for Israel’s state emergency services, can often be first on the scene.

Since setting up ZAKA, Meshi-Zahav’s ideology has mellowed — to the extent that he is now a vocal critic of the extremist camp to which he once belonged. “I believe that as long as we in the Haredi community do not stand up and reject the actions of those extremists who are now tarring the reputation of the wider ultra-Orthodox community, we condone their unacceptable behavior with our silence,” he told the Forward in relation to the recent violence. On his Facebook page he has even likened Haredi extremists to “terrorists.”

As ZAKA expanded, its volunteer base grew beyond the Haredi community. It attracted Jews of all religious stripes, as well as people of every other religion. Volunteering became especially popular in outlying Bedouin villages. With ZAKA training, individuals can provide quick responses for their community and for others nearby, while state emergency services can take some time to arrive. In one of ZAKA’s newest programs, Haredi and Muslim volunteers have started running a course in accident prevention and first aid for women in Arab towns.

With its new declaration, ZAKA resolves to capitalize on the interfaith aspect of its work and “have ZAKA volunteers as opinion formers within their communities, working to encourage co-existence, helping and assisting others and instilling values of peace and co-existence.”
The declaration acknowledges that the imperative of various religions to “honor the living and the dead” has attracted many of ZAKA’s volunteers and should be capitalized on to increase ZAKA’s membership and further promote this interfaith ideal. It says that “with more and more volunteers working together, the barriers will come down, people’s outlook on life changes, and we become more united, focused and better people, bringing closer the prospect of peace.”

Badir said that barriers have already come down in his community — the first to run the women’s course, which he facilitated. Badir said that when he first volunteered with Haredim, “some people thought it was strange, but now it’s totally accepted.”

12 February 2012

Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/151040/#ixzz1mCdytvmr

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Remains of another 9/11 victim identified

Remains of another 9/11 victim have been identified.

The New York City Chief Medical Examiner's Office announced Friday that it had identified remains of Karol Ann Keasler.

She was 42 when she died in the terrorist attack a decade ago. She worked in the World Trade Center at investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc.

The new identification was made when officials retested remains gathered during the initial recovery efforts.

More than 2,750 people were reported missing in the attack on the twin towers. The newest identification brings the number of victims to have some portion of their remains identified to 1,633.

Another 1,120 never had any remains recovered.

February 10, 2012

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/remains_of_another_victim_identified_m8MxMu1JaBElCI5Qx0DiDJ#ixzz1mCd77Oge

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NBI tags four more unidentified bodies of Typhoon Sendong victims

OZAMIZ CITY, Misamis Occidental, Feb. 5 (PIA) – At least four (4) additional unidentified dead bodies have been tagged by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Iligan City, last Feb. 1, this year.

This brings to 1,292, the total dead bodies of Typhoon Sendong victims, of which only 923 have been identified and accounted for by the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC), region 10, as of the period.

Regional Director Ana Caňeda of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), region 10 and Chairperson of the RDRRMC-10, said the total figure already include the dead bodies recovered from the following areas: Cagayan de Oro City (CDO), 657, Iligan City, 490, and Manticao and El Salvador towns of Misamis Oriental, 80, Bukidnon province, 45, Zambaonga area, 9, municipality of Lopez Jaena and Jimenez in Misamis Occidental and from the Misamis Oriental area, 5.

The suicide case involving a 33-year old male inside the evacuation center at the City Central School in Cagayan de Oro, last Jan. 6, was not included in the list of the dead since the death was by non-natural cause,

She said the number of injured was also noted at 1,977, that is: 1,799 from Iligan City, 168 from CDO, nine (9) from Bukidnon and one (1) from Misamis Oriental.

Latest data gathered by RDRRMC-10, also show that there are now 194 barangays in the entire region that were affected by Typhoon Sendong, the highest number of which is 115 from eight (8) towns in Misamis Oriental including CDO.

This was followed by Bukidnon, with 41 barangays from Valencia City and seven (7) towns of Bukidnon and Iligan City with 30 barangays.

Meanwhile, the Dead Victim Identification (DVI) Cluster of the Post Sendong Operations Center, headed by the NBI, reported that they have gathered a total of 947 DNA specimens, i.e., 521 from CDO and 426 from Iligan City, as of Jan. 25, this year.

It also gathered a total of 747 ante mortem data and processed and buried a total of 358 unidentified bodies, from CDO and Iligan Cities, as of the period. (PIA-10 Mis. Occ.)

Sunday 5th of February 2012

http://www.pia.gov.ph/news/index.php?article=1451328426836

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Remains of child tsunami victim identified and returned to family

The remains of a five-year-old boy who died in the March 11 tsunami have been identified and were returned to surviving relatives on Jan. 24.

The boy was the only known pre-grade school victim of either Miyagi or Fukushima prefectures who was still unidentified.

According to Miyagi Prefectural Police, the boy's body was found off the coast of Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, in late April. Since June, the boy's ashes were being kept at Myokoin temple in Yamamoto, Miyagi Prefecture, where the head temple priest and nearby residents left toys and picture books as gifts.

Miyagi Prefectural Police say that there were 12 requests from parents and other relatives for DNA comparisons against the boy's remains, and the 12th test came out a match, based on DNA test records of the mother, who also died in the disaster. The boy's ashes were returned to his grandparents and will be buried by his mother's ashes.

Ryushin Miyabe, 29, a priest at Myokoin, said, "It's good that the ashes were returned to where they were meant to be. From now on, his ashes can be prayed for by name."

The grandparents released a comment saying, "Our grandchild, whose identification we had been waiting anxiously for, has returned to us. We would like to express our thanks." The child's name has been withheld by will of the grandparents.

Myokoin still holds the ashes of another unidentified disaster victim. Miyabe says, "There are still many victims who are unidentified, and I hope they can be returned like the boy was."

According to Miyagi Prefectural Police, of the around 1,800 residents still unaccounted for from the disaster, 423 are unidentified remains. Police are continuing to try to identify the remains with DNA tests and other methods.

(Mainichi Japan) January 25, 2012

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120125p2a00m0na018000c.html

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'There's an overpowering smell of decomposition down there': Divers reveal 'unbreathable air' in Costa Concordia search as death toll rises to 15

Teams of naval officers, firefighters and coastguards said the air inside the ship, which capsized off an Italian island, was 'unbreathable'.
Fire chief Enio Aquilino said: 'Imagine the scene if you went on holiday and you came back to find the fridge had switched itself off. The divers are working in those conditions.’

The grim conditions inside the vessel were revealed as two more bodies were recovered from the Costa Concordia today, bringing the confirmed death toll to 15.
The two women were found in a submerged section of the ship, in the internet cafe and were located after further holes had been blown into the superstructure of the Concordia by navy divers.

Tonight it emerged that one of the bodies found was that of Italian honeymooner Maria D'Introno, 30, who was on the cruise with her new husband Vincenzo Roselli and her in-laws, who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.
Maria, who could not swim, was thought to have jumped in the water with Vincenzo but tonight family friend Carlo Cabrio said: 'They were holding hands when they jumped in but we now think she climbed back up the rope ladder. She was terrified of the water.'
News of the discovery was broken minutes after Franco Gabrielli, the commissioner in charge of the rescue effort focusing on the 114,000-ton super liner, said that the ship was stable and there was no danger of it slipping from the rock shelf it is balanced on.

It means the search continue alongside efforts to siphon off 500,000 gallons of fuel.
Searching has stopped several times since the disaster on 13 January after movement was detected by state of lasers pointed onto the ship from boats anchored close by.

Mr Gabrielli also added that there was no need to secure the Concordia where navy, coastguard and firefighting diving teams are searching for the bodies of at least ‘24 or 25 people’.
This appears to confirm an earlier line of inquiry that some of the missing passengers may not have been registered. Among them was a woman, thought to be Hungarian, who was found yesterday.

Until last night, there had been 19 people officially unaccounted for.
But with the two bodies discovered this morning - reducing that figure to 17 - it means as many eight victims may have been unregistered passengers.

Speaking at a press conference on the island of Giglio he said: 'Having spoken with a team of experts the search and the removal of the fuel can proceed at the same time.
‘The search will continue as long as possible and if there are bodies between the ship and the bottom of the sea these will recovered when the ship is straightened.’

Mr Gabrielli said that he had also asked Costa Cruises about the possibility of salvaging the Concordia which is lying on a rock shelf just outside the part of Giglio where it came to rest after hitting rocks ten days ago two hours after leaving port on a week long Mediterranean cruise.


Costa have not said yet what exactly will happen to the Concordia but salvage experts say the most likely outcome is that it will be cut into huge sections and taken away for scrap - that and the fuel removal operation are expected to last at least three months.
There were fears that the Concordia's double-bottom fuel tanks could rupture in case of sudden shifting, spilling 2,200 tonnes of heavy fuel into pristine sea around Giglio.
The island is part of an archipelago in some of the Mediterranean's clearest waters and a prized fishing area.

The search had been halted for several hours yesterday, after instrument readings indicated that the Concordia had shifted on its precarious perch on a seabed just outside Giglio's port.
A few yards away, the sea bottom drops off suddenly, by some 65-100 feet, and if the Concordia should abruptly roll off its ledge, rescuers could be trapped inside.

When instrument data indicated the vessel had stabilised again, rescuers returned, but explored only the above-water section and evacuation staging areas where survivors indicated that people who did not make it into lifeboats during the chaotic evacuation could have remained.
Authorities are also trying to identify five corpses which are badly decomposed after spending a long time in the water.

Mr Gabrielli said the other eight bodies: four French, an Italian, a Hungarian, a German and a Spanish national, had been identified .
The missing include French passengers, an elderly couple from Minnesota, a Peruvian crew member and an Indian crewman and an Italian father and his five-year-old daughter.
Some of their relatives toured the wreckage yesterday and also met Pierluigi Foschi chief executive of Costa Crociere, the ship's operator, who viewed the crippled cruise liner from a boat.

France's ambassador to Italy, Alain Le Roy, recounting Mr Foschi's visit, said: "He came to see the families, all families. He met the French family. He met the American family.
'I am sure he is meeting other families, mostly to express his compassion ... to say that Costa will do everything possible to find the people, to compensate families in any way.’
Passengers were dining at a gala supper when the Concordia sailed close to Giglio and struck the reef, which is indicated on maritime and even tourist maps.
The liner's Italian captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest as prosecutors investigate him for suspected manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship while many were still aboard.
Costa Crociere, a subsidiary of US-based Carnival Cruise Lines, has said Schettino had deviated without permission from the vessel's route in an apparent manoeuvre to sail close to the island and impress passengers.

Firefighters hang scuba gear out a chopper as they prepare to descend to the Costa Concordia
Schettino, despite audiotapes of his defying coastguard orders to scramble back aboard, has denied he abandoned ship while hundreds of passengers were desperately trying to get off the capsizing vessel.
The 52-year-old has said he co-ordinated the rescue from aboard a lifeboat and then from the shore.

He claims he sailed his ship too close to the coast because he was asked to do so by his bosses.
Francesco Schettino said the ‘sail by salute’ was ‘arranged and wanted’ by Costa Cruises chiefs for publicity reasons, according to details of his police questioning leaked to the Italian media.


By NICK PISA
Last updated at 10:04 PM on 23rd January 2012

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2090664/Costa-Concordia-death-toll-rises-15-divers-reveal-unbreathable-air-search.html#ixzz1kKHN83ti

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Costa Concordia disaster: Eight dead identified

Eight of the 12 people known to have died when the Costa Concordia cruise ship was wrecked last week have been identified, Italian officials say.

Four of the victims were French, one was Italian, one Hungarian, one Spanish and one German, they added.

Rescuers have resumed their search of parts of the ship above water, but choppy seas have prevented diving.

At least 20 people are still missing. Officials say some people may have been on board without registering.

The latest discovery was the body of a woman found on Saturday by divers on the fourth deck.

The head of the Civil Protection Agency, Franco Gabrielli, said the woman had not been identified but may be a Hungarian who was not on the embarkation list.

There could have been more "illegals" on board, he said, referring to people who had not registered to be on the ship.

There were known to be 4,200 people on the cruise ship, which struck a rock in shallow waters on 13 January off Tuscany's Giglio island.

The captain, Francesco Schettino, is being investigated for manslaughter, which he denies, and is under house arrest.

He is accused of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck, and abandoning ship before all passengers were evacuated.

Prosecutors say the 57-year-old was sailing too close to Giglio on an unauthorised course in order to perform a "salute" - a greeting to islanders.

However, the Italian media have released a new recording in which Capt Schettino appears to say he will be the last to leave the ship.

Time pressures
Coastguard and navy divers resumed their search on Saturday, blasting their way into submerged areas of the vessel using explosives in an effort to find those unaccounted for.

Rescue officials said on Saturday they would not end the search until the whole ship had been examined, but it was suspended as weather conditions worsened.

On Sunday, civil protection officials said divers would not be allowed into the submerged part of the vessel until the sea was calmer. Rescuers continued their work above the water line.

Correspondents say they are under time pressure, amid fears the ship could slip off a ledge into deeper water with a risk of fuel tanks being ruptured.

One official says swift action needs to be taken to remove the fuel that is on board. An Italian naval vessel is on standby as a precaution should there be an oil leak.

22 January 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16670412

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Official: possibility of unregistered passengers

GIGLIO, Italy (AP) — Unregistered passengers might have been aboard the stricken cruise liner that capsized off this Tuscan island, a top rescue official said Sunday, raising the possibility that the number of missing might be higher than the 20 previously announced.
Rescuers, meanwhile, resumed searching the above-water section of the Costa Concordia but choppy seas kept divers from exploring the submerged part, where officials have said there could be bodies.

"There could have been X persons who we don't know about who were inside, who were clandestine" passengers aboard the ship, Franco Gabrielli, the national civil protection official in charge of the rescue effort, told reporters at a briefing on the island of Giglio, where the ship, with 4,200 people aboard rammed a reef and sliced open its hull on Jan. 13 before turning over on its side.

Gabrielli said that relatives of a Hungarian woman have told Italian authorities that she had telephoned them from aboard the ship and that they haven't heard from her since the accident. He said it was possible that a woman's body pulled from the wreckage by divers on Saturday might be that of the unregistered passenger.

But the identity of that body and of three male bodies, all badly decomposed after days in the water, have yet to be established. Gabrielli said they have identified the other 12 bodies: four French, an Italian, a Hungarian, a German and a Spanish national.

Until Sunday, authorities had said that 20 people are still missing.

The search had been halted for several hours early Sunday, after instrument readings indicated that the Concordia has shifted a bit on its precarious perch on a seabed just outside Giglio's port. A few meters (yards) away, the sea bottom drops off suddenly, by some 20-30 meters (65-100 feet), and if the Concordia should abruptly roll off its ledge, rescuers could be trapped inside.

When instrument data indicated the vessel had stabilized again, rescuers went back in, but only explored the above-water section. Choppy seas kept divers from exploring the submerged part of the ship, including the restaurant and evacuation staging areas where survivors have indicated that people who did not make it into lifeboats during the chaotic evacuation could have remained.

Passengers were dining at a gala supper when the Concordia sailed close to Giglio and struck the reef, which is indicated on maritime and even tourist maps.

There are also fears that the Concordia's double-bottom fuel tanks could rupture in case of sudden shifting, spilling 2,200 metric tons (almost 500,000 million gallons) of heavy fuel into pristine sea around Giglio, which is part of a seven-island archipelago in some of the Mediterranean's most pristine waters and a prized fishing area.

But Gabrielli said pollutants found near the ship have been detergents and other substances, including chlorine, apparently from the wreck of the ship, which carried some 3,200 passengers and a crew of 1,000. Any fuel traces found were "compatible with what you find in a port," he said.

Ferries and cargo ships regularly call at Giglio's port.
Sophisticated oil-removal equipment has been standing by, waiting for the search-and-rescue operations to conclude before workers can start extracting the fuel in the tanks.
The Italian captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest as prosecutors investigate him for suspected manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship while many were still aboard.

Operator Costa Crociere, a subsidiary of U.S.-based Carnival Cruise Lines, has said that Capt. Schettino had deviated without permission from the vessel's route in an apparent maneuver to sail close to the island and impress passengers.
Schettino, despite audiotapes of his defying Coast Guard orders to scramble back aboard, has denied he abandoned ship while hundreds of passengers were desperately trying to get off the capsizing vessel. He has said he coordinated the rescue from aboard a lifeboat and then from the shore.

By FRANCES D'EMILIO - 22 January 2012
The Associated Press

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No coherent mechanism used to identify crash victims bodies - 6/7/2010

MANGALORE: Twelve of the 158 passengers of the Air India Express flight killed in the May 22 crash here had to be buried in unmarked graves.

According to the district administration, the 12 bodies could not be identified because of a mix-up. Some families took away the bodies that did not belong to them in the confusion that prevailed after the crash. The body of Mohammed Zubair Ziad (4) was taken away by a family that believed that it was the body of an adult.

Tales of woe

Narrating a similar incident, Vidya Dinker, an activist who was involved in the relief operations, said: One family had identified their kin and filled the claims form at the Wenlock Hospital. They then moved to another hospital to look for other relatives. By the time they came back, somebody else had taken the body. There was no coherent mechanism to identify the bodies, and some junior policemen were handling the process. Whereas, a senior police officer was managing traffic, she claimed.

Disaster Victim Identification guidelines issued by the Interpol were not adhered to immediately. Guidelines

Despite the Interpol's warning that visual identification is notoriously unreliable and should be avoided at all costs, 136 of the 158 bodies were handed over on this basis alone.

The Interpol, instead, recommends the use of medical and forensic tests.

According to a senior district official, the Interpol's guidelines were referred to 10 days after the crash.

No alternative

Inspector-General of Police Gopal B. Hosur said that there was no other alternative. All the bodies could not have been identified by DNA tests. There was no way we could have waited for the DNA tests. Keeping so many bodies in our possession for so long could have created a law and order nightmare, he said.

District Health Officer H. Jagannath said as the district’s storage facilities were woefully inadequate, the bodies would have started decomposing.

Better management

Chief Fire Officer H.S. Varadarajan said that some of the bodies could not be identified because they were robbed of jewellery by some of those who posed as rescue workers at the crash site. The police should have cordoned off the area and allowed only fire tenders to do their job, he said.

Deputy Superintendent of Police S. Girish, who was in-charge of the crash site, said: There were only around 10 firemen and public support was necessary.

Several places

Dr. Jagannath said that a major reason for the mix-up was that all the bodies were not taken to one place for identification. Several bodies were taken to private medical colleges.

According to Mr. Varadarajan, there was nobody at the crash site to direct the ambulances carrying the bodies to the right place.

Mistake

By the time the district administration realised its mistake and ordered that all the bodies should be shifted to the Wenlock Hospital, 28 bodies had been taken away, District Medical Officer B. Saroja said.

http://www.sfxkutam.com/news_index_arch1.asp?offset=1120

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Woman's body found on cruise ship

Divers have found a woman's body in a submerged section of the grounded Costa Concordia, raising the death toll in the cruise liner tragedy to at least 12.

Italian Coast Guard Commander Cosimo Nicastro told The Associated Press that the body, wearing a life jacket, was found in a narrow corridor near an evacuation staging point at the rear of the ship.

The body was taken to Giglio, the Tuscan island where the vessel hit a reef and ran aground on January 14.

Twenty people are still missing.

Cmdr Nicastro said the woman's body was found during a particularly risky search.

"The corridor was very narrow, and the divers' lines risked snagging" on objects in the passageway, he said.

To help the coast guard divers get into the area, Italian navy divers had preceded them, setting off charges to blast holes for easier entrance and exit, he added.

The woman's nationality and identity were not immediately known.

Before the body was found, 21 people were listed as missing, one of them a Peruvian woman crew member, the others passengers.

Three bodies were found in the water near the ship in the first hours after the accident. Since then the other victims have all been found inside the Concordia, apparently unable to get off the ship during a chaotic evacuation via lifeboats and later by helicopters. Some survivors jumped off and swam to safety.

The Concordia hit a reef and ran aground a week ago, while passengers dined, about two hours after the ship had set sail from the port of Civitavecchia on the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Cruise company Costa Crociere has said the captain had deviated without permission from the vessel's course in an apparent manoeuvre to sail close to Giglio to impress passengers.

Search and rescue efforts for survivors and bodies have meant that an operation to remove heavy fuel from the Concordia's tanks has not yet begun, although specialised equipment has been standing by for days.

Today, light fuel, apparently from machinery on board the capsized Costa Concordia, was detected near the ship.

But Cmdr Nicastro said there was no indication that any of the nearly 500,000 gallons (2,200 metric tons) of heavy fuel oil has leaked from the ship's double-bottomed tanks.

He said the leaked substance appears to be diesel, which is used to fuel rescue boats and dinghies and as a lubricant for ship machinery.

There are 185 tons of diesel and lubricants on board the crippled vessel, which is lying on its side just outside Giglio's port.

Cmdr Nicastro described the light fuel's presence in the sea as "very light, very superficial" and appearing to be under control.

Although attention has been concentrated on the heavy fuel oil in the tanks, "we must not forget that on that ship there are oils, solvents, detergents, everything that a city of 4,000 people needs", Franco Gabrielli, the head of Italy's civil protection agency, told reporters in Giglio.

Mr Gabrielli, who is leading rescue, search and anti-pollution efforts for the Concordia, was referring to the roughly 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew who were on board the cruise liner when it ran into the reef, and then, with sea water rushing into a 230ft (70m) gash in its hull, listed and finally fell on to its side.

Considering all the substances on board the Concordia, "contamination of the environment... already occurred" when the ship capsized, Mr Gabrielli told a news conference.

Vessels equipped with machinery to suck out the light fuel oil were in the area, officials told Italian TV.

Earlier today, crews removed oil-absorbing booms used to prevent environmental damage in case of a leak. Originally white, the booms were greyish.

Divers resumed their search of the wreckage today after data indicated that the ship had stabilised in the sea.

Italian news reports said divers were also trying to locate the captain's safe, in case it might contain documentation useful to the criminal probe.

The Italian captain of Concordia, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest for investigation of alleged manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all were evacuated.

He insists he helped co-ordinate the evacuation from Giglio's docks after leaving the ship when the Concordia lurched to one side.

The search was suspended yesterday after the Concordia shifted, prompting fears that it could roll off a rocky ledge and plunge deeper into the sea.

An abrupt shift could also cause a leak in the Concordia's fuel tanks, polluting the pristine waters around Giglio, part of a seven-island Tuscan archipelago.

AP - SATURDAY 21 JANUARY 2012

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/womans-body-found-on-cruise-ship-6292724.html
AP - SATURDAY 21 JANUARY 2012

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One day Nigeria Police will halt mass burial of disaster victims

Biometrics is essentially the best forensic method used by the police and disaster management agencies to identify people or victims of disaster. They are uniquely based upon one or more intrinsic physical or behavioural traits. In Nigeria, disaster victim identification based on biometrics is not applied by the police detectives and failure to know the exact identity of victims has led to mass burials in so many instances.

Inspector General of Police Ogbonna Onovo said during disaster victim identification training organised for the police by Germany in Abuja, that so many victims of disasters have been given mass burials as a result of lack of a method to trace their identities. “It is expected that after the training, there will not be any excuse for mass burial,” he said.

In 2002, 56 unidentified victims of a plane crash in Kano were given a mass burial. Red Cross officials had stated that death toll had hit 148. The 56 victims, comprising about 14 men and 42 women, were interred in Kano. Also, victims of the motor accident that claimed not less than 70 lives at Uromi Junction along the Benin-Asaba Expressway, Agbor, in Ika South Local government Area of Delta State recently were given a mass burial. Nevertheless, 380 victims of the sectarian violence in three communities in Shen village of Jos South Local Government Area were given a mass burial in Dogon Na Hauwa.

The Germans trained the police based on request made by Onovo when German diplomats visited him in Abuja. The diplomats had asked the police to identify areas which they required training.

The German Police Liaison Officer for West Africa, Dominic Muller, said police must be able to identify victims of disasters no matter how bad the bodies. He said police detectives should apply biometrics in post-mortem examinations to find the exact identity of people and avoid mass burials. The physical characteristics which could be relied upon include finger print, dental records, face recognition, DNA as well as hand and palm geometry. Ante mortem records such as x-rays and photographs could be compared to post mortem records to get an exact identity. “Where the body becomes difficult to recognise such as in inferno, plane crash or has decomposed, dental records could be used to give appropriate facts,” Muller said.

But in Nigeria, very few people keep their dental records, if any, as such police will have a problem finding exact facts. Muller said in other European countries including Germany people consult dentists often due to the nature of their diets and it is easier to get their dental records. Identification rates are highest among people from nations where dental and healthcare systems are of high quality.

He said it is important to trace identity so as to allay suspicion by family members and enable relatives claim insurance benefits. It is only when the real identity of the victims of disaster such as in plane crash is established that insurance monies will be given to families.

Muller said it is sad that in Nigeria disaster victims are given mass burials because of inability or failure of police and disaster management agencies to identify victims. “Ideally, it is the police who are to coordinate other agencies in disaster management and police detectives posted to such scenes must have the knowledge of disaster victim identification,” he said.

A senior police officer in Abuja said very few policemen have requisite knowledge to identify disfigured human bodies which was the reason for mass burial of victims.

But Muller said he and his German counterparts have taught a select group of policemen some disaster victims identification strategies among which dental records are more reliable. DNA test is also reliable but it takes time before the result is known which necessitates keeping the body in a temperature-controlled morgue to slow down decomposition. It is a sensitive technique with contamination problems.

Fingerprints information is also important but will have to be sent to experts who will input the information into automated Fingerprint Identification System which is rare in Nigeria. Fingerprints are unique but less obtainable from victims due to the fast decomposition.

Muller said there is no basis to give victims of disasters or accidents mass burial when physical pictures of victims can be used in identification. Photos can be taken of the victim, focusing on items like medical operations, jewellery, tattooing, scars, piercing, or eye and hair colour.

These distinguishing characteristics are not considered universal because they may not be present in every corpse. These features may also be disfigured for various reasons but even then, they have helped detectives in identification.

Written by Misbahu Bashir Sunday, 18 July 2010 05:36

http://sundaytrust.com.ng/?option=com_content&view=article&id=4242:one-day-nigeria-police-will-halt-mass-burial-of-disaster-victims&catid=41:latest-news&Itemid=26

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MPs set to debate cause of Hillsborough victim’s death

MPs set to debate cause of Hillsborough victim’s death

The mother of a Hillsborough disaster victim has reached 100,000 signatures on her online petition to get a coroner’s inquiry into the death of her son- meaning that it is eligible for debate in the House of Commons.

Anne Williams, 59, launched the online campaign to get justice for her son Kevin, who died at the age 15 in the tragedy. Inquests found that Kevin died from traumatic asphyxia, though his mother refutes that ruling.

“Kevin did not die from traumatic asphixia or in an accident,” she said. “I will not pick up his death certificate until we get the course of death put right and the accidental death verdict struck down.”

Anne Williams claims that her son “does not relate” to an original ruling by coroner Dr Stefan Popper that all Hillsborough victims had died by 3:15pm. “I want the Attorney General to look at the evidence again and send Kevin's case back to the divisional court recommending a new inquest into the death of my son,” she said.

Her campaign for 100,000 signatures had the online backing of Liverpool FC, Kenny Dalglish and Wayne Rooney.

The Hillsborough disaster claimed 96 lives as hundreds of fans were crushed, with “failure of police control” blamed by the subsequent Taylor Report into the calamity.

Yahoo! NewsBy Adam Parris-Long | Yahoo! News – 2 hours 13 minutes ago

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/mps-set-to-debate-cause-of-hillsborough-victim%E2%80%99s-death.html

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