Bangladesh: Damaged corpses making identification difficult

The damaged corpses of the Savar tragedy have posed a challenge to district administration officials as they struggle to identify them and hand them over to their respective family members.

The problem has become acute in the last three days with the dead bodies fast decaying and losing visible body marks, some already deformed from the pressure of the heavy concrete slabs of the collapsed building.

“The bodies recovered in the last three days are fully decomposed and hardly identifiable. We have been depending on documentation,” said Mohammad Iftekhar Hossain, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Dhaka.

He said in the pockets and vanity bags of some victims they found their photographs. If their relatives can bring matching photographs, they will be handed over.

Officials are also using mobile phones, letters and other articles found in their pockets to identify the bodies.

“If a relative can tell a victim’s cell number, we consider the body identified. In the case of bodies that no one comes looking for, we are using their cell phones to contact their relatives,” he added.

Apart from cell numbers and photographs, officials are also using manual identification methods like matching physical features and body marks.

“On Wednesday, we handed over two bodies after their relatives described them and identified body marks such as broken teeth or marks of injury,” he said.

The bodies that cannot be identified through this procure are being sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) for DNA testing, he added.

Unidentified bodies, if already buried, can be claimed later.

“The graves of the unidentified workers at Jurain graveyard have separate identification numbers. Their relatives can identify them even after burial,” he said.

According to the district administration, DMCH authorities will start identifying the bodies kept in the hospital morgue with DNA sampling from Saturday.

Two bodies at the DMCH morgue and two at Sir Salimullah Medical College morgue are awaiting identification by their relatives.

Friday 3 May 2013

http://dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2013/may/03/damaged-corpses-making-identification-difficult

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14 people killed in car accident in Iran

At least 14 people were burned to death in a car accident in Iran's southwestern Khuzestan province, semi-official ISNA news agency quoted Iran's traffic police chief as saying.

After passenger bus which came from Ahvaz city in Khuzestan to central Isfahan city hit a lorry coming from the opposite direction, the bus caught fire and it was spread to the lorry, said the police commander Mohammad-Reza Mehmandar.

The incident led to the death of 12 passengers of the bus and two crew members of lorry, said Mehmandar, adding that four passengers of the bus were also hospitalized due to the fire injuries.

The cause of the incident is under investigation, he added.

Official figures show that more than 20,000 people died and 200, 000 others wounded in traffic accidents annually in Iran. Inexperienced drivers and low-efficiency of the cars and the roads are blamed for causing these accidents.

Friday 3 May 2013

http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-05/02/c_132355252.htm

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U.S. military plane crashes near Kazakh-Kyrgyz border

A military plane crashed shortly after taking off from a United States airbase in Kyrgyzstan on Friday, officials said, though there were no immediate reports of any injuries.

"According to my information, the plane broke up into three pieces. Information on the dead or wounded is being clarified. All the rescue services have gone to the scene," the emergency situations ministry's press secretary Abdisharip Bekilov said.

The refuelling plane took off from the US Manas airbase and crashed near the mountain village of Chaldovar, around 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the capital Bishkek and close to the border with Kazakhstan, the spokesman said.

The press secretary of the US transit centre, Akzhibek Beishebekova, told AFP that it was gathering information on the incident.

"We cannot confirm or deny the plane crash," she said, adding that the number of people on board the plane was not known.

Witnesses described seeing an explosion mid-air and said the wreckage of the plane was still burning.

The Manas airbase is key to American military operations in Afghanistan, used to ferry troops into the country, refuel warplanes and evacuate wounded soldiers.

According to the emergency ministry's preliminary information, the plane involved in the crash was a KC-135 Stratotanker plane that lost contact with the base as soon as it took off.

The flight left at 2:30 pm local time (0830 GMT), the press secretary of the ministry of transport and communications, Kylychbek Dosumbetov, told AFP, citing the country's Civil Aviation Agency.

"At around 1455 Kyrgyz time (0855 GMT), a resident of one of the nearby villages said that a plane blew up in the air. On the wings of the plane he saw an American flag," the interior ministry said in a statement.

A local official told AFP that the pilot apparently managed to escape from the plane before it crashed.

"The preliminary information is that the pilot jumped out with a parachute. They have gone to look for him," the deputy district chief Anatoly Ivannikov said.

"No victims have been found at the site of the plane crash."

The area around the plane was still burning, he said.

"The plane fell in the mountains. The area is taped off. We are not letting people approach, since the plane's wheels are still burning."

Witnesses told the Kyrgyz AKIPress news agency that they heard a buzz and then an explosion and that the plane was continuing to burn.

A local resident, Nurlan Derdenov, told local news website 24.kg that the plane "blew up in the air."

"School children managed to film it on cell phones. When the plane fell, it hit a high-voltage power line."

Friday 3 May 2013

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gFIWohZFg0VU_npMp7XQ-rbxDlPA?docId=CNG.7d5d8db66551f91b5f00e4132fb5c861.211

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Phuket, Phang Nga to test for Tsunami and Earthquake this month

A three-day earthquake and tsunami seminar and drill is to be held later this month as the ninth anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami approaches.

The big wave practice drill, to be held in combination with Phang Nga, is set for May 29 and two days of talks about latest information on disasters.

Phuket Vice Governor Jamleran Tipayapongtada met with officials from the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation yesterday in Phuket City to outline the event.

''Last year Phuket experienced a tsunami alert and for the first time an earthquake with its epicentre under the island,'' the vice governor said.

''We need to make sure we are prepared in future because the Andaman sits in an earthquake and tsunami zone.''

Phuket's name became closely associated with the December 26, 2004 tsunami but it was in Phang Nga, the province north of Phuket, that the big wave claimed most victims.

While the tsunami hit the first line of buildings along the west coast foreshore in Patong, in and around Khao Lak the wave increased in magnitude as it rose to more than nine metres and surged inland for two kilometres in some places.

It was Thailand's greatest natural disaster with 5400 people killed, about half of those tourists. Around the region 220,000 were killed, with Aceh in Indonesia suffering 160,000 dead.

Drills have been held regularly on Phuket since but last year's real tsunami alert in April, followed a few days later by the earthquake, provided an expected test that highlighted flaws in the system.

Representatives from the Disaster Warning Centre in Bangkok, which has the job of raising the alarm, will be on Phuket for the Phang Nga-Phuket conference and drill.

It's expected that DWC officials will provide an update on the need for Russian and Burmese language warnings to be included among the languages broadcast from Phuket's 19 tsunami warning beach towers.

During last year's evacuations it became evident that a second warning tone should be added to signify an ''all clear.''

Evacuated tourists and residents had no idea whether the sounding of the same signal hours after the initial alarm indicated another wave alert or the all-clear.

Crowds on hilltop roads also potentially impeded the passage in and out of rescue vehicles and ambulances.

While the tsunami sirens are effective during daylight hours when people are on the beaches, alternatives are needed for nighttime, especially during a storm when the wind blows the tower warnings out to sea.

Bangkok Warning Centre officials are expected to test the system where they send an SMS to the DPPM on Phuket and the DPPM distributes that message to local mayors and on to local communities.

Mobile telephone systems have, however, proved unreliable when used by too many people, as happened in last year's evacuation.

On May 29, Phuket and Phang Nga officials will combine to stage sea and land rescue drills near the Sarasin Bridge that links the two provinces.

Because Phuket and the Andaman coast are in a tsunami area, tourists are advised to ask their resort front desks who will wake them up if a tsunami arrives at 3am, when everyone is sleeping.

The Phang Nga fishing village of Nam Khem, where 800 were killed in 2004, takes tsunami warnings more seriously than most Andaman communities and supplements official warnings with its own system.

Friday 3 May 2013

http://phuketwan.com/tourism/phuket-phang-nga-test-tsunami-earthquake-month-17996/

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Chibombo accident victims to be buried in mass grave

Government has decided to bury the 17 Chibombo road traffic accident victims in a Mass grave in Kabwe where all the deceased came from.

Briefing the press in Kabwe today, Central province Permanent Secretary Annie Sinyangwe said government in the province will take over the burden responsibility of burying the accident victims from their families.

Mrs Sinyangwe said the government authorities at the province have visited all the homes and identified the deceased who happened to have been all Kabwe residents and traders of the market, adding that the day they met their fate they were all going to Lusaka to order merchandise for sale.

She said the burials which will take place on Saturday 4th May will be conducted by the government at the old St. Mary’s cemetery in Kabwe, after the church service to be conducted by the Zambia Army Chaplains and the Church mother bodies at Railways grounds where all mourners will assemble.

She said some families have requested to bury their deceased relatives elsewhere and that government will not restrain them from doing so, adding that the Municipal council has already issued the burial permits to all the families.

The Permanent Secretary welcomes everyone who wants to attend the burial to Kabwe and that for further details, they could contact Kabwe District Commissioner, Mr Patrick Chishala.

Earlier Kabwe District Commissioner who was accompanied by His worship the Mayor, Moses Mwansa, two Members of Parliament, Honorables Sydney Mushanga and James Kapyanga and the Councillors gathered in a meeting with the deceased families to discuss the funeral arrangements.

And Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit Regional Coordinator Ingribet Bondo said his office has given to each deceased family five 50 kilograms bags of mealie-meal, 10 litres of cooking oil, a 50 kg bag of Kapenta and 50 kg bag of beans to help out at the funeral.

On Tuesday 30th April, 17 people died in the traffic road accident which involved a Kabwe- Lusaka bound Mini bus in Chibombo district in Central province.

Friday 3 April 2013

http://www.lusakatimes.com/2013/05/02/chibombo-accident-victims-to-be-buried-in-mass-grave/

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Army challenges 'rumours' of ‘hiding away’ bodies of those killed at Savar’s Rana Plaza rubble.

General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Bangladesh Army’s 9th Infantry Division Major General Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, who is supervising the rescue at Savar, appealed in a press conference that such baseless rumours should not be paid heed to.

“Some quarters have alleged that bodies are disappearing. They are fuelling public anger by spreading rumours that actual casualties are unbelievably high,” he said.

Maj-Gen Suhrawardy said these rumours were hindering rescue operations.

“By alleging that bodies are disappearing, this quarter have questioned the patriotism and honesty of the army and all those organisations and volunteers involved in the rescue.” He said this was 'extremely unfortunate'.

The death toll in the Rana Plaza collapse stood at 429 on Thursday morning. It could still rise as rescue continued and the rubble was being cleared.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Wednesday alleged that the actual casualty was being deliberately played down.

On Wednesday, army said the number of those missing was only 149, raising eyebrows everywhere, because even the army could not clarify how it came to such a conclusion.

The army now says 2,437 have been rescued.

On Sunday, without hopes of finding survivors alive rescuers employed heavy machines to clear the rubble and recovered 44 more bodies.

The GOC said rescue and recovery was taking some time as they were trying to bring out the bodies without any damage. “We will not move until the last body is found.”

Bangladesh Army had donated almost Tk 75 million for the Savar victims, equivalent to one day's salary of all its officers and men.

Friday 3 May 2013

http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2013/05/02/army-challenges-rumours

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8 Bodies Found in Guatemala Clandestine Grave

Forensic experts say they have discovered eight bodies in a clandestine grave in western Guatemala that dates back to 1982, when former Gen. Efrain Rios Montt was ruling the country amid a civil war.

Guatemala's Forensic Anthropology Foundation director Jose Suasnavar says the excavation in the village of Laguna Burra was conducted at the request of an organization called Oxlajuj Ajpop.

Oxlajuj Ajpop representative Flor Gonzalez says witnesses approached the group with information of several massacres in 1982. She says witnesses told them soldiers kidnapped people in the state of Quiche and then brought them to neighboring Huehuetenango state, where they were killed and buried.

Gonzalez says the group has also requested excavations in Paquish, another village in Huehuetenango where other clandestine graves are believed to be located.

Thursday 2 May 2013

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/bodies-found-guatemala-clandestine-grave-19094667#.UYLHEzRzA34

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More than 60 killed in gold mine collapse in Sudan's Darfur

Dozens of people have been killed in a gold mine collapse in Sudan's Darfur, said the chief of the district where fighting over gold in January led to the region's worst unrest in years

It is not known how many people may still be missing after Monday's accident.

"The number of people who died is more than 60," Haroun al-Hassan, the local commissioner in Jebel Amir, North Darfur, said on Thursday, adding that rescue operations were still taking place.

"I cannot give exact figures because no one got precise numbers of how many people were going inside the tunnel," which went down 40 metres (yards), he said.

Rescuers were using traditional tools to try to reach the victims, he said, without specifying whether anyone might still be alive.

"We cannot use machines because if they came near, the ground will collapse. People are using traditional tools and because of this, the rescue is very slow," Hassan said.

Seven weeks of clashes between two Arab tribes in Jebel Amir during January and February killed more than 500 members of the Beni Hussein tribal group, a Benni Hussein member of parliament for the area said earlier.

The violence uprooted an estimated 100,000 people.

Fighting erupted on January 5 between Beni Hussein and another Arab tribe, the Rezeigat, when a Rezeigat leader who is an officer in Sudan's Border Guard force apparently laid claim to a gold-rich area in Beni Hussein territory, Amnesty International said.

Humanitarian sources said at the time that the incident was the worst example of inter-Arab violence to emerge in the past two years as government-linked Arab groups got "out of control" and turned on each other.

One humanitarian source said the Beni Hussein had refused to pay newly imposed government mining fees adding up to "huge, huge money".

Gold has become a key commodity for cash-strapped Sudan since South Sudan separated two years ago with the loss of about 75 percent of the country's oil production.

Thursday 2 May 2013

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/70581.aspx

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Vietnam-era sailors' remains to be buried at Arlington

Human remains from the Vietnam War have been identified as four U.S. Navy sailors who were reported missing in 1967, officials said.

The bodies of the men are to be buried together Thursday in Arlington National Cemetery, Stars and Stripes reported.

Lt. Dennis Peterson, Ensign Donald Frye and Aviation Antisubmarine Warfare Technicians William Jackson and Donald McGrane had been missing since July 1967 after their helicopter was shot down over North Vietnam, a U.S. Defense Department official said Tuesday.

The sailors were attempting to find a downed pilot when they were fired at, Stars and Stripes said, and the aircraft caught fire and crashed.

In 1982, five boxes of remains were given to U.S. officials and a subsequent investigation by U.S. and Vietnamese officials involved excavation of the crash site, where more human remains as well as aircraft wreckage were recovered.

Last year, Defense Department scientists used forensic tools and circumstantial evidence to identify the remains, Stars and Stripes reported.

Thursday 2 May 2013

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/05/01/Vietnam-era-sailors-remains-to-be-buried-at-Arlington/UPI-17811367411820/

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20 more bodies recovered in collapsed Bangladesh building rubble

Many of the people killed in last week's collapse of an 8-story garment factory in Bangladesh already have been buried, but the death toll continues to rise.

Police say 20 bodies were recovered overnight, bringing the death toll to at least 430. And another 149 people are still missing.

Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hassan Suhwardy, the commander of the area's army garrison supervising the rescue work, dismissed reports that up to 1,000 people were missing and accusations from some relatives that authorities are hiding the bodies to keep the death toll low.

"Don't listen to such rumors," he told reporters.

Suhrawardy said Thursday that 20 bodies were recovered overnight, bringing the death toll to 430. Rescue workers believe more bodies are buried on the building's ground level, and they're using cranes and cutting machines to clear the tons of rubble.


On Wednesday, a mass Muslim funeral was held for 34 victims whose bodies were too battered or decomposed to be identified. Cemetery workers have dug several long rows of graves where scores more unidentified bodies are expected to be buried in the coming days.

Rescue workers believe more bodies are buried on the building's ground level, and they're using cranes and cutting machines to clear the tons of rubble.

Five garment factories occupied upper floors of the eight-story Rana Plaza building that collapsed April 24, a day after huge cracks appeared in the building and police ordered an evacuation. The owner of the building is accused of telling tenants it was safe despite the order.

Thursday 2 May 2013

http://www.azfamily.com/news/world/205728071.html

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Chisamba accident: Only 4 bodies identified so far

Only four bodies out of the 17 Chisamba bus accident victims have been identified.

Acting Central Province medical officer Abel Kabalo said by midday yesterday only four people had been identified out of the 17 who died in a tragic accident on Tuesday near Ibis Garden turn-off.

Residents have however continued to inspect the bodies at Kabwe General Hospital mortuary with the view of identifying the deceased.

Dr Kabalo said in an interview yesterday that he was hopeful that the remaining bodies would be identified before the end of the week.

Meanwhile, there was confusion at Kabwe General Hospital mortuary after word went round that 17 people had died in a road traffic accident involving a Kabwe minibus.

Quick action by the police saved the situation from degenerating into pandemonium.

A check on Tuesday evening at the Kabwe General Hospital found several residents busy trying to identify the bodies with others openly wailing as they could not hold their emotions.

Health personnel had a tough time to control the situation and police had to be called in to help.

The accident occurred after a Lusaka-bound Toyota Hiace minibus collided with a Volvo truck around 06:00 hours on Tuesday after a tyre burst.

Thursday 2 May 2013

http://www.zedonlineads.biz/2013/05/02/chisamba-accident-only-4-bodies-identified-so-far/

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16 die as torrential rains wreak havoc across Saudi Arabia

Torrential rains and flash floods in different provinces have left 16 dead and three missing.

The casualties include four members of a family in Baha, two people in Al-Kharj, three in Aflaj, one in Hariq and four in Taif, the Civil Defense said yesterday.

The missing are three expats in Baha.

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has directed the Civil Defense Council to launch all-out efforts to ensure the safety of people. The king also ordered departments to take steps to offer financial and material support to flood victims.

“The king has been monitoring the situation since the heavy downpours began. He is also monitoring the efforts of all related ministries and government departments to provide relief operations and undertake safety measures,” Interior Minister Prince Muhammad bin Naif, who is also chairman of the Civil Defense Council, said in a statement on Wednesday.

The king urged council members to discharge their duty to implement all emergency plans to deal with the damage caused by weather conditions. The king’s order stated that the victims should be provided with relief and assistance, including shelters to those whose homes were wrecked and whose farms were destroyed, in addition to health care and all other daily needs, the prince said.

He added that the Interior Ministry is monitoring the field operations of Civil Defense teams in all provinces, ensuring that they are working in sync with civil defense committees under provincial governors.

Lt. Col. Jaman Al-Ghamdi, spokesman of the Baha provincial Civil Defense office, said three bodies of the missing family were discovered Tuesday night and the fourth was found Wednesday morning. The jeep carrying the family was carried away by the surging waters at Wadi Al-Lihyan in the Aqiq governorate in the evening.

After being alerted about the accident, Civil Defense sent rapid-intervention and rescue teams to the area while Baha Gov. Prince Meshari bin Saud closely monitored the operations.

About 300 officers under the supervision of Deputy Director of the Baha Civil Defense Brig. Ali Al-Sawat participated in the operations. Despite the darkness and continuing drizzle, the search teams at first located a submerged Toyota jeep with the body of a 75-year old woman in the deep valley. Search parties found the body of a 52-year-old man further downstream and that of a 30-year-old woman upstream. The body of the child accompanying the family was retrieved yesterday morning, Al-Ghamdi said.

Another team is continuing to search waters and submerged bushes looking for three Yemeni workers of a road construction company in the Aqiq governorate. The pickup truck that was carrying the three was found overturned in a valley close to the Aqiq dam.

Heavy rains led to the collapse of a ten meter-high dam in Bisha in Asir Province. The dam was temporarily built by the ministry of water and electricity to protect another dam which is still under construction. The construction work is still in its early stages, the ministry said in a statement yesterday.

"The project consists of a large dam with a capacity of 68 millions square meters and is 49 meters high," the ministry said. Four villages located around the dam were evacuated. The Civil Defense said there were no casualties among civilians in the affected areas.

"Tabalah, Thnyah, Shedaiq and Subaihi villages have been evacuated as a precautionary measure," said Col. Mohammad Al-Asemi, spokesman of Civil Defense in Asir.

Thursday 2 May 2013

http://www.arabnews.com/news/450071

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India accident in Himachal Pradesh kills 10 people

even women and three children, all from Rajasthan, were killed in Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur district when their overcrowded jeep skidded off the road and fell into a 500-metre-deep gorge, police said Wednesday.

The victims, mostly labourers working in a road project, were on their way home when their Bolero jeep fell into a gorge near near Uhal village Tuesday evening, Superintendent of Police Jagat Ram told IANS.

He said seven women and three children had died. Five of the injured have been admitted to the zonal hospital in Hamirpur, some 175 km from here.

Local villagers helped police to retrieve the bodies.

Road accidents are common in India, often due to poor driving or badly maintained roads and vehicles.

Witnesses told police that the vehicle was overcrowded and the driver probably lost control while negotiating a turn.

Last month, 12 people were killed when an SUV carrying people returning from a cricket match fell into a gorge in Chamba district in the state.

India has the world's highest number of road deaths, with more than 110,000 people killed every year in accidents.

Thursday 2 May 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-22363026

http://www.indiatvnews.com/news/india/-killed-as-jeep-falls-into-himachal-gorge-22443.html

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Bangladesh: 32 unidentified bodies buried at Jurain graveyard

Thirty-two unidentified bodies retrieved from the debris of collapsed Rana Plaza were buried on Wednesday at Jurain graveyard, with the graves bearing the numbers corresponding to their DNA samples.

A century-old Islamic charity Anjuman-e-Mufidul Islam performed the last rites at the graveyard.

Executive Director of the charity Abul Kashem said they had dug 60 graves at Jurain.

Dhaka district’s Additional Magistrate Abul Fazal Mir told bdnews24.com the DNA samples of the bodies had been preserved, so that their identity could be confirmed through tests if anyone came claiming them later.

Executive Magistrate Rebeka Sultana said the DNA identity of 21 unidentified bodies kept in the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) morgue was matched on Wednesday noon. The body of a deceased, identified as a female readymade garment worker Hasina, was handed over to her relatives later.

Another body was kept at the hospital since two people had claimed it.

After the first namaz-e-janaza (funeral prayer) in front of the DMCH around 2pm, 19 unclaimed bodies were brought to the Jurain graveyard. Fourteen unclaimed bodies were brought there from the morgue of Salimullah Medical College and Hospital, also known as Mitford Hospital.

Of the 17 unidentified bodies kept at the Mitford Hospital, the identity of one female garment worker Sultana, 22, was confirmed at the last moment. Though the body was handed over to her relatives, two other bodies were kept at the morgue since they were claimed by several people.

Executive Magistrate Khadiza Begum said after the second funeral prayer of the victims at the graveyard, relatives of another female garment worker Fahima confirmed her identity. She was also buried at the graveyard after the last rites.

The process of burying the victims started at about 3pm.

Besides the locals, the relatives of those still missing since the collapse of the nine-storey commercial building Rana Plaza at Savar on Apr 24 gathered at the graveyard looking for the bodies of their loved ones.

Additional Magistrate Abul Fazal Mir said a total of 70 bodies recovered from the concrete rubbles were sent to the two hospital morgues. Of those, 35 were identified and handed over to their relatives. Three bodies were still at the hospital morgues because of several claims for them.

Meanwhile, five people injured in the country's worst-ever industrial disaster succumbed to their injuries while undergoing treatment at the DMCH, with one of them, Selim Rana of Panchagarh district, dying on Wednesday morning.

The authorities handed over the body to his brother Shahidul Islam.

Rescuers pulled out 18 more bodies from the debris of Rana Plaza in Savar as the rescue operation stepped into eighth straight day on Wednesday.

With the fresh recovery of bodies, the toll from the deadly building collapse now stands at 411, according to the Dhaka District control room, opened close to the site to provide information on the tragedy.

Wednesday 1 May 2013

http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2013/05/01/32-bodies-buried-at-jurain-graveyard

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18 years since Croatian operation “Flash”

Wednesday marks 18th anniversary of the beginning of the Croatian military operation “Flash”, in which, by the data of the Documentary-informative center “Veritas”, 283 Serbs from western Slavonia were killed, and at least 15,000 people were expelled.

Among the murdered Serbs were 57 women and 9 children. According to the data of the Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, between 83 and 100 Serbian civilians were killed, and both NGOs point out that none of the Croats was trialed for the war crimes in the operation “Flash”.

According to the data from “Human Rights Watch”, after the “Flash” 1,500 Serbs were arrested, and many of them were taken to detention camps in Varazdin, Slavonska Pozega, Nova Gradiska and Bjelovar.

Due to the anniversary of the “Flash”, there will be a memorial service in the Church of Saint Mark in Belgrade, on the May 1, at 11 o’clock. Near the temple, on the commemorative plaque, the Association of the families of the missing “Tear” will lay flowers and wreaths for the Serbian victims.

In Gradiska, in Republic Srpska, where most of the refugees from west Slavonia lives, people will toss flowers from the Bridge of salvation and wreaths in Sava river, and in the church of the Holy Virgin in the city will be memorial service.

More than 160 well known burial sites in west Slavonia are not yet exhumed, and the identification process of the dead is going slowly. The last exhumation was done in December 2012, and identification was done in the Faculty of Medicine in Zagreb, when remains of 17 Serbs were identified. The bodies dated to be from operation “Flash” and other Croatian operations in the area of west Slavonia from 1991. to 1995. In that period, tens of thousands of Serbs were expelled from west Slavonia.

Operation “Flash” lasted two days, and in that part of Slavonia, which was part of Republic Srpska Krajina (“Sector West” under the protection of UN), has entered more than 16,000 Croatian troops.

Wednesday 1 May 2015

http://inserbia.info/news/2013/04/18-years-since-croatian-operation-flash-on-may-1-2013/

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Slaughterhouse of Sotin: Mass grave found in Croatia finally solves mystery of people who were taken away in the middle of night by Serbs

Ten bodies of people taken away in the dead of night and killed during the earliest part of the Yugoslavian wars have been discovered in a mass grave near a slaughterhouse.

It is hoped the find finally solves the mystery of Sotin, a Croatian village near Vukova.

Thirteen residents of the village were killed by Serbs during the night on December 26, 1991

Croatia’s deputy war veterans minister Bojan Glavasevic said that remains of ten people, believed to belong to those taken, had been exhumed from a mass grave

It comes after three bodies were discovered elsewhere in the village last week.

Glavasevic said it was probable that the ten bodies had been moved in 1997 from the grave discovered last week.

They had been buried in a trench used for disposing of animal remains next to an abattoir, and the human remains were mixed with animal particles.

The find comes after a collaborative investigation by the Zagreb and Belgrade authorities.

After 22 years this is seen as the first indication of official cooperation between the Government of Croatia and the Serbian authorities on the issue of missing persons.

In February, an investigation was launched against several wartime Serb fighters. Authorities were investigating the killing of 16 Croatian civilians in Sotin from October 1991 until the end of the year, Balkan Insight reports.

Two former police and territorial defence officers in Sotin, Zarko Milosevic and Dragan Loncar, were arrested on war crimes charges on February 4.

The prosecutor in Belgrade told Balkan Insight: 'Milosevic and Loncar, together with other members of the police and territorial defence forces, arrested more than ten civilians and detained them at the police station.

'On December 26, 1991, they put them in an army truck and took them to an unknown location and killed them with automatic weapons.'

During the war, 64 people in total were killed in the small village, which lies east of Vukovar.

Vukovar, dubbed 'Croatia's Stalingrad' because of the devastation wrought on it in the attack, fell to the Yugoslav Army and Serb fighters in November 1991 after a devastating siege. Prisoners of war sought refuge in a hospital.

When the city fell, Serbian troops seized the prisoners. At least 200 were taken to a pig farm in Ovcara two miles away and beaten, tortured and then killed. Their bodies were also found in mass graves.

This is the fifth case that Serbia’s war crime prosecutor has launched over alleged war crimes around Vukovar.

The previous four cases related to crimes committed at the Ovcara farm.

Serbian courts have so far found 15 people guilty of war crimes in Vukovar and sentenced them to a total of 207 years in prison.

The Yugoslav Army and Serbian paramilitary units besieged Vukovar for three months in 1991.

It followed Croatia’s declaration of independence from Yugoslavia, and thousands of non-Serbs were expelled when the town was captured.

Wednesday 1 May 2013

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2317590/Slaughterhouse-Sotin-Mass-grave-Croatia-finally-solves-mystery-people-taken-away-middle-night-Serbs.html

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Libya: IDing War Victims

For most of 2011, Libya was in the midst of a bloody civil war. The conflict ended that October after the murder of longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi. Now, as many as tens of thousands of citizens are missing. Mass graves containing dozens or even hundreds of bodies have already been unearthed, and many missing people are yet to be found.

“Exhuming the mass graves and collecting the samples from the unknown bodies will depend on the reports [that] inform us [about] the place of these graves, because the previous regime tried to hide the crimes,” says forensic geneticist Esam Zreg, director of the Technical Department of Missing Persons in Libya’s Ministry for the Affairs of the Families of the Martyrs & Missing (MAFMM). “Sometimes [Gaddafi loyalists would] execute people and bury them in secret places.”

In an attempt to bring closure to the tens of thousands of grieving families in the country, Zreg and collaborators at MAFMM, founded in December 2011 by the National Transitional Council of Libya, are launching a massive sampling and sequencing effort. A DNA lab is currently under construction in Zreg’s building in Tripoli, that will house state-of-the-art sequencing equipment. Libyan scientists will travel to various countries for training in modern DNA forensics techniques, then return home to process hundreds of thousands of tissue samples from unidentified human remains and family members of the missing over the next decade.

Zreg and his colleagues consulted with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Commission on Missing Persons, along with other support organizations, and came up with a two-part plan of action. One part of the mission is to collect blood samples from three to five different relatives for each missing person in order to build a database for identifying the missing. The second half is to extract and sequence DNA from human remains that are found, then scan the newly built database for matches.

“It’s a huge project,” says Kerstin Montelius, a geneticist at the National Board of Forensic Medicine in Sweden, who is not involved in the effort. “I do think it will take several years to be able to go through all the remains . . . but I think it’s doable.”

Zreg’s team received $2.5 million in funding from a Spain-based oil company called Repsol, and in January announced its partnership with global biotechnology tools company Life Technologies and the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC), which in 2011 received a $3.5 million grant from Applied Biosciences (now part of Life Technologies) to establish a center to help countries throughout the world launch their own DNA databases. As the Libyan lab nears completion, Zreg and three other researchers will travel to Texas to train with Arthur Eisenberg, a veritable pioneer in DNA forensics and director of the UNTHSC Center for Human Identification. Eisenberg and his colleagues have put together a 2-week program to provide the Libyan researchers with training in “all of the techniques and methodologies to clean the skeletal remains, cut the remains to extract DNA, and then to amplify the DNA to detect the different genetic profiles,” Eisenberg says.

The UNTHSC group will also advise Zreg and the others on some of the common challenges of DNA forensics work. For example, “the samples for the human remains are old,” says UNTHSC forensic geneticist Jianye Ge, who will help train the Libya scientists, “so it may not be easy to get good results” from them. To increase the likelihood of making a high-confidence identification, “I would recommend the Libyan guys sequence the mitochondrial DNA, especially for the bones,” he says. “For each cell we have, we only have one copy of nuclear DNA, but for the mitochondrial DNA, one cell has several hundreds of copies.”

For now, Zreg and his teams are busy sampling living and deceased Libyans to build up a bank of samples ready to be processed as soon as the lab is complete. Zreg’s teams began sampling family members of the missing in March 2012, and by December had more than 10,000 samples banked. They hope to have completed this part of the mission by the end of 2013.

The teams have also begun the collection of samples from the deceased, having exhumed more than 400 bodies to date. Though there is no way to know for sure how many bodies remain to be found, “we have an expectation that there will be around 20,000 bodies,” says Zreg, who lost a close friend during the national upheaval. “We expect a gap of time, like 10 years, for this file to be solved. . . . We have to be patient for this, and it will not be easy.”

Wednesday 1 May 2013

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/35246/title/IDing-War-Victims/

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16 people feared dead in Zambia's road accident

At least 16 people are feared dead in central Zambia's Chibombo district following a terrible accident involving a minibus driver and a truck, police told Xinhua on Tuesday.

The police said the minibus was coming from Kabwe town in central Zambia to Lusaka, the capital of the southern African country, when the driver lost control and collided with an oncoming truck before overturning.

The accident happened today around 06:30 hours along the Great North road when the driver of the bus lost control after a rear tyre burst and went on to hit into an on-coming truck and overturned.

The driver of the Volvo truck belonging to SABOC transport of Zimbabwe Reg. No. AAF 8926 and trailer No. 6767T Nathan Kambauwa aged 40 of Harare escaped unhurt.

The bodies of the deceased are lying in Liteta hospital mortuary while the injured are admitted in the University Teaching Hospital.

The bus was carrying 20 passengers, of whom 16 people died on the spot and the four others were seriously injured, according to witnesses.

The driver of the minibus only identified as Costa is among the dead.

The other deceased persons comprising of eight males and eight females have not yet been identified.

The injured have been evacuated to the University Teaching Hospital, the country's largest referral hospital in Lusaka. Zambia Police Deputy Spokesperson Charity Munganga said, "I can confirm that we have received reports of an accident involving a minibus and a truck but details will be availed to you later," she said.

Police Spokesperson comfirmed the tragedy in a statement and appealed to members of the public whose relatives were travelling from Kabwe to Lusaka this morning using the involved minibus to help with the identification of the bodies.

The accident occurred on the same spot where 54 people traveling in a big bus perished recently in a collision with a truck. Road crashes are common in Zambia and are mainly caused by careless driving and the poor state of roads.

Wednesday 1 May 2013

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.asp?id=139648

http://www.lusakatimes.com/2013/04/30/another-chibombo-accident-claims-16-lives-on-the-spot/

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Mexico: 6 killed in government plane crash, including police

Six people who were traveling in a small plane belonging to the Mexican Attorney General’s Office died Tuesday when it crashed in the northern state of Zacatecas.

The crash in Zacatecas state occurred a day after the authorities onboard had carried out an arrest warrant against several suspected members of the Zetas cartel, Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said in a statement.

After the suspects were jailed, the three agents took a flight bound for Mexico City late Monday but their plane returned to the airport due to "mechanical failures," Murillo Karam said. They waited until the next day to take their fateful flight.

“Regrettably the occupants died,” a spokesman for the AG’s office confirmed to Efe, adding that at present the identities of the victims and the cause of the accident are not known.

The plane went down shortly before noon in the municipality of Morelos after taking off from the town of Calera en route to Mexico City.

The Beechcraft King Air 300 hit the ground 10 minutes after taking off, and the cause of the crash is under investigation, Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said in a statement.

Evidently, the plane lost altitude, ultimately hitting the ground and bursting into flame in the community known as Noria de los Gringos, Milenio Television reported.

The state attorney general of Zacatecas, Arturo Nahle, confirmed the six deaths via Twitter and said that the aircraft was the same one on which federal Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam traveled to the state last month.

Two federal police agents and an agent working for the organized crime investigation branch of the attorney general's office were among the casualties. The plane's pilot, co-pilot and a mechanic also were killed.

Wednesday 1 May 2013

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/30/world/americas/mexico-plane-crash/

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Armageddon survival packs aid Chinese family after quake

A man from Sichuan Province recently made Chinese headlines for using several “bug-out backpacks” following the April 20 earthquake in Ya’an.

Li Yonggang, a 39-year-old freelance worker from Tianquan County, was interviewed by Southern Metropolis Daily.

After the magnitude-7 quake hit, Li ran out of the house wearing only his underwear, according to the report. He went back inside to get dressed, and brought out a large pack weighing nearly 55 pounds. He had prepared another four bugout bags for everyone in his family, except his baby son–his wife, mother, and two daughters each had their own pack.

Li’s bag was the biggest; the smallest belonged to his 6-year-old daughter, and only weighed 11 pounds. The packs contained tents, sleeping bags, clothes, food, a compass, gloves, headlamps, and even surgical suture kit, the Daily reported.

Li took the big backpack to his father-in-law’s home, and set up three tents.

“I’m completely self-sufficient. I don’t burden anyone,” Li told Southern Metropolis Daily.

Li said that his family did not have to worry about lack of food, as the packs contained dry crackers, army-style cans, and tablets to purify water. He had also hidden 220 pounds of vacuum-packed rice in his house. Six days after the quake, he still had not asked local authorities for any food supplies.

Li’s parents were born in the 1940’s in China and experienced horrifying famine in the years 1959-1961. “Many people died of starvation during the three-years of famine. At least two relatives told me how that they had to eat human flesh from dead bodies to survive the famine,” he told the Daily.

After Li experienced the Wenchuan earthquake five years ago, he was haunted by his parent’s experiences and determined to try to protect his family. Li began learning about survival.

He purchased the necessary supplies, prepared the five backpacks, and rented three cabins in the countryside for his children to use as survival practice sites.

After the latest earthquake, Li told the Daily that he learned a few lessons. “I had too many cans. In case of a real emergency, we wouldn’t be able to walk far with that much baggage.”

He added that he hoped he would never have to use the backpacks again.

Wednesday 1 May 2013

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/32949-armageddon-survival-packs-aid-chinese-family-after-quake/

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