‘A rollercoaster that never ends’ — new hope for Pike River mine victims’ families although others do not welcome plan

A Geraldine couple who lost their son in the Pike River coalmine disaster want his remains left where they are, despite the Government announcing yesterday it will fund a plan to re-enter and explore the mine's main tunnel.

Rod and Christine Holling said they do not know what will be achieved by the attempted retrieval and would prefer to leave the remains of their son, Richard, in the mine.

The 41-year-old always wanted his ashes scattered over the Paparoa Ranges and his parents say though he is under them, not on top, he is still surrounded by the beauty of the West Coast he loved.

"I don't know if there is anything to recover," Mr Holling said.

The mine has been subject to explosions, fires and a flood.

"We could be proved totally wrong, then we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

"It will be up to [Richard's] wife what to do as next of kin, not us," he said.

He hoped for the other affected families' sakes that something will be found.

"We know where Richard is and that has given us closure and that's the reason for our preference," he said.

Though they are sure of what they want for their own son, the couple said they would never stand in the way of other families who needed to find closure in a different way.

Holling thinks a lot of people have been disappointed no-one has been prosecuted over the 29 deaths and puts down any silence over prior knowledge of safety issues to greed.

His main fear now is something may go wrong during the recovery.

And his hope is that it "never ever happens again to anyone else under any circumstances".

Mrs Holling said whatever the result of the re-entry is will not change the outcome.

She will never get her son back, "no matter what".

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

One shot at recovery is all Bernie Monk ever wanted.

The usually resolute spokesman for bereaved Pike River coalmine families struggled to contain his emotions yesterday after long-awaited news the Government would fund a $7.2 million tunnel re-entry.

After nearly three years of pleading for help, families of 29 men killed were told in Greymouth that Cabinet had given the project the green light.

"We mightn't get the results in a few months time but at least we've had a shot and that's all I asked is one go at going down the mine, and we're going to get it," Monk said.

No rescuers have ventured further than 300 metres into the mine's 2.3 kilometre tunnel since the November 2010 disaster.

Monk said it was an intense relief to have the Government's backing after so many blows.

"There's been a lot of tears shed over these meetings. People don't realise in New Zealand the tears that have been lost by a lot of the families. To see the smiles on their faces brings a tear to my eyes really."

There was a remote possibility some men's bodies could be found in the far end of the tunnel, perishing while fleeing the blast.

Tunnel recovery was an essential step in determining whether a body recovery bid into the mine's main working area could occur, he said.

Pike widow Anna Osborne, whose husband Milton Osborne was killed in the explosion, said families had expected Cabinet's approval because so much work had been done on the tunnel re-entry plan.

"It's actually quite exciting now to know that it's actually been given the tick to go ahead."

While the plan did not include re-entering the main body of the mine, where most, if not all of the men's bodies remained, it did not rule it out either.

"At this stage, it's just re-entering the drift but we've got to take it as a positive and something to smile about, finally," Osborne said.

"I'm trying to not get too excited because we've been kicked in the guts a few times but fingers crossed this time and see how it goes."

However, re-entering the mine's main area for body recovery remained important for many families, she said.

"None of us have had closure yet and for the majority of families, closure is what we need to finally put it to rest and put it behind us."

Rowdy Durbridge, father of Daniel Herk, 36, who was killed in the blast, said the news of the Government's support had come three years too late "but now at least we're starting today".

"No-one is doing cartwheels but it's one of the most positive meetings we've had."

Monk, whose son Michael, 23, died in the underground West Coast coalmine, had worked tirelessly to push for a re-entry into the mine's tunnel after efforts stalled about two years ago.

In July 2011, Mines Rescue Trust finished building a temporary seal along the tunnel and erected double steel doors at the mine's entrance to control gases.

At the time, they walked 300m along the tunnel and pinned a poignant note to the dead miners telling them they would return to get them out.

Last November, three international mining experts came to the West Coast to help families to develop a re-entry plan.

At that time, Monk collared Prime Minister John Key at a meeting and told him he would not rest until at least the tunnel had been re-entered.

"I told him we would be still talking about it in 10 years and that we weren't going to go away."

It was a turning point, with Key agreeing with Monk to push for experts from all sides to meet and work on a re-entry plan, pledging $10 million towards it as long as it was a safe, technically feasible and financially credible plan.

The mine's former receiver, John Fisk, of PWC, said yesterday the tunnel re-entry was put on hold once it began negotiating the mine's sale to Solid Energy.

"That was part of the negotiations that Solid Energy would be going to take over the tunnel re-entry plans."

It signed a conditional sale and purchase agreement with the state-owned enterprise in March last year.

Solid Energy's project manager for the tunnel re-entry, Mark Pizey, said work would start on re-entering the tunnel within the next two months and would take about six months to complete.

However, it was weather dependent because the mine's remote location meant any materials needed would be brought in by helicopter.

He said trials were held in Australia two months ago to test the tunnel sealant, a concrete-like product called Rocsil, that would be used at Pike River.

New Zealand's chief mines inspector, Tony Forster, said the high hazards unit approved the plan. A lot of work had gone into ensuring the re-entry would be safe and avoided exposing people to unnecessary risk.

"We believe this is the safest plan that is possible to put together. Nothing is absolutely completely safe but this is as safe as it's going to get because this will be a fresh air re-entry of this tunnel. It's a practicable plan, it's a reasonable plan and I believe it's a safe plan."

The father of New Zealand mine blast victim Malcolm Campbell says his family are preparing for the “long haul” after a new possibility emerged that the bodies of the tragic miners could be recovered.

Malcolm, 25, from St Andrews, and Pete Rodger, 40, from Perth, died when a series of underground explosions ripped through the Pike River coal mine in November 2010.

Mr Campbell, who took part in a tele-conference with the New Zealand authorities on Monday night, told The Courier the plan to go back into the drift had been approved and engineers were confident they would get as far as the rockfall.

But he said this could take from six months to a year and it will be treated as a crime scene pending further potential criminal prosecutions against the mine’s owners and management.

He added: “It’s a dilemma for the family because we said our farewells to Malcolm and accepted that he’d be staying in there.

“But the experts don’t want the boys to be left in there because it’s a hellhole. It’s been a rollercoaster that never ends for my wife and I, and here it is again. But all we’ve ever asked is that they try their best.”

ENTRY PLAN A WIN FOR FAMILIES

Good news at last.

The Government announced yesterday it would stump up with the $7.2 million needed for Solid Energy's plan to re-enter Pike River coalmine's tunnel.

It will start within the next two months and will take about six months to complete.

By then, the third anniversary will have passed of the explosion that killed 29 men in the underground West Coast coalmine on November 19, 2010.

It is hard not to concur with family sentiments that the Government should have opened its coffers sooner.

The devastating series of blasts not only took 29 lives but also exploded New Zealand's international reputation as a developed mining country.

But even the 10-week royal commission into the disaster was unable to find what definitely caused the fatal blast because nobody had ventured further than 300 metres into the mine to work that out.

The Government's belated offer is largely thanks to the determination of one grieving father - Bernie Monk of Paroa.

The father-of-three lost his son Michael, 23, in the blast and has dedicated his life to getting him and his 28 colleagues out of the mine.

Other families agree he has galvanised their efforts.

Monk's determination has resulted in him being sent hate mail by people critical of his desire to see the men laid to rest in dignity and where their families choose.

He admits he has begged the Government for years to step in to help but wants to focus on the positives of yesterday's announcement.

Money has always been a problem at Pike.

When the mine first exploded that disastrous day in 2010, its owner, Pike River Coal, was in a precarious financial situation.

Receivers took over within weeks of the blasts but unstable gas levels prevented rescue attempts.

In the blasts' aftermath, Prime Minister John Key indicated the Government would fund efforts to get the men out but slowly his words faded.

Instead, the receivers paid for Mines Rescue Trust personnel to re-enter the tunnel in June 2011, when they built a temporary seal 170m along the tunnel and erec-ted double steel doors at its entrance.

At the time, they walked 300m along the tunnel, the furthest rescuers had reached to date.

While work continued on a plan to reclaim the tunnel, which was almost identical to that approved this week, negotiations to sell the mine to Solid Energy stalled that work early last year.

After the sale, the state-owned enterprise swiftly made it clear to Pike families that body recovery was virtually impossible because it was too dangerous.

Within months, its financial downfall made it even less likely it could afford to re-enter Pike's tunnel.

Last November, Monk organised three international mining experts to come to New Zealand to help Pike families develop a re-entry plan.

It proved a vital turning point.

He had a stern word with Prime Minister John Key about that time, which seemed to do the trick.

Soon afterwards, Key pledged $10m to fund a safe re-entry plan and backed Monk's call for experts from both sides to join forces to work on it.

An enormous amount of work had gone on behind the scenes by Solid Energy, government officials and international mining experts to reach the point where a plan could be handed to the Government for funding.

Some families believe their loved ones' bodies will be found in the tunnel.

Ultimately, the mine tunnel may hold secrets that will solve one of the most tragic mysteries this country has experienced.

PIKE RIVER TIMELINE

May 23, 2011: Families meet police, Pike River receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Mines Rescue in Christchurch to discuss a mission to recover the bodies. A feasibility study is to be done.

June 22, 2011: Prime Minister John Key hints during a visit to Australia that the sale of the mine will be conditional on an agreement to recover the bodies.

September 22, 2011: Pike River families meet Key in Greymouth to be told that a licence would be withheld when the mine was sold unless a plan had been agreed to recover the bodies.

July 18, 2012: Solid Energy acquires the assets of Pike River Coal for $7.5 million.

October 9, 2012: Key meets Bernie Monk in Greymouth and agrees to reconsider providing Government help to the recovery of the bodies.

November 5, 2012: Key apologises to Pike River families upon the release of the findings of the Royal Commission into the disaster.

December 14, 2012: Key apologises to the Pike River families during a meeting in Greymouth.

February 27, 2013: Solid Energy and the Pike River families table a report of mining and safety experts to a working group on the recovery of the bodies in Christchurch.

Wednesday 4 September 2013

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/west-coast/9124570/Couple-want-son-to-stay-in-mine

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/scotland/a-rollercoaster-that-never-ends-new-hope-for-pike-river-mine-victims-families-1.127254

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'Deportees,' 28 anonymous Mexican farmworkers killed in 1948 plane crash, finally named at memorial

A fiery plane crash here decades ago that killed 32 people, most of them unidentified Mexican farmworkers, inspired a protest song by Woody Guthrie that has been performed by Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, among others. Yet here in the heart of the Central Valley, one of the most productive agricultural counties in the country, the story of that crash had been largely forgotten.

But two years of painstaking detective work by a writer who is a descendant of farmworkers has answered the question posed in Mr. Guthrie’s song, “Deportee.” The victims were honored this week by more than 600 people gathered here at Holy Cross Cemetery for an elaborate memorial service and the unveiling of a large headstone that lists each victim.

On Jan. 28, 1948, a plane chartered by federal immigration officials left Oakland, Calif., carrying two pilots, a flight attendant, an immigration guard and 28 Mexican farmworkers. Some were in the United States legally as part of the federal Braceros guest-worker program; others had crossed the border without documents. All 28 were being returned to Mexico.

Eighty miles southwest of Fresno, road workers reported hearing what sounded like an explosion, only to look up and see the left wing shear off the Douglas DC-3 passing high above them. Nearly a dozen bodies were seen falling from a hole in the fuselage before the plane burst into flames and plummeted into a wooded canyon.

Everyone aboard was killed. The bodies of the four crew members were shipped to family members, but the remains of the 28 Mexicans were buried in a mass grave here, at the edge of the cemetery.

Although acres of headstones bear Spanish surnames, those crash victims remained unidentified. Near the mass grave, a diminutive stone read only: “28 Mexican Citizens Who Died In An Airplane Accident Near Coalinga California On Jan. 28, 1948 R.I.P.”

The anonymity inspired Woody Guthrie's poem "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)":

The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon,
A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills,
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says, "They were just deportees."

Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;
You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane,
All they will call you will be "deportees."

In the case of “Deportee,” that person was Tim Z. Hernandez, 39, a writer and a son and grandson of Mexican farmworkers. In 2010, Mr. Hernandez came across several newspaper articles about the crash at a Fresno library while he was doing research for a novel.

“When I saw the newspaper stories, Woody Guthrie’s lyrics became real to me,” he said. “I thought, someone somewhere must have those names.”

Together with Carlos Rascon, the cemeteries director for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno, Mr. Hernandez dug through records at the Fresno County recorder’s office and coverage of the crash from a local Spanish-language newspaper. Where he could, Mr. Hernandez filled in information and double-checked name spellings by talking with surviving family members.

At the ceremony on Monday, farm workers stood side by side with folk music fans as a mariachi band played, the bishop of Fresno prayed, incense burned and more than a dozen Aztec dancers performed.

Caritina Paredes Murillo was 11 when news of her father’s death in a plane wreck reached her family in Guanajuato State in central Mexico. For days, everyone in her house wept. But after 65 years, her memories of her father feel more like impressions now: the way he left for long stretches to work, and the sound of his voice singing ballads to her mother when he returned home.

“In my heart I feel happy and sad at the same time,” said Ms. Paredes, 77, who traveled from Mexico to attend the ceremony. “It feels like they were all buried for the first time today.”

During the first of two renditions of “Deportee” on Monday, musicians read the victims’ names as the crowd chanted in Spanish, “descansa en paz,” rest in peace.

Berenice Guzman, a history teacher at Dinuba High School in nearby Dinuba, Calif., had never heard of the plane wreck, or the Woody Guthrie song, until this year. Captivated, she told her students the story. They organized a bake sale to help raise $14,000 for the headstone and memorial service.

“They connected right away because many of their parents are farm workers from Mexico,” Ms. Guzman said at the ceremony. “This is an agricultural community. For many of us here, the people in that crash could have been family.”

Wednesday 4 September 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/04/us/california-memorial-names-crashs-forgotten-victims.html?_r=0

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Cebu ferry disaster: 57 bodies claimed

A total of 57 bodies of fatalities in the sinking of MV St. Thomas Aquinas have already been released to their families while 47 bodies remained unidentified as of yesterday, a funeral parlor staff said.

Bong Ebo of the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes said the 57 bodies that have been identified were already released to the claimants after proper documentation while the process of identifying 47 bodies continues nearly three weeks after the sinking of MV St. Thomas Aquinas.

The police earlier said they will have to conduct DNA testing to identify some of the fatalities, a process that could take up to a year.

Based on Cebu Coast Guard records, 29 persons remained missing. These include 23 passengers and six crew of the ship.

A total of 733 people (629 passengers and 104 crew) were rescued, while 108 persons (102 passengers and six crew) were confirmed dead.

Wednesday 4 September 2013

http://www.tempo.com.ph/2013/09/57-bodies-claimed/

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Traumatic past haunts Bosnian Croat village

A marble monument dominates the small hill overlooking Krizancevo Selo, a Croat village near the town of Vitez in central Bosnia.

The memorial bears the names of more than 100 villagers – both soldiers and civilians – killed during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, some of them victims of crimes that have yet to be prosecuted.

Not far away from the site, the trenches which separated the warring sides – the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) and the Bosnian government army – are still visible, a reminder of just how close the village was to the front line.

About four kilometres away from Krizancevo Selo lies the Bosniak village of Ahmici, where on April 16, 1993, over 100 people including women, children and elderly people, were killed by HVO soldiers. Houses in the village were torched and the local mosque was destroyed.

Eight months later, the Bosnian government army attacked the village of Krizancevo Selo.

Drago Plavcic, a grey-haired man in his seventies, recounts the events of that day.

“When the front line was broken through on December 22, 1993, around 30 people in this village were killed. Their corpses were right here,” Plavcic said, pointing to a meadow near the memorial. “It was the bloodiest day for the village. The sad thing is that no one has yet been held responsible for this crime.”

Plavcic’s house was among those destroyed in the assault.

“I couldn’t extinguish the fire, I couldn’t do anything. Everything I owned disappeared before my eyes that day,” Plavcic said.

According to Plavcic, 30 villagers were taken away as captives by the HVO. After a month, he said, their bodies were exchanged for those of Bosnian government soldiers killed while fighting the HVO in the area around Vitez.

“They [villagers] were beaten and I don’t know what else. They were killed two days before the exchange. They arrived here in bags and we placed them in the school so that they could be identified,” Plavcic said.

Plavcic lost three children during the war in Bosnia, and their names are among those inscribed on the Krizancevo Selo memorial.

One of his sons, Blaz, died aged 22 while serving in the HVO near Mostar in late 1992, while another, Marinko, also an HVO soldier, was killed in Vitez in 1993, aged 32. Plavcic’s daughter Ivanka, 21, died in a grenade attack on Krizancevo Selo in 1993.

Plavcic says he has forgiven both those who attacked the village and those who caused his children’s deaths.

“My house was set on fire by somebody’s hand, but I forgive him that. I also forgive those who killed my children. Jesus forgave, and I forgive, too,” he said.

Before the war, the wider Vitez municipality was inhabited by an almost equal percentage of Croats and Bosniaks. From January 1993, when hostilities began between the Bosnian government army and the HVO, local Bosniaks and Croats turned against each other.

The Bosniak-Croat conflict ended with a peace agreement signed in Washington in March 1994, while the wider Bosnian war ended only with the Dayton agreement signed in December 1995.

Since then, many people have returned to the Vitez municipality, including the surviving villagers of Krizancevo Selo. Most have repaired their homes or build new ones and found work in nearby Vitez, today a predominantly Croat town.

Relations between Bosniaks and Croats in the area remain difficult, though. Their children may attend the same schools, but they go in through separate entrances. Some sports clubs and cultural associations are divided by ethnicity, and two volunteer firefighter units are on call – one Croat and one Bosniak.

Plavcic recounted how much better relations were before the war.

“I still often mention [Yugoslav leader Josip] Tito and Yugoslavia. It was such a great country, far better than what we have now…. But I wouldn’t leave my home. I won’t do that. Bosnia belongs to all of us,” he said.

Standing in front of the memorial above Krizancevo Selo, where the names of his three children are written one after the other, Plavcic talks with sadness about the crimes committed in neighbouring Ahmici.

“When I heard what happened in Ahmici, I thought about it every day. Some of my friends were killed there. We went to school together, we played football together – we were all like brothers. It was very hard for me,” he said.

The Ahmici killings resulted in seven former HVO members being sentenced either at the Hague tribunal or at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to a total of 100 years in prison.

No one has been prosecuted for the deaths of dozens of villagers in Krizancevo Selo, although the special department for war crimes of the Prosecutor’s Office in Bosnia is currently investigating a number of suspects.

Every year, on April 16 and December 22 – the anniversaries of the killings in Ahmici and Krizancevo Selo, respectively – families of the dead and government representatives attend memorial ceremonies in the two villages.

In April 2010, Croatian president Ivo Josipovic, together with Muslim and Catholic clerics, visited both sites and paid his respects to the victims, saying that such crimes must never happen again.

The residents of Ahmici and Krizancevo Selo have never held a joint commemoration.

Pavic says that although he has forgiven those who killed his children and destroyed his property, he has not yet gathered the strength to visit Ahmici.

“Whoever has the strength, willpower and love to pay respect to the victims in both villages is a good person and must be respected,” he said.

Aida Mia Alic is an IWPR-trained reporter in Sarajevo.

Wednesday 4 September 2013

http://groundreport.com/traumatic-past-haunts-bosnian-croat-village/

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Historians research Japanese Pearl Harbor dead

Historians hope to solve one of the remaining mysteries of the Pearl Harbor attack and discover what happened to 29 Japanese airmen and four sailors missing in action.

Most are believed to have been lost at sea around Hawaii and in Pearl Harbor. But four aircrew members may still lie buried in unmarked graves in Ewa Beach and in the hills above Aiea.

"For a long time, we didn't even know the names (of the Japanese losses)," said Daniel Martinez, chief historian for the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument. "And I can be honest with you, at a given point in our earlier history, we didn't care, because of the nature of the attack."

Now, Japan is one of the United States' strongest allies and many Americans who survived the bombing have since reconciled with the Japanese attackers.

Martinez says there's a proposal to display the names in an exhibit at the USS Arizona Memorial visitor's center. He said this "will bring total closure to the casualty list that actually exists right here on our grounds."

Martinez said the study will include how some of the enemy Japanese forces were initially buried at Oahu cemeteries and later repatriated.

"I'm just wondering, when those aviators were buried there, what was the feeling in the city about that?" he said

Fifty-four Japanese aviators are believed to have died in or near Hawaii during the Sunday morning attack. A 55th fatality was returned to the carrier Akagi.

Nine sailors who served on five midget submarines are also believed to have died.

Pearl Harbor historian David Aiken said 25 airmen and three submariners were buried at Oahu Cemetery in Nuuanu, Wahiawa cemetery and the Schofield Barracks post cemetery. After the war, the bodies were disinterred and repatriated to Japan, historians say.

Aiken said that leaves 29 airmen unrecovered on or near Hawaii.

Of the nine submariners, the bodies of only three have been found. Two bodies are likely aboard a midget sub found south of Oahu in 2002 by the Hawaii Undersea Research Lab.

Wednesday 4 September 2013

http://www.kansas.com/2013/09/03/2979890/historians-research-japanese-pearl.html

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Uttarakhand missing declared dead

Two and a half months after the worst-ever deluge in Uttarakhand, thousands of people who went missing have now beeen officially declared dead. So far, they were only feared to have died since their bodies were untraced despite rescue operations.

The Uttarakhand government on Monday decided to officially declare thousands of missing persons dead, Additional Secretary and Director Information Meenakshi Sundaram told Deccan Herald on Tuesday.

Sundaram said the process to issue death certificates would begin after necessary documents were provided by the next of kin of the deceased. The death certificates would only be issued for people whose names have been included in the missing persons list. “The Centre has accorded special permission for this,” Sundaram added.

Less than 600 bodies have been recovered, but there are an estimated 6,054 people who have died in the floods. Of these, 5,474 are untraceable. The decision state’s comes after rounds of deliberations with the Centre.

The decision was circulated by the state government only after the Centre accorded its approval to declare the missing persons as dead.

The decision paves way for award of compensation announced by the Centre and various state governments. It also attempts to clears all legal hurdles on issues relating to inheritance of movable and immovable property by legal heirs even in cases where the person died intestate.

Life insurance claims, too, can only be addressed provided there are valid death certificates. Sources said a person missing under “normal” circumstances could only be declared dead after a mandatory period of seven years.

However, in this case, the permission was granted as a special case given the magnitude of the tragedy. The exception to the rule was also made in the case of Tamil Nadu when scores of people lost their lives in the tsunami.

Until recently, the Uttarakhand government had been maintaining that these untraced people could only be “feared as dead” since the bodies had not been recovered.

In the absence of a death certificate, it was not possible to provide the Centre’s compensation of Rs 3 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased. The number of dead could rise once all the debris is cleared in Kedarnath, which was the epicentre of the disaster.

Tuesday 3 September 2013

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/355178/uttarakhand-missing-declared-dead.html

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Flood death toll in State of Bihar rises to 160

Around 5.5 million people have been affected due to floods in 20 districts of Bihar, with the death toll going up to 160, official figures showed.

With the flood situation remaining critical, thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes and struggle for survival under the open skies with inadequate relief at hand, officials said.

"After heavy rains lashed several part of the state Monday, the flood situation worsened and more areas have been inundated," said an official of the state disaster management department.

With all major rivers, including the Ganga, Kosi, Gandak, Budhi Gandak, Sone and Bagmati, flowing above the danger mark, there is a threat of more villages being inundated.

State Water Resources Development Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary, however, said all river embankments were safe and there was no need to panic.

Vipin Kumar Rai, officer on special duty at the disaster management department, said the authorities have set up relief camps for flood-affected people in most areas.

Till date, 2.9 lakh quintals of foodgrain have been distributed among the flood victims. Besides, 50,550 polythene sheets have been distributed and 2,799 boats pressed into service for ferrying the affected people from one place to another, he said.

Floodwaters have already entered hundreds of villages and people forced to flee their homes, reviving fears of a repetition of the 2008 devastation.

In 2008, over three million people were rendered homeless in the state when the Kosi river breached its bank upstream in Nepal and changed course. It was said to be the worst floods in the state in the last 50 years.

The rising Ganga recently broke a decades-old record as it wreaked havoc in nearly a dozen districts, including Patna, Saran, Bhojpur, Bhagalpur, Buxar, Katihar, Vaishali and Begusarai.

"Water entered these villages after the levels rose in all the major rivers. Most of the flood victims have taken shelter on high roads, embankments, schools and government buildings and in makeshift tents," said another official of the department.

Officials said standing crops, including bananas, worth crores of rupees have been destroyed and road communication at several places has snapped.

"Rising rivers have badly hit paddy cultivation and destroyed standing banana and maize crops in Vaishali, Khagaria, Bhagalpur and other districts," he said.

Tuesday 3 September 2019

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Patna/Over-five-million-hit-in-Bihar-floods-toll-160/Article1-1116836.aspx

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Unhealed from Peru's bloody conflict are legion a decade after truth commission's report

For almost a quarter century, they have scoured the mountains of Peru's poorest region in search of the son hauled away by soldiers in the middle of the night. During their futile search, the couple found 70 clandestine burial sites and unearthed three dozen bodies.

After Javier was taken along with two school chums, they wrote the local military commander, who denied knowing anything. They wrote the Roman Catholic Church, the Congress and three successive presidents. But none answered Alejandro Crispin and his wife, Alicia.

"How is it possible that no one is in jail for 'disappearing' one's child?" asked Crispin, who at 69 is equal parts exhausted, bewildered and indignant. "How is it possible that the killers of innocents remain free?"

The couple's odyssey lays bare Peru's failure to address the unhealed wounds of thousands of families, most of them poor, Quechua-speaking peasants, who were the principal victims of the country's 1980-2000 conflict between Maoist Shining Path guerrillas and the government.

About 70,000 people died, just over half slain by rebels and over a third by security forces, according to estimates by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission of respected academics.

But 10 years after the commission issued its recommendations, few have been heeded: No state agency exists dedicated to finding and cataloging the bodies of the estimated 15,000 people forcibly disappeared in the conflict. Researchers blame most of the disappearances on security forces.

Few human rights abusers have been prosecuted. And fewer than two in five of the 78,000 relatives of people killed who applied for reparations received them, getting less than $4,000 each.

"As a nation, (Peru) has failed miserably to exhibit even the most basic empathy for those fellow citizens," said Eduardo Gonzalez, director of the Truth and Memory program at the International Center for Transitional Justice, a New York-based non-profit that helps war-wracked countries recover.

Argentina and Chile have advanced far further in punishing perpetrators of war crimes, and even Colombia, which is still at war, has done more to provide reparations, he said.

Then-President Alejandro Toledo apologized to all victims of political violence when the commission released its report in 2003. But no other public or social institution has acknowledged errors, said the man who led the commission, former Catholic University president Salomon Lerner.

"It is a task still to be done," he told The Associated Press.

On the anniversary of the report's release, Aug. 28, hundreds marched in Lima in commemoration of the conflict's victims. Absent and silent were the country's political and military leaders.

To date, the bodies of 2,478 of the disappeared have been recovered.

Javier Crispin's is not among them.

He was 18 when soldiers stormed into the house in Huancavelica where he and two friends were working on a class report and hauled them away — presumably suspecting they were rebels, his father said. The city lies in Peru's poorest state and borders Ayacucho, where the insurgency was born and where more than 40 per cent of deaths and disappearances occurred.

Several dozen Huancavelica residents said soldiers would stop youths on the street, order them to empty their backpacks to look for weapons — and take some away.

"The soldiers would pass through the streets shouting, 'Damn you, you sons of bitches, we can do whatever we want with you,'" said Giovana Cueva, whose brother Alfredo Ayuque was seized with Javier.

Unlike Guatemala, which received U.N. assistance to cope with its violent recent past, Peru has done little to catalogue abuses and identify the dead.

Investigators from the prosecutor's office, aided by the International Committee of the Red Cross, were often spurred into action by Alejandro Crispin's findings.

"All these years I've had to dip into my own pocket to pay for information so I could find the graves, because no one helps," said the retired topographer, who spent all the $10,000 he had saved for the brick home he never built.

The truth commission was able to document only 24,692 deaths — 44 per cent by state security agents and 37 per cent by the Shining Path, with the other killers undetermined. A relatively low percentage of overall deaths in the conflict occurred in actual combat, leading to complaints by rights activists of meagre prosecutions of war criminals.

Only 68 state security agents have been convicted of war crimes, while 134 have been acquitted, mostly soldiers, said Jo-Marie Burt, a George Mason University political scientist who studies the conflict.

Judges have not accepted that "in Peru there were systematic violations of human rights," she said. "Instead, in recent years they argue that there were only 'excesses,' and with those arguments they have absolved those who gave the orders."

Huancavelica's human rights prosecutor, Juan Borja, said Defence Ministry officials have blocked all attempts to locate and prosecute those responsible for Javier Crispin's disappearance.

"I've made 80 inquiries ... for this and other cases and their answer is that they don't have the information," Borja said as he and a forensic archaeologist dug with pickaxes and shovels at a clandestine gravesite outside Huancavelica to which Alejandro Crispin led them.

The Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Shining Path instigated the bloodletting and its leaders and more than 600 other insurgents were convicted of terrorism and jailed, but many mid-level rebel commanders guilty of war crimes evaded justice.

People such as Nicanor Torres have tried, mostly in vain, to set that straight.

The 52-year-old Lima tailor is obsessed with avenging the 1984 killings of his parents and two brothers by rebels in a remote part of Ayacucho state.

His sister Alejandrina, who was 4 at the time, hid under a neighbour's skirts as rebels cut her parents' throats in their home in the hamlet of Chaca, and he travelled from Lima to rescue her.

Torres said he knows who had his relatives killed: A rebel commander who robbed them of 1,000 sheep, a hundred head of cattle and 53 horses.

Torres said he tracked the man down and twice visited his house in Ayacucho's capital, Huamanga, intent on killing him. The first time, a woman answered the door. The second time, a girl. Both said the former Shining Path cadre wasn't home.

Nicanor and Alejandrina Torres returned to Chaca in June for the formal burial of their parents, whose remains had been exhumed a year earlier.

Villagers wept quietly as they carried 21 coffins from the town square, through a eucalyptus grove beside a river where frogs croaked, to its cemetery.

Alejandrina Torres said she was so shocked she didn't cry.

Only when she returned to Lima, in the solitude of her room, did the tears come: "I couldn't sleep for two days."

Tuesday 3 September 2013

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Unhealed+from+Perus+bloody+conflict+legion+decade+after+truth/8861950/story.html

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After 60 years, final attempt to identify 32 unknown victims of the 1953 Big Flood in the Netherlands

(Original article in Dutch) Experts from the police and the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) attempt to identify 32 people who perished 60 years ago during the 1953 Big Flood. Mayor Gerard Rabelink of Schouwen-Duiveland has given permission to dig up 32 corpses so that researchers can collect DNA, Rabelink announced on Tuesday morning. The mayor is the one who must grant permission to the police to exhume remains.

Thirty-two unidentfied bodies are buried on Schouwen- Duiveland who have died during the flood. Anyone who is missing a family member after the Flood can donate his or her DNA sample.

The DNA profile will be entered into the DNA database for missing persons at the Dutch Forensic Institute and checked for potential matches. A spokeswoman for the NFI stressed that the DNA profile will be used solely to identify the bodies.

The 32 unknown dead of the flood are buried in various cemeteries on Schouwen - Duivenland and therefore various excavations take place this month in the villages of Serooskerke, Ouwerkerk and Nieuwerkerk. This is done as respectfully as possible with forensic experts present, says Irma Disk, team leader of the National Missing Persons Bureau of the police. " A forensic archaeologist is present to ensure that remains are exhumed correctly as graves may have shifted and coffins decayed throughout the years. We want them be certain."

The research on the burial takes place in a white tent. The researchers suggest taking a piece of femur and molars to collect DNA. At the NFI, the DNA will be extracted and a DNA profile drawn up which will hopefully lead to a match for each victim. Two or 3 family members from the first line will give the greatest chance of success, "says Disk.

It will probably take months before the first results are known.

Tuesday 3 September 2013

http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/21860784/__Doden_alsnog_geidentificeerd__.html

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Peru slow in exhuming war's victims

It was Alejandrina Torres' first time back in her native village since Shining Path rebels cut her parents' throats while she hid, a terrified 4-year-old, beneath the skirts of a neighbour.

She joined relatives of other villagers slain by insurgents nearly three decades ago to formally bury the remains of 21 people, including her parents, exhumed from a common grave in the remote region of Ayacucho state that endured some of the worst atrocities of Peru's 1980-2000 conflict.

Both security forces and Maoist-inspired insurgents committed grave human rights violations.

A Truth and Reconciliation Commission estimated the conflict claimed nearly 70,000 lives, most of them poor, Quechua-speaking people such as Torres. Some 15,000 of them disappeared. Yet fewer than 3,000 bodies have been exhumed because Peru has lagged in healing the wounds of its war.

The villagers in Chaca wept quietly as they carried white coffins through a eucalyptus grove from the town square to a cemetery.

"I can just see the `senderistas' (rebels) coming down from the hills, shouting in Quechua, `Die, traitorous dogs!'" Torres said as she walked.

Chaca's victims were killed in retaliation for forming a self-defense committee. As weapons they had little more than slingshots and poles with knives tied on.

"A lot of battles without names happened here," said Constantino Urbano.

He recalled watching, hidden on a nearby hillside, as insurgents killed his father and burned down the village's wooden Roman Catholic church. He was 9 at the time.

Chaca is among thousands of communities still waiting for reparations money promised by the state eight years ago. It lacks running water and telephone service, medical attention is precarious and, during the four-month rainy season, it's inaccessible by vehicle because the dirt road becomes mud.

Tuesday 3 September 2013

http://www.theintelligencer.com/article_7e0041dc-33da-5218-9e7e-d7e0f636692f.html

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70 years ago this week, Philadelphia's disastrous train accident

It was Monday, Sept. 6, 1943 — the second Labor Day since the U.S. had entered World War II — and the pride of the Pennsylvania Railroad, a sleek train known as the Congressional Limited, was leaving the nation’s capital filled to capacity.

On board were returning holiday weekenders, military personnel on leave and government officials.

A 16-car express train with eight coaches, two dining cars and five Pullmans, it pulled out of Washington, D.C.’s Union Station at 4 p.m. carrying 541 passengers.

If everything went as scheduled, it would arrive at New York City’s Pennsylvania Station at precisely 7:35 traveling the 236 miles between Washington and New York at speeds approaching 100 miles an hour in a then-remarkable time of only three hours and 35 minutes.

Passing through Baltimore, Wilmington and even Philadelphia without stopping, it would roar past Philly’s 30th Street and North Philadelphia stations.

Yet it would be forced to slow down as it approached Frankford Junction on the edge of Kensington just beyond the point where the railroad passed under the Frankford El tracks on Kensington Avenue. There, it would decelerate to 45 miles an hour as it crossed a series of switches.

Beyond Frankford Junction, the train would again be racing along a relatively straight stretch of track through Northeast Philadelphia and into Lower Bucks County. After crossing the Delaware River at Trenton, there would be clear sailing all the way to its first stop — Newark — and, 20 minutes later, it would arrive at Pennsylvania Station.

But on that fated day, the Congressional Limited would never reach its final destination.

Before it had completed its run through Philadelphia, something would go dreadfully wrong.

What no one on that speeding train could know was the journal box — a device that lubricates railroad axles and resembles a hubcap — on one of the cars had burned out.

In 1943, cotton was packed into journal boxes to prevent their lubricating oil from leaking. However, if the oil was eventually depleted, the cotton would burn and the box would freeze up. resulting in tremendous friction against the axle, which would eventually cause that axle to break away.



The first warning came at 6 p.m. as the train passed Front Street just 3/4 of a mile west of Frankford Junction. There, Harold W. McClintock, then of Croydon, an engineer on a switching engine, noticed flames and smoke shooting from a defective journal box on the front wheel of the seventh car.

Recognizing the immediate danger, McClintock shouted to his partner, Andrew Carlin, to telephone ahead to the next signal tower.

Unfortunately, as the message was being received, the train was already bearing down on the tower. Before he had even put down the phone, John Boyer, who was manning the tower, watched in horror as the train began leaving the tracks, literally at his feet.

It was exactly 6:08 p.m.

As the Congressional passed under the Frankford elevated line structure, passengers had begun to notice the cars were jerking and the wheels seemed to be bounding along the rails. Some people were tossed from side to side. Others were thrown onto the floor. Babies were flying from their mothers’ arms and luggage was tumbling from the overhead racks.

Within seconds, the broken axle from the seventh car dropped to the roadbed, and the engine and the first six cars broke away from the rest of the train. The seventh car then vaulted into the air on the broken axle, flinging itself across the adjoining set of tracks and smashing against a huge steel tower that held the power lines and signal lights.

The pole cut through the length of the car like a can opener, splitting the top half from the bottom half, and spilling the passengers along the right of way. The eighth car hit the tower, was smashed around it and overturned with its end on top of the seventh car.

The ninth and 10th cars jackknifed and spread across two adjoining tracks. Behind them, four more cars left the tracks, but remained upright, and more than 1,500 feet of three separate tracks were torn apart.

The injured and dying lay everywhere. Many were trapped inside by the crushed seats and collapsed metal.

Hearing the tremendous noise and witnessing the electrical sparks from the falling high-voltage lines, many of the neighborhood residents rushed from their homes and up the steep embankment to the scene of the wreck.

Some were frozen in place by the horrible sights they witnessed and by the screams of the injured and dying. Others stayed to assist the injured or returned to their homes for bedsheets and linens that were quickly used as dressings. Civil defense workers brought stretchers and other medical supplies that had been stockpiled for possible wartime use in air raids.

Private homes on the street that ran parallel to the tracks served as temporary aid stations. Passing vehicles, particularly small trucks, were stopped and pressed into service to transport some of the injured to nearby hospitals.

In the first hours following the disaster, rows of sheet-covered bodies lay on the lawn of a nearby hospital before being taken to the city morgue.

As word of the tragedy spread, hundreds of spectators began arriving, hampering the rescue work. Soldiers and sailors were called in, and armed with submachine guns, they surrounded the wreckage, holding back the curious and preventing looting.

Throughout the night, cars on the Frankford El were jammed, as curiosity-seekers rode back and forth gawking out the windows at the unbelievable scene just beneath them.

While 79 people died and another 116 were injured in what would be known as one of the worst train wrecks in American history, fortunately, the Congressional Limited was traveling at only 45 miles an hour when it left the tracks.

It’s difficult to imagine what the casualty toll might have been if the accident had occurred a few minutes earlier or a few minutes later when it would have been moving at a much-higher speed.

Tuesday 3 September 2013

http://www.phillyburbs.com/entertainment/local_entertainment/years-ago-this-week-philly-s-disastrous-train-wreck/article_e5391433-ff75-5bb4-9ceb-5f39822221dc.html?mode=image&photo=0

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Ferry sinking death toll at 108; 29 missing

More bodies were brought up by divers from the sunken ferry St. Thomas Aquinas in the last three days, bringing to 108 the total so far of dead in the Aug. 16 collision between the passenger ship and the cargo vessel Sulpicio Express Siete off Talisay City in Cebu, according to the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).

The divers of the Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine National Police and the Philippine Navy were ordered not to stop their search and rescue mission, which is now being undertaken inside the sunken St. Thomas Aquinas off Cebu,” said Commander Armand Balilo, spokesperson of the Philippine Coast Guard.

Filipino fishermen could not go fishing because the oil spill of the sunken passenger ferry has littered the mangroves of five towns in Cordova. “That’s why the fishermen have been assisting government divers in the search and rescue operation,” said Balilo.

The bodies that the divers found over the weekend were brought to Talisay, for identification, said Balilo.

Relatives of the missing passengers have exerted pressure for the retrieval of bodies as they continued holding vigil for more than two weeks at the office of 2Go Travel which operates St. Thomas Aquinas.

Company owners and government officials have not stopped giving assurances that all the missing would be accounted for.

Filipinos want to honour their dead with proper burial ceremonies.

Balilo said that Rear Adm. Rodolfo Isorena, the PCG chief, “has directed the teams of divers to check all sections of the St. Thomas Aquinas.”

“He [Isorena] assured the families of the missing passengers and crew members of the ill-fated ferry that the command was doing its best to account for them,” Balilo told the Inquirer.

The divers were earlier reported to have searched up to 60 percent of the ferry and were set to look in the tourist cabins.

The work of the divers has become harder with the increasing number of the dead and the missing. Earlier reports said that fatalities could reach 120, but this was adjusted to 137.

As of late Monday, the number of missing ferry passengers and crew stood at 29. The Coast Guard placed the number of rescued passengers and crew at 629 and 104, respectively.

According to Balilo, the PCG station in Cebu had made revisions to the number of casualties “based on body parts recovered, as well as validations by 2GO Travel (operator of the St. Thomas Aquinas), the Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, and representatives of the Department of Health.”

Most commuters prefer using passenger ferries when travelling across the nation. Lax implementation of regulatory rules often results in sea mishaps especially during the rainy season.

More than 20 typhoons devastate the Philippines during this period, which starts in June.

Tuesday 3 August 2013

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/480165/ferry-sinking-death-toll-at-108-29-missing

http://gulfnews.com/news/world/philippines/philippines-ferry-disaster-divers-search-for-32-bodies-from-sunken-ferry-1.1226440

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Recovery team to enter Pike River mine in search of bodies three years after explosions

The decision is a victory for grieving families of the victims who have campaigned untiringly, often in what seemed the face of official intransigence, since the disaster for the return of their loved ones.

After the relatives had been told of the re-entry plan at a meeting in the South Island town of Greymouth on Tuesday morning, Simon Bridges, the Energy and Resources Minister, announced that NZ$7.2 million (£3.6 million) had been set aside for the attempt.

Under the plan, the mine will be made safe for experts to walk as far as a rockfall in the mile-and-a-half long entry tunnel. The rockfall was caused by the explosions.

"Our criteria are that any re-entry into the tunnel up to the rockfall is safe, technically feasible and financially credible," Mr Bridges said.

"This is a highly complex and technical operation and it will be carefully managed in stages, with a risk assessment undertaken at each stage."

If successful, a further plan could be developed to re-enter the main mine workings beyond the rockfall, where most, if not all, of the men's bodies are believed to be entombed.

"The Government cannot comment or speculate about re-entering the main mine until the tunnel re-entry has been successfully achieved," Mr Bridges said.

Bernie Monk, who lost his son Michael, 23, and has passionately articulated the anguish and frustration of the bereaved since the disaster, greeted the announcement, saying: "Today is a big day for the families."

Although he thought his son was unlikely to be in the tunnel that will be opened, he said: "I may never get my son back, but other families might get their men."

The work is due to begin in October and Laurie Drew, who lost his son Zen in the explosion, said he liked to think he could have him back for Christmas.

Damien O'Connor, the local MP, said: "It's a huge technical challenge, but one step at a time, that's all the families have asked for.

"It has been a long time, it's been an agonising wait."

The 29 miners died after four explosions ripped through the coal mine over several days from November 19, 2010.

Britons Malcolm Campbell, 25, from St Andrew's in Fife, and Peter Rodger, 40, from Perthshire, were among those killed.

Mr Campbell was due to marry his Kiwi fiancee just a month later, and Mr Rodger lived in Greymouth with his girlfriend.

The youngest victim, Joseph Dunbar, who was just 17, was on his first day at work.

Tuesday 3 September 2013

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/newzealand/10282513/Recovery-team-to-enter-Pike-River-mine-in-search-of-bodies-three-years-after-explosions.html

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Explosion in Bhutan arms depot kills at least 11 soldiers

A powerful explosion at a military arms depot has killed at least 11 soldiers in the Kingdom of Bhutan, security sources say.

The Monday incident occurred near the Indian Military Training Team (IMTRAT) center base in Anakha in the western district of Haa, where soldiers were disposing of old ammunition, the state-run Kuensel newspaper said.

Eight soldiers were killed instantly in the explosion, while three more succumbed to their injuries at hospital, the report said. About a dozen more soldiers were injured.

Some of the seriously injured persons were flown to Thimphu in helicopters, media reports said.

The dead and injured were members of the bomb disposal squad of the Royal Bhutan Army (RBA). Further details, such as the cause of the blast, were not immediately available.

The Indian Army maintains a training mission in Bhutan, known as the IMTRAT, responsible for the military training of RBA and Royal Bodyguards.

The Royal Bhutan Army is a branch of the armed forces of the Kingdom of Bhutan responsible for maintaining the country's territorial integrity and sovereignty against security threats. The King of Bhutan is the Supreme Commander in Chief of the RBA.

Monday 2 September 2013

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/02/321725/explosion-kills-11-soldiers-in-bhutan/

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Remembering Koreans massacred after Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923

As Tokyo prepares to mark the 90th anniversary on Sept. 1 of the Great Kanto Earthquake, a citizens group is trying to remind people of another tragedy that accompanied the terrible loss of life: the mindless slaughter of thousands of ethnic Koreans as rumors swirled in the capital that looting had broken out.

The Great Kanto Earthquake of Sept. 1, 1923, left an estimated 140,000 people dead. Many died in firestorms that overwhelmed open areas in which people took shelter.

On that day 90 years ago, rumors quickly spread that Korean residents in Japan had poisoned wells that provided drinking water or attempted to foment rioting through attacks of arson.

The government declared martial law, which led to a wave of killings of Koreans in the disaster areas. According to some sources, as many as 6,000 Korean people were murdered at the hands of vigilante groups comprising citizens, police and soldiers.

A member of a citizens group in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward was thunder-struck when he first heard accounts of butchery 20 years ago. Masao Nishizaki, who belongs to Hosenka, a group set up to get to the truth of what really happened, later published a book based on statements by witnesses. He later built a monument to the victims at a site of the massacre.

"I don't want people to forget the tragedy that occurred 90 years ago," he said.

The memorial he erected is at the foot of the Arakawa river bank near his home reads: "The incident deprived many Koreans who lived in Japan, having left their Japan-occupied homeland, of their precious lives without their names being acknowledged."

Nishizaki, 53, said, "It is a little known fact that many people were killed here."

In 1982, when he was a university student, Nishikazi was part of a local fact-finding survey into the massacre of Koreans after the 1923 earthquake. He listened to statements from witnesses with other members of a history study group that was started by an elementary school teacher.

One witness said, "Soldiers machine-gunned and killed about 10 (Koreans) who were lined up on the riverside."

Another said, "A vigilante group murdered them with Japanese swords and bamboo spears under a bridge."

Nishizaki was shocked by the graphic descriptions.

The group collected accounts from about 150 local witnesses, which were later compiled into a book.

About 100 Koreans were said to have been killed around the area the monument stands. Their ashes were never found. The police apparently removed the bodies so there was no evidence of the atrocity that had been committed.

Now, 90 years since the earthquake struck, it is almost impossible to find a surviving witness. The number of people who have heard about that dark chapter is also declining.

To prevent the tragic memory from fading, Nishizaki built a monument in August 2008 on a plot of land one of his friends provided.

"I thought we should leave something visible on the site of the incident to transcend history," Nishizaki explained.

Fake rumors spread again after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 through Twitter and e-mail exchanges.

Hate speech in Japan directed at specific ethnic groups continues to generate headlines.

Nishizaki is worried that the same tragedy might be repeated.http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/AJ201309010017

"If a great earthquake strikes now, can we say the same tragedy will not be repeated? As one who has listened to testimonies, I have a responsibility."

Nishizaki has been busy collecting written accounts related to massacres and false rumors recorded in celebrities' autobiographies and diaries of nameless citizens.

Each Sept. 1, the Tokyo metropolitan government organizes drills across the capital to encourage citizens to be prepared for the next Big One.

Monday 2 September 2013

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/AJ201309010017

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8 more bodies recovered from sunken ferry off Cebu; death toll rises to 105

Eight more bodies were recovered by divers in the past three days from the sunken ferry St. Thomas Aquinas, bringing to 105 the death toll in the August 16 collision between the passenger ship and cargo vessel Sulpicio Express Siete off Talisay City in Cebu, according to the Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson.

Commander Armand Balilo, also chief of the Coast Guard’s public affairs office, said Monday that the eight bodies have been transported to the Talisay City port.

Balilo added that contrary to some reports, search-and-rescue operations by divers from the command, as well as the Navy and the Philippine National, were continuing.

Rear Admiral Rodolfo Isorena, the PCG chief, “has directed the teams of divers to check all sections of the [St. Thomas Aquinas.”

“He assured the families of the missing passengers and crew members of the ill-fated ferry that the command is doing its best to account for those still missing,” Balilo told the INQUIRER.

The divers were earlier reported to have covered up to 60 percent of the vessel and were scheduled to look into the ship’s tourist cabins.

As of 8 a.m. Monday, the number of missing ferry passengers and crew stood at 32. The Coast Guard placed the number of rescued passengers and crew at 629 and 104, respectively.

Balilo said the PCG station in Cebu has made revisions on the number of casualties “based on body parts recovered, as well as validations by 2Go Travel, which operated the St. Thomas Aquinas, the Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council and representatives of the Department of Health.”

Monday 2 September 2013

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/479685/8-more-bodies-recovered-from-sunken-ferry-off-cebu-death-toll-rises-to-105

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261 ‘actually’ missing in Rana Plaza collapse: army

Bangladesh Army, who led the rescue operations at the site of Rana Plaza collapse in Savar, has said 261 people have remained untraced.

The military’s press wing, the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Directorate, issued a statement after scrutinising all the lists of ‘actually’ missing in the incident on Sunday.

It came nearly four months after they called off the salvage drive at the site of Bangladesh’s worst-ever factory accident.

The nine-storey Rana Plaza caved in on Apr 24 morning near the Savar Bus Stand with thousands trapped inside.

Most of them were women workers employed in the five readymade garment factories operating from the block erected unauthorised.

The ISPR statement added the Bangladesh Army identified those 261 out of reportedly missing 329 people using its own apparatus.

The army abandoned the search for those unaccounted for on May 13 after recovering 1,115 bodies from there.

The rescuers pulled alive 2438 people but 12 of them died later in hospital.

The ISPR said the lists of ‘real’ missing had been sent to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Many people were gathering in front of the collapsed building in search of missing workers even after the Army wrapped up the rescue operation.

Relatives of the untraced workers also demonstrated in Dhaka demanding measures to trace them out.

As many as 234 bodies retrieved from Rana Plaza were buried at Jurain Graveyard.

The ISPR described the measures that the committee, constituted as per a High Court order to pay compensation to the people affected by the collapse, had already taken.

The committee comprised of the Army’s Ninth Infantry Division General Officer Commanding (GOC) and representatives of the relevant departments have been assigned with the task of determining the rates of compensation.

GOC Maj Gen Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy had led the Rana Plaza rescue operations, also carried out by the Fire Service and Civil Defence, RAB and police personnel, Red Crescent members and volunteers.

The statement said the committee met on Aug 29 to determine the compensation rates.

It said committee members Prof MM Akash had been made the chief of the compensation rate fixing sub-committee and Directorate General of Health Services Director (Hospital Services) Prof ABM Abdul Hannan the head of the health condition determining sub-committee.

The two sub-committees have been given until Sept 20 to submit their reports.

The committee will sit again after receiving the reports.

Monday 2 September 2013

http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2013/09/01/261-actually-missing-in-rana-plaza-collapse-army

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Indian soldier's body found in Himalayas 45 years after plane crash

The body of an Indian soldier who died in a plane crash 45 years ago has been found in the Himalayas and will be given a military funeral, the army said Sunday.

A team found the soldier's body, still wearing a uniform with personal identification documents in the pocket, on August 22 - more than four decades after he and 101 others died when an army transport aircraft crashed in February 1968.

The man, identified as Jagmail Singh, came from Meerpur village in Haryana state south of the Himalayas, an army spokesman said.

"Bad weather hasn't allowed us to fly the body home yet for a military funeral,'' he told AFP.

The remains were recovered at an altitude of 5,400 metres on the Dhakka glacier in Himachal Pradesh state.

"His identity was established by an identity disc, an insurance policy and a letter from his family which was found in his pocket,'' the spokesman said.

The plane took off from a fog-shrouded runway in the city of Chandigarh and was headed for the Himalayan town of Leh.

Halfway to his destination, the pilot decided to turn back due to bad weather.

The aircraft last made radio contact near the 13,050 feet Rohtang pass, before vanishing.

Trekkers stumbled upon its wreckage in 2003 after finding the partially frozen body of a soldier on the glacier, in a particularly remote stretch of the Himalayas.

The army mounted three search missions in the years up to 2009 and recovered four more bodies.

The latest search started on August 13, with the aim of retrieving more bodies as well as a flight recorder that could help explain the cause of the crash.

The Himalayas have long been an icy graveyard for those who disappear in them.

A 1999 expedition to Mount Everest discovered the frozen body of British mountaineer George Mallory, who vanished in 1924 as he tried to reach the world's highest point.

Monday 2 September 2013

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/travel/travel-news/indian-soldiers-body-found-in-himalayas-45-years-after-plane-crash/story-fni0bieo-1226708646499

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Florida to exhume bodies buried at former boys school

This weekend, Florida will begin digging into its tragic past as anthropologists start unearthing what they believe are the remains of dozens of children buried on the grounds of a former reform school.

The exhumations at the Dozier School for Boys -- which closed in 2011 -- are the culmination of years of controversy surrounding the reform school and a mythology that has taken on a life of its own.

Rightly or wrongly, the Florida Panhandle town of Marianna -- just west of Tallahassee -- has become synonymous with the school and its dark past.

Some of those who were once sent to Dozier -- now senior citizens -- have come forward with stories of abuse at the school, including alleged beatings, torture, sexual abuse, killings and the disappearance of students, during the 1940s, '50s and '60s.

On the school grounds buried deep in the woods lies a small unkept patch of land with 31 white crosses. Rusting away with time, they mark the final resting place for the unknown students that the state has confirmed were buried there.

Nearly 100 children died while at the school, according to state and school records, many as a result of a tragic dormitory fire in 1914 and a deadly flu epidemic in 1918.

The poorly-kept state records cannot account for what happened to 22 children who died at the school. And, no one knows who is buried where.

"They were poor kids and a lot of times, people never came to visit them," said Elmore Bryant, a lifelong Marianna resident and head of the NAACP in Jackson County, Florida, which includes Marianna.

"Even when they were dismissed, they got home, their family had moved. So, who was going to pay attention if something happened to them while they was at Dozier?"

Some believe the bodies are African-Americans, disposed of by the Ku Klux Klan. This gravesite is in what was traditionally known as the "black side" of the reform school -- a reference to the era of segregation.

Many believe another cemetery exists on the sprawling, wooded, 1,400-acre property, but it has not been found.

Last year, a research team from the University of South Florida, on a humanitarian mission to help identify these bodies for surviving families, used ground-penetrating radar, and found that there are as many 19 more bodies buried in the surrounding area -- completely unmarked.

After clearing the area, the team determined that a total of 49 graves exist.

"These are children who came here and died, for one reason or another, and have just been lost in the woods," said Erin Kimmerle, a forensic anthropologist leading the USF team who once worked on an international forensics team that amassed evidence used in Yugoslavian war crimes trials.

She has lobbied for an exhumation of the remains because, as she put it, "When there's no knowledge and no information, then people will speculate and rumors will persist or questions remain."

Robert Staley spent about 10 months at the Dozier School for Boys between 1963 and 1964 for allegedly stealing a car.

He says he was taken to the "White House" on his very first day.

"I came out of their in shock, and when they hit you, you went down a foot into the bed, and so hard, I couldn't believe," said Straley. "I didn't know what they were hitting you with."

Years ago, Staley and several others who spent time at Dozier came forward with allegations that they were beaten with long leather slaps inside a small white concrete building, they forever call "the White House."

The men became known as the "White House Boys."

One former administrator, Troy Tidwell -- a one-armed man accused of abuse by several former students -- admitted that "spankings" took place, but denied that anyone was ever beaten or murdered.

Florida first started looking into the allegations in 2008, after some of the White House Boys -- who had met on the Internet and shared similar stories -- called on then-Gov. Charlie Crist to investigate.

At Crist's request, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement launched an investigation and its final report in 2009 accounted for 31 boys buried in the cemetery.

The investigation failed to clear up the mystery over what happened to the dozens of other students who died at the school whose bodies have never been accounted for.

FDLE closed the case due to lack of evidence that anyone had died as a result of criminal conduct. The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice closed the school in 2011, 111 years after it first opened.

Then last year, forensic anthropologists from USF used their ground-penetrating radar to find what appeared to be 19 more remains than previously thought to have been buried on the school grounds.

That discovery along with pressure from the NAACP and high level officials, including Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Florida, led to action by the state. Earlier this month, Florida Gov. Rick Scott and his Cabinet voted to allow the USF forensics team to exhume the bodies, against the objections of Jackson County commissioners.

"There were children that disappeared that really were not accounted for, so I think that a new day has come here," said Wansley Walters, secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.

"What we have now is an opportunity to really get down to the truth and also try to bring some healing to the victims and the families."

Owen's story

State records say one boy buried here is 14-year-old Owen Smith.

"He had no ambition to do anything but play music," said his sister Ovell Smith Krell, 84.

She says her older brother ran away from home in 1940 at age 14 to become a musician in Nashville, but never made it. Owen Smith was arrested in a stolen car, and sent to the reform school in Marianna.

He ran away from the school, but got caught, he wrote in a letter to 12-year-old Ovell a short time afterward.

A few months later, his family received a letter from the school, notifying them that Owen had run away for a second time.

"So far, we have been unable to get any information concerning his whereabouts," wrote Millard Davidson, the school's superintendent at the time. "We will appreciate your notifying us immediately if you receive any word from or concerning him."

Owen's family decided to travel to Marianna to find out what was going on, but just before leaving, there was a call from the school with word that Owen had been found dead.

"They think he crawled under a house to try and get warm and that he got pneumonia and died," said Krell.

She said her mother asked that Owen's body be taken to a funeral home. The family had to borrow a car for the trip and when they arrived in Marianna two days later, school officials allegedly told them that their son was already buried.

"They said that the body was so decomposed, you wouldn't be able to identify him ... they took him straight out to the school and buried him," she said.

Owen's classmate told the family a different story.

According to Krell, the boy said as he and Owen tried to escape, "my brother was running out across a field, an open field, and there was three men shooting at him, with rifles."

"I believe to this day, that they shot my brother that night, and I think they probably killed him and brought him back to the school and buried him," she said.

Closure, but criminal charges unlikely



Ovell Smith Krell, like other relatives of those believed to be buried at the school, is hoping the exhumations result in a sense of closure for her family.

Any remains that are exhumed will be taken to the University of South Florida in Tampa to be examined in an effort to reunite these lost boys with their families -- if possible.

Earlier this summer, DNA swabs were taken from a handful of surviving family members that have been found. If DNA can be matched to the bodies exhumed, these families want them to be buried properly in family plots.

"I would take him and put him down with my mom and dad in their cemetery," Krell said. "I hope I get that chance."

Whatever may be found in the exhumations of these long forgotten children, it's highly unlikely that anyone could ever be charged with any crimes.

"You have to have witnesses," said Glenn Hess, the state attorney of Jackson County, Florida. "Nobody can place a name with a homicide victim and a perpetrator."

And that's nearly impossible considering the amount of time that has passed.

"There are these general stories about the beatings and all that went on, but that's not unusual for reformatories in the '30s and '40s," he told CNN.

But this doesn't matter to Elmore Bryant, the NAACP leader. He's lived here all his life. He thinks the truth behind the mystery of Marianna will finally be found.

"I don't think the bones will lie. The bones will tell the truth," he said. "I'd want the truth to be known how I died."

Saturday 31 August 2013

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ICMP: Missing persons issue deserves attention of whole world

The Sarajevo-based International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) issued a statement on Friday to mark August 30, the International Day of the Disappeared, saying that the issue of missing persons was one of the most important problems that should be addressed by all governments.

In the statement, ICMP Director General Kathryne Bomberger recalled the fact that about 40,000 people had gone missing during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s alone. Thanks to huge efforts that have been made, about 70 per cent of reported missing person cases have been resolved, but the remaining unresolved cases require equal attention, she said.

In addition to the countries of the former Yugoslavia, Peru, Argentina, East Timor and South Africa are countries that have made the greatest effort in prosecuting those responsible, and civil society is actively engaged and modern forensic methods, including DNA, are used.

"Today ICMP joins hundreds of thousands of families of missing persons from the countries of the Western Balkans, as well as Cyprus, Iraq, Spain, Lebanon, Kuwait, Libya, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Nepal, Guatemala, India, Pakistan, Algeria, El Salvador, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Yemen, Somalia, South Africa and many other countries around the world in paying tribute to missing persons. In doing so, ICMP joins hundreds of thousands of families of missing persons in raising awareness about this global issue, whose resolution is not only important to provide a sense of closure for individual families of the missing, but for the implementation of the rule of law and the establishment of peace and justice," the statement said.

Saturday 31 August 2013

http://dalje.com/en-world/icmp--missing-persons-issue-deserves-attention-of-whole-world/481199

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