Russians to try to identify body

TSUNAMI / VICTIM IDENTIFICATION

Russians to try to identify body

ACHADTAYA CHUENNIRAN and APINYA WIPATAYOTIN

Phangnga _ Three years after the tsunami struck Thailand, a Russian family is still searching for missing loved ones and Russian forensic experts will now ship a tissue sample to Moscow for identification.

Thai Tsunami Victim Identification (TTVI) unit manager Nithinai Sronsongkram said he had been contacted by a representative of the Russian police and three forensic experts, led by Pavel Ivanov, the deputy chief of Russia's forensic DNA unit.

According to Dr Ivanov, the bodies of two members of one Russian family who perished in the 2004 tsunami had not been found.

The Russian team, therefore, wants to re-examine one unidentified male body, which has the serial number PM66-BKK 003. Dr Ivanov said the height and belongings with the body matched details given by the Russians of a missing relative. But the team wants to make sure by doing a DNA test.

At the Russian team's request, the unit will exhume the body and take a sample for DNA testing.

Mr Nithinai said Russia has been the only country to request information from the TTVI.

The unit was established by the international community in January 2005, with 60 million baht in foreign aid funds to identify the remains and transport them to their families.

The unit, directed and staffed by police, is located in Bang Maruan cemetery in Phangnga's Takua Pa district.

Mr Nithinai said his unit is now handling 381 bodies, including foreigners, and is in the process of identifying the bodies through DNA testing. Of these bodies, 42 have been identified so far and were waiting for relatives to claim them. These include 12 Thais, 29 Burmese and one Nepalese. He, however, conceded that the centre had made slow progress in identifying the bodies, with only five bodies identified this year.

"A lack of experience among the staff _ most of them are newcomers _ and confusion over disaster victim management are to blame for the sluggishness," he said.

Mr Nithinai said some information and documents had been lost during the transition of work from the first team to the present one.

He added that many foreign embassies had expressed concern over the slow progress in identifying the bodies.

In some cases, he said, forensic staff could not conduct DNA testing because they could not obtain quality samples from the bodies.