IRIN
MYANMAR: Thousands of cyclone victims unidentified
17 June 2008


BANGKOK, 17 June 2008 (IRIN) - Thousands of people killed in last 
month's devastating cyclone in Myanmar may never be formally identified, 
due to the slow place of body recovery since the tragedy, say aid 
workers.

The scale of the disaster - and its wide geographical spread - has meant 
survivors in many remote communities of the Ayeyarwady Delta were left 
to deal with a large number of bodies, of both family members and 
strangers, with little, if any, official support.

"It is clear from the information we have been given that there is no 
planned, concerted or consistent approach being taken," Craig Strathern, 
a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), 
told IRIN from Yangon.

"Mostly it's local communities dealing with the immediate problem in 
their vicinity," he said.

Some cyclone survivors told aid workers of disposing of bodies any way 
they could - through burial, cremation, or other methods - in the quest 
to restore normalcy and get on with rebuilding their lives.

"Farmers were saying they just put some bodies in the river," said John 
Sparrow, a spokesman for the International Federation of the Red Cross 
(IFRC), who has just returned from the disaster area. "They were 
desperate to start their paddy season. If they found bodies they 
couldn't recognise, they just threw them into the river."

Cyclone Nargis, and the accompanying tidal surge that swept up to 35kms 
inward, left an estimated 133,000 people dead or missing on 2 and 3 May 
and 2.4 million destitute.

But more than six weeks on, as aid agencies struggle to distribute food, 
water and other essential supplies, disposing of bodies has been 
considered far less of a priority, especially as the World Health 
Organization (WHO) has said the corpses posed little health risk.

Disposal efforts

In some of the more populated areas and key towns, local authorities did 
make concerted efforts to collect and dispose of bodies, while extra 
manpower was also brought in from Yangon to help with the task.

However, villagers in more remote or isolated areas were left to do it 
alone.

Reports indicate that in many waterways and remote areas without many 
survivors, bodies have yet to be collected, and recently more than 300 
bodies were said to have washed up on a popular beach in Mon state, 
hundreds of kilometres from the cyclone's point of impact.

"It's been very much left to the local township commanders and leaders 
to decide how to deal with the problem," Sparrow said. "You are talking 
about a widely dispersed area, with limited transport and logistics. 
It's not surprising those have been prioritised for relief and emergency 
distribution."

Tsunami precedent

The slow pace of body disposal and lack of any large-scale victim 
identification effort are in stark contrast with the aftermath of the 
2004 tsunami, which killed more than 200,000 people.

In Thailand - where foreigners, mainly European tourists, accounted for 
half the estimated 8,345 dead - authorities set up a forensic operation 
to identify victims, an initiative supported financially and technically 
by governments around the world.

The Thai operation used forensic evidence, including fingerprinting, 
dental records and DNA matching, to try to identify bodies.

In Indonesia, where more than 165,000 people died, efforts were more 
rudimentary, including visual identification in the first few days, or 
by personal effects and SIM cards.

But there was a big, official drive to bury bodies quickly in accordance 
with Islamic custom, and to create marked graves as memorial sites.

"In Indonesia, people accepted they may never find their loved ones, but 
at least they could go to a marked memorial even if they weren't 100 
percent sure their relatives were there," Strathern said.

Identification issues

Myanmar's cyclone survivors appear resigned to accepting lost loved ones 
without definite proof, or any ceremonial resting places, while local 
laws mean formal verification of death is not required.

"Here there is the assumption that if we haven't seen our loved ones for 
two or three weeks they are probably dead," Strathern said. "There is no 
expectation of something like DNA matching."

The ICRC has been distributing protective equipment, such as gloves and 
masks, to help volunteers with the task of disposing of bodies and 
demand for the supplies is growing.

"The priority was to ensure that bodies were buried with dignity and 
according to minimum legal requirements . There is a humanitarian issue 
at stake - to deal with victims in such a way that minimises the 
suffering of their relatives," Strathern said.


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