Bodies dumped in secret graves..

[kiwi steve]

Unfortunately I suppose there is not more that can be done after so many days especially with the heat and the possibility of disease spreading.

January 5, 2005 -- The bodies of British and other Western tourists are being secretly buried in vast mass graves in an open field close to a busy road.
Families still searching for missing relatives were not told of the decision to dispose hastily of hundreds of unidentified victims yesterday with no ceremony or memorial in a mass burial site on scrubland owned by a nearby Buddhist temple.

Local Red Cross officials said they were ordered to prepare a site for 10,000 bodies, far more than the Thai government says were killed by the tsunami, raising doubts that a true count of victims will never be known.

Grieving relatives of all nationalities are banned from visiting this sprawling site, which is hidden behind a line of banyan trees near the end of an unmarked lane at Bang Muang, 80 miles north of Phuket.

As bodies wrapped in plastic sheets were carried in the bucket of a mechanical digger to the edge of open trenches, Weiapol Pitcun, a Thai official, said: "This may look insensitive but what else can we do? There are too many for us to cope with, so this is the most efficient way to store the bodies."

Pitcun said authorities would deter visits by relatives to prevent the site from becoming a place of pilgrimage. "Families should not come here, it will only upset them," he said. "Tell them there is not anything worthwhile to see."

The slow pace of identification, the red tape and now this tactless method of dealing with the remains is certain to compound the grief of relatives who arrive on every flight to Thailand, determined not to leave until they have found what they came for. The Times of London

[annaswe]

Originally Posted by kiwi steve

Unfortunately I suppose there is not more that can be done after so many days especially with the heat and the possibility of disease spreading.

January 5, 2005 -- The bodies of British and other Western tourists are being secretly buried in vast mass graves in an open field close to a busy road.
Families still searching for missing relatives were not told of the decision to dispose hastily of hundreds of unidentified victims yesterday with no ceremony or memorial in a mass burial site on scrubland owned by a nearby Buddhist temple.

Local Red Cross officials said they were ordered to prepare a site for 10,000 bodies, far more than the Thai government says were killed by the tsunami, raising doubts that a true count of victims will never be known.

Grieving relatives of all nationalities are banned from visiting this sprawling site, which is hidden behind a line of banyan trees near the end of an unmarked lane at Bang Muang, 80 miles north of Phuket.

As bodies wrapped in plastic sheets were carried in the bucket of a mechanical digger to the edge of open trenches, Weiapol Pitcun, a Thai official, said: "This may look insensitive but what else can we do? There are too many for us to cope with, so this is the most efficient way to store the bodies."

Pitcun said authorities would deter visits by relatives to prevent the site from becoming a place of pilgrimage. "Families should not come here, it will only upset them," he said. "Tell them there is not anything worthwhile to see."

The slow pace of identification, the red tape and now this tactless method of dealing with the remains is certain to compound the grief of relatives who arrive on every flight to Thailand, determined not to leave until they have found what they came for. The Times of London

will we ever finde out how many lives got lost?

[LivinLOS]

http://www.phuket-info.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5172

Agreed.. The numbers seem to be being downplayed.. The potential for backfire in that is huge..