Victims’ remains exhumed in search for Westerners

Miranda Leitsinger, Khao Lak

The bodies were initially buried in sandy trenches in Bang Muang north of Khao Lak because there were not enough refrigerated containers to hold them, said Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand, Thailand’s leading forensics expert.

More containers have arrived and the bodies will be moved to refrigerated storage units after fresh DNA samples are taken, dental records collated, and a microchip inserted into each to ease identification, Dr Pornthip said.

Experts took hair samples from the bodies before they were buried at Bang Muang, but the DNA

sampling procedure has changed and they will take more samples from the ribs, Pornthip said. She did not explain why the procedure had changed.

Thai officials say samples for DNA identification are being taken from all bodies.

Dr Pornthip said when people think they have identified their relatives from photos of the dead, “we will collect the DNA from the relatives and

collect the DNA from the bodies and send the samples to the US, to match the DNA. If the DNA (match) is confirmed, we will release the body within five days,” she said.

Local officials have insisted only Thais were buried at Bang Muang, but there are concerns Westerners may have been misidentified as Asians in the chaotic

recovery of thousands of bodies after the St Stephen’s Day tsunami.

Newspapers reported yesterday that relatives of missing Westerners suspect their loved ones may have been buried with Thai and other Asian victims at the temporary cemetery.

Some Western-looking corpses have already been placed in refrigeration units at Yan Yao temple, the main temporary morgue in the area.

Forensics teams from Germany, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, as well as a joint Scandinavian team, have been working at Yan Yao to identify the bodies.

Some 5,300 people are confirmed dead in Thailand, about half of them foreigners. About 3,700 are still listed as missing.