Unknown tsunami victims buried
Bangkok (AsiaNews/Agencies) –Thailand yesterday began burying the last of the unknown victims of the devastating December 2004 tsunami in a quiet ceremony attended by a handful of government officials and Buddhist monks.
The authorities chose a multi-faith ceremony for the 410 unidentified bodies; most are believed to belong to migrant workers from neighbouring Myanmar employed in the tourist industry.
“Wednesday started with Buddhist, Christian and Islamic religious ceremonies and the actual burial started shortly afterwards,” said police Colonel Khemmarin Hassiri, the head of the Thai Tsunami Victim Identification unit.
The cemetery is in the northern province of Phang Nga, north of Phuket, one of the hardest hit area by the December 26 tsunami, two years ago.
After the ceremony, the bodies were transferred to metal coffins and lowered into a mass grave, with plain concrete slabs separating the resting place of each.
The bodies of victims who have been identified but not yet collected will remain in storage, Colonel Khemmarin said. “We will keep them in temperature-controlled containers waiting for their relatives to collect them,” he added.
The December 26, 2004, tsunami affected most coastlines around the Indian Ocean but hit especially hard Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India.
The total number of known victims stands at around 226,000 but tens of thousands of people are still missing. Three to five million were displaced.
The giant wave hit the coast of Thailand killing some 5,400 people. Roughly half of the victims in Thailand were foreign holidaymakers. Tourism was badly hit as a result, but it is now almost back to pre-tsunami levels.
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31/12/2004
16/03/2021 10:30
