"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Friday, January 07, 2005

NATURE JOURNAL: "MASS GRAVES UNNECESSARY"

"07 January 2005; Mass graves not necessary for tsunami victims; Philip Ball / Report says need for rapid burial to avert health risks is a myth."

And then they cite the same source I did LAST WEEK:

The tragedy is that this concern about the health risk posed by the dead is misplaced. A report issued last September by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) addressed the management of dead bodies in disaster situations. Its findings suggest that the corpses from the 26 December catastrophe pose no serious risk of spreading infection and disease.Bodies should always be buried in a way that allows for later exhumation, says the PAHO report. "The use of common graves should be avoided in all circumstances," it recommends. The report calls mass burials "a violation of the human rights of the surviving family members.


I hope, now that the MSM is finally on the case, that this abhorrent and unnecessary practice will never be used again. Sadly, it is too late for many - including - possibly - tourists:


UNIDENTIFIED Australian tsunami victims could have been buried in mass graves in Thailand, Australian officials said today.But the head of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) forensic team leading the victim identification process in Thailand said Australians, if they had been buried in mass graves, would be identified and their remains returned home. AFP team leader Karl Kent said he was aware of the location of the graves and he was satisfied Thai authorities had acted responsibly when conducting mass burials. Asked if it were possible that foreigners could be in the graves, Mr Kent said: "Yes." "We know the sites, we have been informed about them. "All of those deceased persons will be exhumed and all will be examined using the international DVI (Disaster Victim Identification) protocol."
And of course, this may be true elsewhere, too - where there were far many more victims...

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