Thailand is to exhume hundreds buried after the Indian Ocean &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/accidents/21/97/385/14779_ADRA.html ' target=_blank>tsunami.
It said more than 600 hastily buried bodies would have to be exhumed for fuller forensic tests. More than 2000 of the country's 5303 known dead have yet to be identified. Even the most basic identification of many corpses as Thai or foreigner needed to be checked again, officials said on Monday.
A senior official at the national disaster centre on Phuket island, just off Phang Nga, said the identification of the race of a dead person was often done only visually. "From now on, when we say we can identify them, we must know their names and have some sort of document to verify their identification," said the official, reports Al-Jazeera News.
According to the Times of India, a &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/usa/2002/03/04/26764.html ' target=_blank>US helicopter on a tsunami relief mission crashed on Monday in Indonesia, injuring two servicemen and briefly suspending operations, while strong aftershocks and security concerns provided more challenges for aid workers two weeks after the killer waves hit.
Millions of people are homeless and bodies were still being pulled from collapsed buildings after the December 26 tsunami killed more than 150,000 people across 11 countries.
Indonesia's government promised on Monday to step up efforts to recover and bury the dead. &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/cis/2002/10/21/38417.html ' target=_blank>UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was assessing damage in the Maldives, a low-lying string of coral atolls in the Indian Ocean that lost 82 people. The United Nations is now coordinating humanitarian relief efforts in all the countries affected by the disaster and is taking that responsibility "very, very seriously," Annan said.
Seahawk wing commander Capt Larry Burt told reporters there were 10 personnel on board. "None died in the crash, they all survived." He said the helicopter had been landing to pick up supplies for tsunami victims. US flights were suspended after the crash, which Burt said occurred at 7:15 a.m. (0015 GMT), but resumed an hour later.
US military helicopter flights have been the backbone of aid flowing to Aceh’s devastated west coast. Burt said the cause of the crash was under investigation.
Asked whether anyone may have shot at the helicopter, Burt said: "No one shot at it", adding he was sure about that. Clashes have erupted since the tsunami between government forces and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), with each side blaming the other, raising concerns that renewed fighting in the three-decade rebellion could disrupt aid missions, wrote the Daily Times.
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