World War I diggers named

Nine more World War I diggers have been identified out of more than 250 found in a mass grave at Fromelles, along with two Australian special forces troops killed in the Dutch East Indies in World War II.

Revealing the names of the soldiers in a statement on Saturday, Veterans Affairs Minister Warren Snowdon said the total number of those identified from the Battle of Fromelles now stood at 119.

A further 92 Australians remain unidentified, along with two British soldiers and a further 37 whose graves are marked 'Unidentified Soldier of the Great War'.

'We are encouraged by the success, made possible by the large number of extended family members, both in Australia and Britain, who have provided DNA samples to assist with identification,' Mr Snowdon said.

Fromelles was the first major action involving Australian troops in France in World War I. It was fought over July 19-20, 1916 and resulted in more than 5500 Australian casualties. Many of the fallen were never found. The battle is regarded as one of the worst days in Australian military history.

In 2009 a mass grave was located in Pheasant Wood, on the battle site where German soldiers had buried Australian and British dead.

All the bodies have now been reburied in the new Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery.

Mr Snowdon said the latest identification project has now ensured privates Leonard Broadhurst, Robert Carrington Forland, John Robertson Forrest, John Joseph Goulding, William Alexander Jamieson, Arthur Joseph Johnson, Claude Ward, John Cyril Wynn and Corporal Alfred George Tuck are known by name where they lie in Fromelles.

Army chief Lieutenant General David Morrison said in a statement that 3000 family members had become involved in the identification process 'but we still need more', he added.

'If you think you might be related to a soldier who remains unaccounted for from the Battle of Fromelles, please get in contact with the army,' Lt Gen Morrison said.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission will erect new headstones each nearing the identified men's details. They will be dedicated on July 20 during the annual commemoration of the battle.

Along with the Battle of Fromelles soldiers, two Australian special forces troops killed in the Dutch East Indies at the tail end of World War II have been identified after 67 years.

Mr Snowdon said the two had been named as Lieutenant Scobell McFerran-Rogers and Private John Whitworth of the Australian Z Special commando Unit.

Also identified was their Timorese interpreter, Roestan.

They were participating in Operation Raven, a search and recovery party sent to find and determine the fate of a US aircrew shot down over Celebes in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, in 1945.

The army's Unrecovered War Casualties Unit said the group landed on the island, today called Sulawesi, on June 19, 13 days after the first plane was shot down.

A day later while waiting to be evacuated by floatplane, they encountered a Japanese patrol. Two of the team - Mr Roestan and Lieutenant McFerran-Rogers - were killed during the initial fire fight. Private Whitworth was believed to have been wounded and later captured.

A war graves registration team found their remains after the war but they were not identified. They were reburied in the Bomana War Cemetery at Port Moresby as 'known only to God'.

Last year, family members of Private Whitworth approached the Unrecovered War Casualties Unit seeking to determine his fate, plus that of the others lost on Operation Raven.

Mr Snowdon said he hoped this would bring some closure to the families.

'The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has received the army's recommendations and new headstones will be installed in the coming months. I hope we will be able to dedicate those headstones during the 70th-anniversary commemorations of the Kokoda and Milne Bay campaigns,' he said.

Sat, 31 March 2012

http://www.skynews.com.au/world/article.aspx?id=734940&vId=

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Government to Hold Mass Burial For Sinai Victims

A mass burial will be held next week for the Sinai fire victims who were burnt beyond recognition.

The unidentified bodies and those burnt beyond recognition will be interred at the Lang’ata cemetery.

The DNA testing of the victims was conducted against samples of the people who lost their loved ones.

Speaking to media on Friday, Special Programmes PS Andrew Mondoh said that 15 bodies have so far been positively identified and will be given to family members for burial.

“So far because of the severity of the burns and the inhalation injury in burns some of the survivors have become so sick, we lost five more survivors on Wednesday night,” she said.

15 bodies have been positively identified and the families will be given the go ahead to burry them although the government will meet the all the costs of transporting the bodies and the burial.

More than 90 patients are nursing injuries at the Kenyatta National Hospitals and other hospitals within the city.

Experts from India will also be flow into the country by the national carrier Kenya Airways to help administer specialized care to the burn victims.

Sat, 31 March 2012

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Witness Details Srebrenica Mass Graves Study

Former investigator describes complexities of identifying human remains from various sites.

The trial of former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic continued this week with testimony from a former prosecution investigator about the research done on mass graves dating from the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995.

Karadzic is accused of planning and overseeing the murder of some 8,000 Bosniak men and boys at Srebrenica in July 1995. The indictments against him include genocide, extermination, murder, persecutions and other crimes against humanity and war crimes.

A high percentage of the Srebrenica victims have been identified from the remains found in mass graves.

This week’s witness, Dusan Janc, is a police inspector in Slovenia. As he told the court this week, between 2006 and 2009, he served as an investigator the Hague tribunal’s Office of the Prosecutor, studying mass graves and the Srebrenica victims they contained.

The witness described his role as being to prepare reports about the investigation and identification process, including a document he drafted for the Karadzic trial. These reports were based on data collected by “a team of international experts working in the field in eastern Bosnia”.

Janc explained that his latest report had been updated in certain areas, “including a more current representation of the number of victims found so far”.

He said specified during the main examination that the International Commission on Missing Persons, which provided the basic data for his reports, had identified 5,977 of the Srebrenica victims as of the end of 2011. A further 260 sets of remains had been located “without their identity having been determined”, he said. This, he added, was because there was no comparable DNA material available from family members.

“Another difficulty was obviously the fact that many people had a very similar DNA structure, including brothers or even twins, which made it difficult for the identification,” he continued.

The witness said his latest report, completed in January, included “new data about previously unknown locations for mass graves, and had also more broadly considered the issue of mortal remains found on the surface”.

In his testimony, Janc explained the concept of “primary” and “secondary” mass graves – the latter being sites “where the bodies were taken from locations they were originally buried at, in order to cover up the crime”.

As an example of relocation, he said that “in an extreme case, one man’s remains were found in three mass graves, whereas five body parts of the same person were found in two mass graves”, located far apart from each other.

Janc noted that a peculiar feature of some locations of killings was that similar numbers of victims were found to have died.

“There were three sites in the broader Srebrenica region at which slightly over 800 people were killed, he said, citing a figure of 815 bodies at Kozluk, for example.

“This proves that somehow the number 800 was a ‘threshold’,” he said. “Perhaps it was the transport capacity of the VRS [Bosnian Serb Army], or a temporary accommodation capacity.”

During cross-examination, Karadzic asked the witness whether his task was “to support the prosecution”. The witness answered in the affirmative, but rejected the assertion that this meant he was biased.

Karadzic suggested that the witness simply accepted data from reports by international experts without “checking what was being written and who was writing them”.

The witness replied that he had acquired sufficient evidence from many different and objective researchers to be able to draw valid conclusions, without having to look into “points of research made by individuals”.

Janc said he was “ready to discuss concrete measures or mistakes if the defendant wished to ask any questions”.

Karadzic said he would not be doing so, due to lack of time.

He went on to put it to the witness that “victims also came from different time periods, months or maybe years before”.

Janc replied that there was a “complex set of criteria used to connect them to the events in July 1995, including the way of death, the locations, or the objects found with the victims in the mass graves”.

“There was only one mass grave, at Biljeceva, in which the remains of the Srebrenica victims were mixed up with older remains,” he added.

Karadzic continued the same line of questioning, referring to Baljkovice – an area the witness mentioned in his report. He argued that this was the scene of intense combat between Bosnian Serb forces and the Bosnian government army, as a result of which “a very large number – hundreds – of Muslim soldiers were killed”.

The bodies of these combat victims, Karadzic said, were “properly picked up during the clearing up of the terrain, buried in mass graves”, and therefore could not be regarded as victims of the July 1995 events in Srebrenica. “In fact, the clearing up was properly ordered on July 20, 1995,” he added.

The witness answered that experts had not found “any mass grave with hundreds of bodies in that area”.

“While a few mass graves were found in that area, [there were] small ones which obviously did have a few fighting-related remains [but] none of these were included in my report,” Janc explained, adding the caveat that “there may be further mass graves which were as yet unfound” and that “any effort on supporting the discovery of additional mass graves would be welcome”.

“Regarding the clearing up, I wish to repeat that the evidence we have – aerial photography, but also testimonies from different involved people – confirm the contrary; that there was no clearing up of the terrain, but that the mass graves were rather hastily and unsystematically dug,” he concluded.

The trial continues next week.

30 March 2012

http://iwpr.net/report-news/witness-details-srebrenica-mass-graves-study

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Thirteen dead in new Honduras prison fire

Tegucigalpa. At least 13 people were killed Thursday in a fire at a prison in Honduras, officials said -- less than two months after a deadly prison blaze killed more than 350, AFP informs.

"There are 13 bodies. We have not yet been able to identify the circumstances of the incident" at the San Pedro Sula prison in the north of the country, said Marleny Vanegas of the city prosecutor's office.

"We will have to await the results of the investigation."
Earlier, police spokesman Walter Amaya had put the death toll at one. Officials said the fire was rapidly brought under control.

Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla said the fire at the facility -- which was built for 800 inmates but which currently has 2,250 -- had "once again highlighted the critical situation" in the country's prisons.

A horrific fire erupted on February 14 at a prison in Comayagua, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) north of the capital Tegucigalpa.

The incident, in which 361 people were killed, was one of the world's deadliest prison blazes, and highlighted the problem of overcrowding in Latin American jails.

Agents from the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) concluded that the fire was accidental, but the US ambassador to Honduras also said official negligence was to blame, due to overcrowding at the facility.

Fri 30 March 2012

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n274485

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Documents show debate over handling of 9/11 remains

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cremated remains that may have included those of victims of the September 11 attacks were incinerated and sent to a landfill despite an internal debate in which some officials at the main U.S. military mortuary recommended the ashes be dispersed at sea.

Documents released on Friday show that nearly one year after the September 11, 2001 attacks, military and civilian personnel responsible for the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware engaged in an lengthy e-mail exchange over what to do with 1,321 portions of remains.

The fragmentary remains, which were categorized as "Group F," were unidentified and could not be linked to any specific victim of the September 11 attack on the Pentagon.

They were mixed in with debris from the building and airplane, and could have included remains of the hijackers as well, an official said on Friday, adding that it was not even certain they were human.

"They could have been anything biological. So there may have been human, but it could have been something from someone's lunch, anything that would be of a biological nature," said Jo Ann Rooney, acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

Navy Captain Craig Mallak, the Dover medical examiner, said the mortuary encourages workers at the scene of a mass disaster to collect anything they think might be a sample that would help to identify a victim. He said thousands of unidentified samples sometimes remain at the end of an investigation.

The Pentagon released about 2,000 pages of documents on Friday that were gathered as part of an investigation into allegations that the Dover mortuary mishandled the remains of war dead. That investigation revealed that some remains from September 11 had been incinerated and sent to a landfill.

The discovery raised concerns among the families of the September 11 victims. Rooney said she had met with representatives of the families on Friday to assure them the bodies of their loved ones had been treated with dignity and respect.

But an e-mail among the released documents showed that many officers who debated how to dispose of the Group F remains believed they should have been treated as if they belonged to the victims of the September 11 attack.

One military officer suggested that once remains were cremated, the ashes should be dispersed at sea. His name, like all others in the e-mail exchange, were redacted.

Another officer agreed and suggested, "it may be appropriate for us to witness and perhaps even have a chaplain present."

"I do like the idea of spreading the ashes at sea in that it's a neutral arena, it should represent an area readily agreeable to all parties," a colonel added.

But another, evidently senior, official objected, saying the remains being disposed of were considered "medical waste" and the contractor responsible for the cremation "should not return any medical waste back to the military service."

"Powder and ashes from the incineration of the material and the containers that were used for the burning is to be disposed of as normal waste," the official wrote.

"We shouldn't attempt to spread the residue at sea, as it could possible (sic) send a message to the next of kins (sic) that we are disposing human remains, and that is not the case," the official wrote. "Please have the contractor responsible for the incineration 'immediately' dispose of all residual materials."

A colonel agreed to do as directed, saying he assumed headquarters had been consulted, but he noted: "My point, as you are aware, is that Group F is not your normal set of medical waste."

The official replied "understand Group F was special," but added that the decision had been coordinated with other senior officials responsible for the mortuary.

The colonel then agreed to do as directed and forwarded the e-mail to another colonel, saying: "Dispose of Group F as stated and keep this email as proof of our coordination."

The practice of incinerating partial remains as "medical waste" and disposing of them in a landfill was discontinued in 2008. They are now buried at sea.

Fri Mar 30, 2012

http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCABRE82T1EX20120330?pageNumber=3&virtualBrandChannel=0

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Seven soldiers die in Venezuela helicopter crash

CARACAS, VENEZUELA (BNO NEWS) — A military helicopter crashed Thursday morning during an operation against drug traffickers in southwest Venezuela, killing all seven crew members on board, officials at the country’s Ministry of Defense said.

The accident happened at around 5:15 a.m. local time when the Super Puma 2216 aircraft, belonging to the Venezuelan Air Force, went down in a field near Yagual in the country’s state of Apure near the border with Colombia, approximately 600 kilometers (372 miles) southwest of Caracas.

The press office of the Venezuelan Ministry of Defense confirmed all seven crew members were killed in the crash, which happened while the helicopter was taking part in a military operation against drug traffickers in the region. The cause of the accident was not immediately known.

The victims were identified as pilot Captain José Ramón Garrido Salcedo, co-pilot Lieutenant Carlos Eduardo Martínez Salvatierra, Major Joel Lamuño Rojas, Freddy Vásquez Carrasquero, Víctor Barrios López, José Yrumba Chávez and Alexis Montevideo Córdova.

A committee has been formed to investigate the circumstances of the accident. Both President Hugo Chávez and Defense Minister Henry Rangel Silva expressed their condolences after the accident. “Eternal life to those who gave their lives for their country,” Chávez said.

On January 19, five people were killed when a Bell Long Ranger 206 helicopter crashed on the Auyantepui Mountain peak in Canaima National Park in the state of Bolivar. The mountain is famous for Angel Falls, the world’s highest waterfall, which was discovered by U.S. pilot Jimmie Angel in the 1930s when his plane crashed on Auyantepui.

Fri 30 March 2012

http://earththreats.com/2012/03/seven-soldiers-die-in-venezuela-helicopter-crash/

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French, German victims of Italy shipwreck identified

Rome: The bodies of a young French couple and three German tourists on board the shipwrecked Costa Concordia cruise liner have been formally identified, local authorities said in a statement on Tuesday.

Officials also identified the bodies of a five-year-old Italian girl, Dayana, and her father Williams Arlotti. The corpses were recovered earlier and were among the 32 people believed to have died in the January 13 tragedy.

The families of the French couple, 25-year-old Michael Blemand and 23-year-old Mylene Litzler, have been in Italy for weeks awaiting news of their loved ones and visiting the scene of the disaster on Giglio Island.

In a last text message to their families sent the night of the disaster, Blemand and Litzler said they had put on their life jackets and were boarding a lifeboat.

Their relatives have said they cannot understand what happened and have voiced frustration with the lengthy process of identifying the bodies.

The three German victims were identified as Elisabeth Bauer, Brunhild Werp and Margrit Schroeter, according to a statement from the prefecture in Grosseto, the town closest to Giglio, where an investigation is under way.

Eight people are still officially reported as missing, including three Germans, an American couple, two Italians and an Indian crew member.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/french-german-victims-of-italy-shipwreck-identified_763649.html

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Two more bodies recovered from Costa Concordia cruise ship

(AGI) Florence- Two of the 5 bodies identified on March 22 have been recovered from the Costa Concordia cruise ship. The announcement pertaining to the recovered bodies of the victims came from the office of the appointed commissioner for the emergency arising from the wreck of the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia. Operations are being run by the scuba units of the National Firefighters' Corps, the Military Marines' Operational Divers Group and the Coast Guard and State Police's diving units.

13:39 26 MAR 2012

http://www.agi.it/english-version/italy/elenco-notizie/201203261339-cro-ren1043-two_more_bodies_recovered_from_costa_concordia_cruise_ship

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Two deaths reported after Tuesday’s earthquake in Mexico

ACAPULCO, Mexico (BNO NEWS) — Two deaths were reported on Friday after a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck southwestern Mexico on Tuesday, damaging tens of thousands of houses.

The first victim, identified as Ernesto Bernal Ruiz, died after being crushed by a falling wall in the small community of El Tamale in Guerrero state. In a separate incident, 90-year-old Juan Chute Bruno from San Nicolas, also in Guerrero, died of a heart attack caused by the earthquake.

In addition to the fatalities and 11 people who were previously reported injured, at least 15,000 people have lost their homes in the state of Oaxaca, where damages caused by the earthquake are estimated to succeed 90 million pesos ($7 million). In Guerrero, Governor Ángel Aguirre Rivero requested assistance to provide 10,000 residential homes for those affected, as well as 20,100 reconstruction packages for damaged homes.

According to the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) preliminary earthquake report, the epicenter of the quake, which had a depth of 17 kilometers (10.5 miles), was in the state of Guerrero, around 186 kilometers (115 miles) east of the popular port city of Acapulco and about 25 kilometers (16 miles) east of Ometepec, both in the same state.

The strong earthquake was felt up to Mexico’s central region, causing numerous buildings in Mexico City to be evacuated.

On Thursday, a 5.4-magnitude aftershock shook Mexico City residents again, causing the evacuation of several office and residential buildings in the city’s business district on Reforma Avenue and Insurgentes Avenue.

On September 20, 1985, one of the most devastating earthquakes struck the coastal area of Michoacan, although most of the damage was seen in Mexico City. Initial government reports indicated that some 6,000 to 7,000 people died, although further investigations revealed that approximately 10,000 people died.

Fri 23 March 2012

http://earththreats.com/2012/03/two-deaths-reported-after-tuesdays-earthquake-in-mexico/

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Japanese boat washed away in tsunami spotted more than a year later

(CNN) -- A fishing trawler swept away more than a year ago by a tsunami off the east coast of Japan has been spotted floating near British Columbia, Canadian officials said Friday.

"It looks fairly sound and has rust streak from being out there for a year," said Marc Proulx, the maritime coordinator of the Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Victoria, British Columbia.
The trawler is part of a giant debris field that was generated by the giant wall of water that struck the east coast of the island nation following a 9.0 earthquake, sweeping everything from cars to houses into the ocean.

The fishing vessel is about 120 miles off the Queen Charlotte Islands, commonly referred to as the Haida Gwaii. The islands are an archipelago on the north coast of the British Columbia.
It was first spotted by a Canadian military air patrol, and it has since been determined that it has been adrift without anybody at the helm since March 11, 2011, Proulx said.

The Japan Coast Guard identified the owner of the vessel after being contacted Friday by Canadian officials, who were able to provide the identification number on the hull of the ship. The vessel, which was used for squid fishing, was moored at Hachinohe in the Aomori prefecture when the tsunami hit, said Toshiro Yoshinaga, a Coast Guard official.

The trawler is considered a navigation obstruction for vessels in the area, according to Canada's Department of National Defense.

Canadian agencies are monitoring the ship for possible marine pollution, though there are no reports of leaks from the vessel, the defense department said.

Sat 24 March 2012

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/23/world/americas/canada-trawler-adrift/index.html

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Poland exhumes some 2010 plane crash victims

WARSAW, Poland — One autopsy report describes organs that had been removed years before. Another adds 20 centimeters (nearly 8 inches) to a short man, making no mention of bones disfigured by childhood polio. One family doubts whether an autopsy was performed at all.

Polish investigators have exhumed the remains of three of the 96 Poles killed in the 2010 plane crash in Russia that killed President Lech Kaczynski due to flaws in the initial autopsies performed by Russian officials.

The need for the new autopsies has added to suspicions held by some Poles that the Russians were, at best, sloppy in their handling of the crash aftermath, and, at worst, trying to cover something up. Russian authorities say any inaccuracies result from the fragmented state of the bodies after the crash.

Two of the 96 bodies were exhumed this week in Poland, following a first such exhumation August. Victims' families and officials say other victims also have reports riddled with mistakes, and prosecutors say more exhumations are possible.

"There were discrepancies. Evidence gathered in Poland differed from information in the Russian documentation," said Col. Zbigniew Rzepa, spokesman for the chief military prosecutor's office. "We had to carry out the exhumations to clarify all the doubts."

Surviving relatives of the three have been enraged by the faulty autopsy reports, which have added to their private grief. Many also fault the Polish government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk for not being firmer with Russia in demanding greater transparency. This comes amid a sense of indignation that key evidence in the crash - black boxes, the plane wreckage and the late Polish president's satellite phone - remain in Russian hands.

At one extreme, the flawed autopsies and the sense that Russians are not being fully transparent have encouraged Polish conspiracy theories claiming Russian leaders might have played a role in the downing of Kaczynski's plane, which crashed in fog after clipping a tree at an airport near Smolensk, Russia, on April 10, 2010.

An official Polish report blamed the fog, pilot error and poor guidance from Russian air traffic controllers.

But Antoni Macierewicz, a conservative lawmaker who heads a parliamentary commission trying to clarify the reasons for the crash, said Friday that he doesn't believe the official Polish explanation and that other theories need to be explored.

Suspicions center on the fact the plane, a Tupolev-154, was Russian built. Some Poles don't believe that the plane could have crashed just by clipping a tree, and find it strange that there were no survivors when it was already so close to the ground when it crashed.

"A lack of openness creates conspiracy theories," said Michael Baden, an American forensic pathologist who has advised some of the victims' families. "You can't investigate a major catastrophe in secret."

Andrei Kovalyov, the head of the Russian Center for Forensic Expertise, which conducted the autopsies, said genetic research and inspections of the bodies were performed to international standard.

"Any discrepancies, if they exist, are likely rooted not in badly performed autopsies but the fact that the bodies were fragmented," Kovalyov said. "When remains of the numerous victims get mixed up inside the cabin there can be problems regarding the attribution of body parts."

Many Poles easily accept the Russian explanation and see no need for the exhumations, feeling that it doesn't change the larger picture of the tragedy.

Tusk, the prime minister, said it's hard to expect perfect reports given "what state the bodies were in after the crash."

The first victim to be exhumed, the late conservative lawmaker Zbigniew Wassermann, had an autopsy report that was largely incorrect, and described organs that had been surgically removed years before, Macierewicz said.

For instance, the 60-year-old had only a part of his liver left, but his report described it as being the entire healthy liver of a young man, Macierewicz said.

"The document from the Russian autopsy was taken out of the blue," said Wassermann's daughter, Malgorzata Wassermann. "It disagreed with the facts: It described things that did not exist and did not describe things that were there."

His new autopsy, carried out in August, corrected the record but did not change the larger conclusions about the cause of his death, said Col. Ireneusz Szelag, a spokesman for prosecutors.

Another lawmaker, Przemyslaw Gosiewski, was exhumed on Monday. The Russian autopsy report described him as 1.8 meters tall (5 foot 9), when in fact he was 20 centimeters (nearly 8 inches) shorter, according to the law firm representing the family.

The report also failed to mention bone defects resulting from childhood polio.

"Glaring irregularities in the documentation mean there can't be certainty if an autopsy was even carried out," said Rafal Rogalski, the Gosiewski family lawyer.

In the case of the third exhumation, family members of Janusz Kurtyka, the head of a state historical institute, doubt that an autopsy was performed because they saw no marks on his body indicating a post-mortem, Szelag said.

Andrzej Melak, the brother of another victim, Stefan Melak, told the parliamentary commission Friday that the Russian documentation was 25 centimeters off in describing his brother's height.

Melak said he felt at a loss, and criticized the Polish government for not demanding more from Russia. "I don't know what to do," he said. "Our government doesn't care about Polish citizens."

Families are also angry because the new autopsies have been perfomed by state experts and they are not allowed to do their own.

Lech Kaczynski was a deeply patriotic leader who was skeptical of Russia, a historic foe that invaded Poland's eastern half during World War II and controlled the country during the Cold War. Most of the people traveling with him were political allies who shared his views, so it's no surprise their families would voice distrust in Russia after the crash.

The presidential delegation was traveling to honor 22,000 Polish officers murdered by Josef Stalin's secret police at the start of World War II in the Katyn forest and other locations. That symbolism only added to the national grief and to the suspicions.

Friday, March 23, 2012 - Tacoma, WA

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/03/23/2078704/poland-exhumes-some-2010-plane.html#storylink=cpy

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Victims in Mexico mass graves could be ID'd with new software from Spain

MIERES, SPAIN -- A new tool developed in Spain may help authorities in Mexico identify hundreds of human skeletal remains suspected of being the victims of organized crime.

The European Centre of Soft Computing, based in Mieres, plans to send its new software Skull2Face later this year to several states in northern Mexico and other countries.

"We have been in talks with officials of Chihuahua state about the possibility of using this software to help them identify the skeletal remains of men and women," said Sergio Damas, one of the principal researchers of the software developed by the center and the University of Granada. "Officials from other states in Mexico also are interested in acquiring five to 10 sets of the software system."

The price for the software has not been determined.

Earlier in March, 25 experts from around the world met in Mieres to learn more about Skull2Face software, which its creators say will revolutionize forensic investigations.

Inmaculada Aleman, a forensic anthropologist who also worked on the project, said the software can be used by police, anthropologists and forensic experts to compare a skull with a person's photograph. A match will aid investigators in making a positive identification, which is often the first step in determining whether someone died violently by accident or suicide, or was the victim of a murder.

Chihuahua officials recently announced that they had 51 sets of remains of females sitting in the Juárez morgue, some dating to the mid-1990s, that have not been identified. In a few cases during the past 15 years, only human skulls were discovered in various parts of the city and its vicinity.

The drug cartel wars and related violence across Mexico have also produced mass graves of men and women, including immigrants from Central America who traveled through Mexico before they disappeared.

The software takes cranio facial superimposition, a century-old forensic identification technique, to a new level by making it less costly and less time-consuming to identify someone from skeletal remains. Such an analysis that used to take hours or longer can now be done in two to four minutes.

"We were inundated with calls from interested parties soon after we received the patent for the software," said Damas, who has a Ph.D. in computer science.

The process involves applying an overlay of a person's photograph over a three-dimensional graphic of a human skull. It evaluates many markers used by forensic experts to determine whether there is a match or, in some cases, to exclude an erroneous identification. The program can also be used to produce an approximate image of a person from a skull.

Damas and Aleman said investigators run into problems whenever more than one body is discovered in a mass grave because the bones and DNA of one person can get mixed up with those of others. Decomposition also makes it difficult to identify a person from skeletal remains.

Before using the Skull2Face software, investigators still must conduct the usual preliminary work of assigning characteristics such as age, gender and height. That enables the software operators to make modifications, for example, when the only photograph available is from an ID card or is very dated.

In Spain, advocacy organizations and some officials are interested in seeing whether the software can be used to identify hundreds of Spaniards who were killed during the Spanish civil war and buried in mass graves. The renowned poet Federico García Lorca is among those who might have been tossed into a clandestine grave with others.

Cranial facial superimposition techniques have also been used in the past, using artist renderings and photographs, to attempt to identify Italian poet and philosopher Dante Alighieri and victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, according to an article in ICM Inc., by Damas, Aleman and four other experts titled, "Forensic identification by computer-aided cranial facial superimposition: A survey."

Damas and Aleman, who demonstrated how the process works, said another feature of the software enables investigators in one place to consult and compare notes with experts in other places.

The software will be made available to all outlets by the end of summer.

03/21/2012

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_20218372/new-software-may-help-id-victims

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Chixoy Dam-Rio Negro Massacres: Justice Delayed 30 years and Counting

As part of an all night Mayan ceremony (March 13-14, 2012), a Mayan priest reads off, page after page, the names of each and every one of the close to 450 Mayan Achi children, women and men from the remote village of Rio Negro, victims of the 1982 "Rio Negro massacres."

Along with a delegation of Americans and Canadians, I have come here to spend the night and participate in commemoration activities on the 30th anniversary of the March 13, 1982 massacre of 177 children and women, this being the second of four large scale massacres in 1982 carried out in conjunction with the Chixoy Dam "development" project.

PROFITS & IMPUNITY FOR THE WORLD BANK & INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

From 1975-1985, the World Bank (WB) and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) spear-headed this "development" project, investing 100s of millions of dollars into the Guatemalan military regimes of those years. The 1982 Rio Negro massacres (February 12, March 13, May 14, September 18) were planned and carried out by the military regime, forcing local "civil defense patrols" to do most of the brutal killing, so as to forcibly (and obviously illegally) evict the Rio Negro villagers, and some 25 other remote villages up-river from where the Chixoy Dam wall was built. The massacres were, in effect, the eviction of the Rio Negro village and sent a message to all other villages that if they did not clear out, ... !



Early in the evening, Juan de Dios (on the left) and Carlos Chen help prepare the monument, altar and place of the commemoration. This is the very spot where the bodies of 177 children and women were dumped by the soldiers and patrollers after brutally killing them (strangling some, smashing children against the rocks, beating some to death, raping young women and girls before killing them, etc).

Since 1993, Carlos Chen has been at the forefront of courageous and tireless efforts for truth, memory and justice. In 1993, the original exhumation team (the EAFG) carried out a mass grave exhumation at this site. Carlos lost his first wife (pregnant at the time) and two young children in the massacre that took place at this spot. Since 2005, Juan de Dios has spearheaded, with Carlos, the Chixoy Dam reparations and justice campaign, with the group COCAHICH (Coordinator of Chixoy Dam harmed communities).



Just after mid-night, a Mayan priest initiates the Mayan ceremony part of the commemoration activities that will continue until 6am. Through the night, hundreds of surviving family and community members (young and old) of the victims of the Rio Negro massacres cry and talk with their dead loved ones, talk, eat and laugh, commemorating the names and lives of the victims of the Chixoy Dam "development" project.

"No more violence against humanity."

In early 1983, the Chixoy Dam basin was filled and the dam soon after began to operate. Years later, the Guatemalan regimes paid back the loans plus interest to the WB and IDB - both made profits.

To date, the WB and IDB publicly deny any responsibility for the brutal repression and illegal forced evictions; no justice has been done for the Rio Negro massacres; no reparations or compensation have been made to the 32 Mayan villages that suffered, in various degrees, the harms and violations caused by the Chixoy dam project. Today, most of the survivors live in various conditions of poverty and extreme poverty.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

http://rightsaction.org/action-content/chixoy-dam-rio-negro-massacres-justice-delayed-30-years-and-counting

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Srebrenica: Three More Bodies Found

The Bosnian Institute for Missing Persons recovered the remains of three war victims from a mass grave near the village of Suceska, in Srebrenica municipality.

According to information from the Institute for Missing Persons, the remains are probably those of men killed in July 1995 in Srebrenica.

The remains were transported to the Commemorative Center in Tuzla for analysis and identification.

On the same day, the remains of another victim were found near Sanski Most in northwestern Bosnia.

The Bosnian state prosecution, which has national responsibility for exhumations, said that the remains would be sent to the Sejkovaca mortuary for identification.

Representatives of the Institute for Missing Persons and police officers from both Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina participated in the exhumations in Srebrenica and Sanski Most.

According to available information, at the end of the conflict in Bosnia an estimated 30,000 people were reported as missing. The remains of two thirds have been found, and around 10,000 people are still missing from the Bosnian conflict.

Thu 22 March 2012

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/remains-of-war-victims-recovered

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Mexicans criticised for removing bones from archaeological site

San Cristobal de Las Casas (Mexico), March 15 (IANS/EFE) Mexican authorities’ decision to remove human skeletons from an archaeological site in the southern state of Chiapas resulted in the loss of “invaluable” anthropological information, experts said.

“We obviously understand the haste, the importance given (to the find by) the state Attorney General’s Office considering the fight against drug trafficking,” Emiliano Gallaga, who represents the National Institute of Anthropology and History, or INAH, in Chiapas, told EFE.

Chiapas authorities, who had initially assumed the bones were the remains of victims of organized crime, informed INAH of the discovery but only after the material had been collected, Gallaga said.

The state government announced March 9 the discovery of 167 human skeletons in a cave thanks to “intelligence work” directed by the Chiapas AG’s office, whose experts erroneously calculated that the human remains were about 50 years old.

Gallaga said that in the process of removing the skeletons authorities had altered the context of the archaeological site, located in the municipality of Frontera Comalapa.

“The archaeological context has already been altered and so obviously a lot of information has already been lost. All we can do now is go to the site, see how many of the artifacts were removed, how much damage was done to the archaeological context and remove as much as possible from the context that hasn’t been touched,” he added.

INAH anthropologist Javier Montes de Paz said the institute has already taken over investigations at the site “and we’ve already determined these are pre-Columbian remains and it’s confirmed these are human remains of individuals who lived around 1,000 years ago”.

Analysis of the skeletons, discovered at a cave that Mayan Indians used for ceremonial purposes, has begun at the state AG’s office’s headquarters, he said.

“The evidence that led us to determine the chronology was the practice of intentional cranial deformation,” the expert said, who noted that the remains found at the site have the “tabular erect type of deformed skull”.

Discoveries of mass graves containing victims of drug-related violence have become commonplace in Mexico, where some 50,000 people have been killed in cartel turf wars and the gangs’ clashes with security forces since late 2006.

A total of 332 bodies have been found in clandestine graves over the past year in the northwestern state of Durango, including 50 corpses discovered in December and January in 14 mass graves in Durango city, Lerdo, Santiago Papasquiaro, Cuencame and San Juan del Rio.

Thu Mar 15 2012 04:30:24 GMT+0000 (GMT Standard Time) by IANS

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/sci-tech/mexicans-criticised-for-removing-bones-from-archaeological-site_100604676.html

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Yingxiu rises from the ashes

We arrived in Yingxiu town on a chilly early spring day full of misty rain, when snow still covered the tops of the surrounding mountains.
From the distance, the town looked like it was from a fairy tale, though from close up it appeared to be carefully planned, with new villa-style residences lining the Yuzi River. It certainly didn't look like I expected one of the hardest hit towns in the 2008 quake to appear.

It lost the majority of its population of 12,000. Its traffic and communications were cut off. And dangerous landslides and bad weather initially prevented rescuers from arriving.
Four years after the devastation, locals' hearts appear to have healed, and traces of the quake are hard to find unless local guides show you around.

Several sites that were affected by the earthquake have, however, been preserved as memorial sites, including the ruins of the primary school, where hundreds of students died.
This approach has been duplicated in other seriously damaged towns and counties, like Beichuan and Hanwang, which we visited over the following two days.

The thing is, the source of their pain has turned into a source of income.
At Niumiangou village, for example, villagers who were formerly farmers have turned into tour guides or sell souvenirs related to the quake.

At one site, there is a mass grave on a slope where chrysanthemums and other dedications memorialize the victims.

Picking up a small flower by the wayside, our guide Yang Yunqing placed it on the ground where he believes his wife was buried.
After his wife was killed in the quake, Yang worked ceaselessly on a voluntary basis to help others.

Yang repeatedly says the survivors should carry on as normal. His optimism impressed me.
At the end of 2011, all the town's remaining residents had moved into new three-story houses. The government subsidized two-thrids of the houses' cost.

Her new home has given comfort to 39-year-old Cai Zhongyu. She still remembers the two years she stayed with her husband in a tent and a portable shelter.

After losing her eldest daughter in the quake, Cai gave birth to a son in 2010. She and her husband named their son Qingsheng, which translates as "celebrating rebirth", to signal that life goes on, even after disaster.

I learned that many people who lost their children during the quake have given birth to another child, as the local government encouraged them to.

It's good to see folks have gradually taken back their lives after overcoming the quake and bereavement.

22 March 2012

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2012-03/22/content_14887333.htm

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Dutch soldiers find suspected WWII mass grave in dunes

TILBURG, the Netherlands (BNO NEWS) — Dutch soldiers have possibly found a mass grave which may contain the bodies of up to fifteen people who were executed by German police during World War II, the government announced on Wednesday.

The Dutch Ministry of Defense said a group of soldiers discovered two suspected graves last week while searching the Loonse and Drunense Dunes, a national park located between the cities of Tilburg, Waalwijk and Den Bosch, with ground-penetrating radar. It is believed up to fifteen people may be buried there.

“After an afternoon of intensive research, soldiers from the 41st Armored Engineer Battalion discovered two disturbances on the radar,” the Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Wednesday. “This indicates the soil is different in composition in these locations. Around it they detected barbed wire and they found ammunition and a mortar.”

The search was part of an exercise but focused on the story of Rien Broeders who previously provided information to the War Aftercare Department of the Netherlands Red Cross. The area in the Loonse and Drunense Dunes is known to have been used as a shooting range by German forces during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

Broeders, who was at the time a young boy and lived in the area, would regularly visit the shooting range to collect shells after German soldiers had left. He knew the German soldiers had dug two pits, surrounded by barbed wire, where they could take shelter in the event of a threat.

But when Broeders returned after the war, he discovered the pits had been closed.

According to information from the Foundation for Information World War Two (STIWOT), most of the victims are likely resistance fighters who were executed by the Nazi’s Order Police in May 1944. Fourteen men, between the ages of 22 and 34, were taken from their cells at Haaren prison and brought to the dunes where they were executed.

According to STIWOT, at least 28 shots were heard in the area before the men were buried at an unknown location in the dunes. Two searches in July 1946 and January 1974 failed to find the graves, and the search has been hampered by the dunes which continuously change in shape.

Local broadcaster Omroep Brabant said five of those executed had been accused of direct and indirect involvement in connection with the robbery of a distribution center in Bergen op Zoom in March 1944. They were also accused of setting a German storage facility on fire in January 1944 and possessing weapons and ammunition.

21 March 2012

http://earththreats.com/2012/03/dutch-soldiers-find-suspected-wwii-mass-grave-in-dunes/

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Costa Concordia Disaster: 5 More Bodies Found In Cruise Wreckage

GIGLIO, Italy -- Search crews in Italy have found five more bodies in the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, which struck a reef off an Italian island in January.

The development on Thursday raises to 30 the number of bodies found. Two people remain missing and are presumed dead.

The Italian Civil Protection agency coordinating search operations said the bodies were all found in spaces between the hull and the seabed off the Tuscan island of Giglio. Since the Jan. 13 capsizing, the Concordia has been lying on its side, half submerged in water near Giglio's port. It was not clear when the bodies would be removed.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

GIGLIO, Italy (AP) – Searchers on Thursday found three bodies under the hull of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship that capsized off an Italian island in January, an official said, raising the number of bodies found so far to 28 and leaving four still missing.

Civil Protection agency chief Franco Gabrielli did not give details on the sex or ages of the victims. He told reporters on the island that the three bodies were spotted when divers were working to set up a kind of robot to search otherwise inaccessible parts of the wreck.

The bodies were seen "in the spaces between the hull and the seabed," he said. It was not clear when they could be removed.

All of the other bodies had been found inside the ship, except for three found in the sea near the ship in the first hours after the accident. The remaining missing are presumed dead.

The ship hit a rocky reef, took on water and turned over just outside the port of the tiny island of Giglio off Tuscany on Jan. 13. Divers and searchers have been combing the half-submerged ship, from passenger cabins to elevators to the decks where many of the 4,200 passengers and crew gathered during the delayed and frantic evacuation. Many jumped into the sea when lifeboats were unable to be launched because of the ship's tilt.


Even before the latest bodies were found, eight removed in recent weeks were awaiting official identification. Weeks in the water badly decomposed the remains, and forensic authorities have used DNA sampling to try to identify them.

Among those listed missing or unidentified are a crew member from India and several passengers, including an elderly U.S. couple and others from Italy and Germany.

The Concordia capsized in a protected sea sanctuary, and salvage teams have been removing fuel since Feb. 12 in hopes of sparing the pristine waters from pollution. Costa Crociere SpA., the Italian cruise company, and Italian officials said fuel removal was expected to be completed by Friday evening.

Occasional bad weather and choppy seas have at times forced suspension of both the search for bodies and the fuel removal.

The operation to remove the wrecked Concordia itself could take as long as 12 months. Bids for the job are being evaluated.

The Concordia's Italian captain is under house arrest near Naples. Capt. Francesco Schettino is under investigation for alleged manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship during the evacuation. Schettino has denied wrongdoing and claimed that the reef wasn't marked on charts.

Investigators are probing allegations that Schettino deliberately came too close to the island as part of a publicity stunt for the cruise line. Costa Crociere officials have distanced themselves from Schettino.

03/22/12 03:18 PM ET

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/22/costa-concordia-bodies-found-wreck_n_1373631.html

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Memorial wall to be constructed for ‘Sendong’ victims

A MEMORIAL wall is set to be constructed at the Gaston Park to remember those who perished at the height of Tropical Storm Sendong in December 2011.

On Friday, groundbreaking of the marker was conducted by JCI Bai Lawanen, the project’s proponent.

A MEMORIAL wall is set to be constructed at the Gaston Park to remember those who perished at the height of Tropical Storm Sendong in December 2011.

On Friday, groundbreaking of the marker was conducted by JCI Bai Lawanen, the project’s proponent.

The marker, which measures eight feet tall and 12 feet wide, will be engraved with the names of those who died in the flash flood based on the list of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC).

Based on the NDRRMC list, at least 674 persons have been reported died during the tragedy.

However, of the number, only 459 were in the master list who have already been identified.

Once the list is updated, the JCI would also update the engraved names on the wall.

Jean Tulang, JCI member and project chair, said they conceptualized the project in January in the hope to remember those who lost their lives in the tragedy.

Tulang said the project also hopes to honor the donors and benefactors, the gallant rescuers, the resilience of the survivors and the conviction of Kagay-anons to rebuild their lives.

“Because in a way, something deep inside us also died when our relatives, friends, co-workers and neighbors died,” she said.

Tulang said during the one-year anniversary of ‘Sendong’ tragedy, JCI Bai Lawanen hopes to gather the families of those who died and other sectors at the memorial wall as a way of remembering them.

Mayor Vicente Emano graced Friday’s groundbreaking and lowering of capsule.

“This will also reflect to the world that people are working together and it makes a difference in making the city go back to be a city in bloom, blossom and in boom,” Emano said.

Families of the victims and other sectors will be invited during the unveiling of the marker once it is finished.

Published in the Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro newspaper on March 24, 2012.

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German cruise ship victim identified

The body of a victim recovered from the semi-submerged cruise liner Costa Concordia a month ago was officially identified Friday as German tourist Margarethe Neth, Italian officials said.

Neth's body was found on February 22 along with seven others that were identified a week ago, the prefecture in Grosetto, which has jurisdiction over the island where the ship crashed, said in a statement.

Five other bodies were found in the ship's wreckage on Thursday but it will take divers a few days to recover them before they can be identified.

The Costa Concordia was carrying 4,229 passengers and crew when it struck rocks off Giglio island in Tuscany and keeled over on the night of January 13, killing 32 people. So far 30 bodies have been found but two are still missing.

Meanwhile, salvage workers who began pumping 2,400 tonnes of fuel oil from the ship's tanks on February 12 have finally finished the operation, the Costa Crociere company said in a statement.

The statement said all the fuel had been pumped out apart from "minor traces impossible to remove from the reservoir walls (which were) such small quantities that they present no real hazard to the environment."

Italian prosecutors have placed the ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, and first officer, Ciro Ambrosio, under investigation for the disaster.

Dozens of survivors have launched lawsuits against cruise line Costa and its US parent company Carnival Corp. in France, Germany and the United States.

Costa has offered uninjured passengers 11,000 euros ($14,500) each plus expenses as compensation.

Fri, 23 Mar 2012

http://news.ph.msn.com/business/article.aspx?cp-documentid=6023567

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Mass funeral for Middle Eastern victims of motorboat sinking

53 dead immigrants from the Middle East were victims of the Barokah motorboat that sank in the Prigi sea, Trenggalek, East Java, and will be buried in general cemetery sites in Putat Jaya.

53 dead immigrants from the Middle East (Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan) victims of Barokah motor boat that sank in the waters Prigi, Trenggalek, East Java, Indonesia on December 17, 2011 which then will be buried on Saturday, March 23, 2012 in General Cemeteries Sites Putat Jaya, Surabaya.

Funeral procession conducted by the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) East Java Police at Bhayangkara Police Hospital , A. Yani street, Surabaya since 5 am (23/03/2012).

Most of the bodies are located in East Java Police Bhayangkara Hospital since 22 December 2011 ago have been identified by the East Java Police DVI team. 31 bodies of migrants who aim to Australia has been taken by the families of the victims from the Middle East. 19 bodies handled by the Bali Police.

Preparation begins with the provision of funeral grave clothes on each body. Once given the identification number, put the bodies in a coffin and set in the courtyard the East Java Police Hospital before officially dispatched by the Head of East Java Police Medical Health Department, Kombespol dr. Budiono, MARS. The plan remains will be buried Friday afternoon (03/23/2012) at 13.00 in the General Cemetery Putat Jaya, Surabaya.

http://www.demotix.com/news/1120171/mass-funeral-middle-eastern-victims-motorboat-sinking

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Mass funeral for Middle Eastern victims of motorboat sinking

53 dead immigrants from the Middle East were victims of the Barokah motorboat that sank in the Prigi sea, Trenggalek, East Java, and will be buried in general cemetery sites in Putat Jaya.

53 dead immigrants from the Middle East (Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan) victims of Barokah motor boat that sank in the waters Prigi, Trenggalek, East Java, Indonesia on December 17, 2011 which then will be buried on Saturday, March 23, 2012 in General Cemeteries Sites Putat Jaya, Surabaya.

Funeral procession conducted by the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) East Java Police at Bhayangkara Police Hospital , A. Yani street, Surabaya since 5 am (23/03/2012).

Most of the bodies are located in East Java Police Bhayangkara Hospital since 22 December 2011 ago have been identified by the East Java Police DVI team. 31 bodies of migrants who aim to Australia has been taken by the families of the victims from the Middle East. 19 bodies handled by the Bali Police.

Preparation begins with the provision of funeral grave clothes on each body. Once given the identification number, put the bodies in a coffin and set in the courtyard the East Java Police Hospital before officially dispatched by the Head of East Java Police Medical Health Department, Kombespol dr. Budiono, MARS. The plan remains will be buried Friday afternoon (03/23/2012) at 13.00 in the General Cemetery Putat Jaya, Surabaya.

http://www.demotix.com/news/1120171/mass-funeral-middle-eastern-victims-motorboat-sinking

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Costa Concordia: Five more bodies found

More than two months after the cruise ship Costa Concordia capsized off the Italian coast, a team searching the wreck has found five more bodies.

Italian authorities say they were found outside the ship, in a small space between the wreck and the sea bed.

Altogether 30 bodies have now been found since the vessel ran aground off the island of Giglio on 13 January.

The Costa Concordia was carrying 4,200 passengers and crew when its hull was torn open by rocks.

Civil Protection Agency chief Franco Gabrielli did not give any details on the sex or ages of the latest victims to be found.

Two people remain missing and are presumed dead.

Eight more bodies were found in late February, but forensic authorities are still working on formally identifying them.

A crew member from India and passengers from the US, Italy and Germany are reported to be among those as yet unaccounted for.

22 March 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17472345

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Argentine veterans insist with identifying remains of 123 comrades buried in Falklands

Argentine veterans from the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas war with Britain reiterated on Wednesday a request for the identification of 123 unknown comrades buried in the Falkland Islands.

The request was presented by the Malvinas War Veterans branch from La Plata, to Julio Alak, Justice and Human Rights minister. It follows the presentation last August of an appeal before a federal court with the purpose of identifying the remains in the NN graves.

“In the Malvinas Darwin cemetery there are 234 graves of which 123 have no names and only have a plaque which reads ‘Argentine soldier, only known to God’” said Ernesto Alonso a member of the board from the Veterans organization.

Alonso recalled that at the end of the conflict in June 1982 “many bodies remained in the battle fields and the identification was left in the hands of the British, but in 123 cases they couldn’t do it because they did not have the ID ‘dog tags’ with names or any other element to help with the identification”.

Minister Alak said that in “today’s Argentina the identity is a superior value which the State defends and claims, as has been the case in the hundreds of babies stolen by the macabre terrorist machine of the dictatorship”.

Malvinas veterans are demanding the participation of the Argentine Anthropology Forensic Team, EAAF, a organization which has earned international acknowledgement for its identification of disappeared persons during the 1976/1983 dictatorial regime that ruled Argentina.

“We’re requesting the Executive to take the necessary steps so that a team from EAAF can work at the Argentine Memorial in Darwin and helps to identify the remains of our comrades and the probable causes of their death”, said Alonso.

“It’s a humanitarian request to which the British I’m certain will not object, when thirty years of the conflict have gone by” added Alonso recalling that in Europe they are still identifying the remains of combatants from the two world wars.

During the 74-day conflict following the Argentine invasion of the Falklands on 2 April, 255 British, 649 Argentines and three local civilians lost their lives. Most Argentine losses occurred when the sinking of ARA Belgrano.

08 March 2012

http://en.mercopress.com/2012/03/08/argentine-veterans-insist-with-identifying-remains-of-123-comrades-buried-in-falklands

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French, Israeli, ZAKA Volunteers Secured Full Jewish Burial in Israel for Toulouse Victims

The bodies of the four victims of yesterday’s shooting attack at the Otzar Hatorah school in Toulouse will be flown back to Israel for burial later Tuesday night, arriving in Israel at 4 a.m. local time. The funeral is scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. in Jerusalem.

The ZAKA International Rescue Unit handled all aspects of returning the four bodies to Israel. A special delegation from Israel, led by ZAKA International Rescue Unit commander Mati Goldstein, joined the volunteers from the ZAKA France. The teams worked at the school, clearing the scene and assisting in the forensic identification of the victims.

One of the ZAKA volunteers reported that, after a short memorial ceremony in the courtyard of the Otzar Hatorah school, the bodies were transferred in an army plane to Paris. The bodies will be flown out on the midnight El Al flight from Paris to Tel Aviv. The ZAKA volunteers from France, working together with the delegation from Israel, assisted the local burial society with all matters relating to honoring the dead, collecting all the body parts from the scene of the massacre. According to an Israeli ZAKA volunteer, “the Jewish community in France is still in shock and cannot fully comprehend the scope of the disaster.”

ZAKA Chairman and Founder Yehuda Meshi-Zahav said, “Yesterday, ZAKA received a request from the family to assist them in ensuring their loved ones are buried in Israel. After a delay, we were successful in procuring burial plots for them in Jerusalem. ZAKA ambulances will take the bodies from the airport to the cemetery in Jerusalem.”

Tuesday 20 March 2012

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/french-israeli-zaka-volunteers-secured-full-jewish-burial-in-israel-for-toulouse-victims/2012/03/20/

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Senegal boat disaster victims want Paris probe to go ahead

Senegal boat disaster victims want Paris probe to go ahead
INTERNATIONAL NEWS - Relatives of over 1,800 people killed in Africa's worst maritime disaster say the case must not be buried as Dakar attempted Monday to have a French inquiry into the accident annulled.

In Ziguinchor in the southern Casamance region of Senegal, the air was heavy around a few white tombstones where victims of the 2002 Joola ferry disaster are buried at the overgrown Kantene cemetery

"The Joola case will not go unpunished despite Senegal's acrobatics to have it buried," said Eli Jean-Bernard Diatta, standing among the graves.

She lost her elder brother who had been chaperoning 26 children on a football trip when the boat capsized in stormy seas off Gambia while sailing between Casamance and the capital Dakar. None of the children survived.

Kantene is one of four cemeteries where about 500 recovered bodies were buried in mass graves, most unidentified. The severely overloaded ferry was licensed to carry 550 people but had 1,927 passengers on board, of whom only 64 survived.

In 2003 Senegal declared the case closed after several ministers and high-ranking military officers were fired, without it ever coming before a court.

The dead captain was declared the main person responsible.

However 22 French students died in the accident and their families that same year brought legal action against the Senegalese authorities in France for manslaughter and failing to help people in danger.

In 2008 France issued warrants against nine Senegalese officials, later withdrawing those against ex-prime minister Mame Madior Boye and ex-defence minister Youba Sambou.

A Paris appeals court in 2009 threw out an earlier bid by Dakar to have the case annulled, but a similar request was filed again a year later by the lawyers for the seven civilian and military officials still the subject of arrest warrants.

One of them was arrested in Paris in October 2010.

In the courtyard of her home in Ziguinchor, Marie Helene Mendy, who was widowed in the accident and left to raise two children, said she was still awaiting "the truth".

"The state closed the case but not the families. If we don't judge this case our children will. One of my sons tells me 'Mummy, when I am big I am going to look for my dad in the sea'. He hasn't forgotten."

Pierre Coly is one of the 64 survivors: "I am glad the Joola case is still in the news in France while in Senegal they want to stifle it. If it was possible to have a similar enquiry here that would be good," he said.

The Joola was carrying people from across Senegal, including school students and artists, as well as citizens from Belgium, Cameroon, France, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Lebanon, Niger, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Switzerland.

The official death toll of 1,863 was 300 more than the number lost in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, but other sources put the number at 1,953 at least.

Source : Sapa/George Herald 20 March 2012

http://sawdis1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/senegal-boat-disaster-victims-want.html

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Senegal boat disaster victims want Paris probe to go ahead

Senegal boat disaster victims want Paris probe to go ahead
INTERNATIONAL NEWS - Relatives of over 1,800 people killed in Africa's worst maritime disaster say the case must not be buried as Dakar attempted Monday to have a French inquiry into the accident annulled.

In Ziguinchor in the southern Casamance region of Senegal, the air was heavy around a few white tombstones where victims of the 2002 Joola ferry disaster are buried at the overgrown Kantene cemetery

"The Joola case will not go unpunished despite Senegal's acrobatics to have it buried," said Eli Jean-Bernard Diatta, standing among the graves.

She lost her elder brother who had been chaperoning 26 children on a football trip when the boat capsized in stormy seas off Gambia while sailing between Casamance and the capital Dakar. None of the children survived.

Kantene is one of four cemeteries where about 500 recovered bodies were buried in mass graves, most unidentified. The severely overloaded ferry was licensed to carry 550 people but had 1,927 passengers on board, of whom only 64 survived.

In 2003 Senegal declared the case closed after several ministers and high-ranking military officers were fired, without it ever coming before a court.

The dead captain was declared the main person responsible.

However 22 French students died in the accident and their families that same year brought legal action against the Senegalese authorities in France for manslaughter and failing to help people in danger.

In 2008 France issued warrants against nine Senegalese officials, later withdrawing those against ex-prime minister Mame Madior Boye and ex-defence minister Youba Sambou.

A Paris appeals court in 2009 threw out an earlier bid by Dakar to have the case annulled, but a similar request was filed again a year later by the lawyers for the seven civilian and military officials still the subject of arrest warrants.

One of them was arrested in Paris in October 2010.

In the courtyard of her home in Ziguinchor, Marie Helene Mendy, who was widowed in the accident and left to raise two children, said she was still awaiting "the truth".

"The state closed the case but not the families. If we don't judge this case our children will. One of my sons tells me 'Mummy, when I am big I am going to look for my dad in the sea'. He hasn't forgotten."

Pierre Coly is one of the 64 survivors: "I am glad the Joola case is still in the news in France while in Senegal they want to stifle it. If it was possible to have a similar enquiry here that would be good," he said.

The Joola was carrying people from across Senegal, including school students and artists, as well as citizens from Belgium, Cameroon, France, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Lebanon, Niger, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Switzerland.

The official death toll of 1,863 was 300 more than the number lost in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, but other sources put the number at 1,953 at least.

Source : Sapa/George Herald 20 March 2012

http://sawdis1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/senegal-boat-disaster-victims-want.html

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Six killed as Taiwanese gravel ship sinks

A Taiwanese gravel ship has sunk off the northern coast of the island, leaving six crew members dead and two missing. Seven crew members have been rescued.

Taiwan's coastguard said the bodies of four Indonesian and two Taiwanese crewmen from the Ocean Glory were recovered after the ship sank shortly after leaving the port of Keelung.

Local media outlets say heavy fog or rough seas may have caused the accident.

The coastguard said searchers rescued seven people and were still looking for the two missing crew members.

19 March 2012

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/six-killed-as-taiwanese-gravel-ship-sinks-7576985.html

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Bones in Mass Grave 100 Years old?

Specialist Biçer doubts the statement that the human bones found in a mass grave in Diyarbakır were a hundred years old. He said that the report of the Forensic Medicine Institute was insufficient and announced to apply for an independent investigation.

The Forensic Medicine Institute recently announced that the 34 skulls found in a mass grave in Diyarbakır were at least a hundred years old.

The excavation was carried out right next to a building that had been used as headquarters of the clandestine gendarmerie's intelligence and counterterrorism unit JİTEM in the 1990s. Excavations in the quarter of Saraykapı had started on 11 January in the neighbourhood of the Diyarbakır Closed Prison and the Courthouse.

The Forensic Medicine Institute announced in a statement, "The determined morphological changes suggest that the bones were lying in the earth for at least one hundred years. One part of the bones belongs to animals. Regarding the human bones no findings were revealed that would clarify the reason of death".

It was also stated that "the bone tissue did not show any probable injuries caused by firearms, cutting or crushing devices or any explosions".

Prof Ümit Biçer, Chairman of the Forensic Medicine Experts Association, claimed to the contrary, "We know that the person's sex and age can be estimated if the skulls were preserved as a whole. Yet, it was announced that not even that was done".

Writer Mıgırdiç Margosyan who is conducting studies about the history of Diyarbakır said that a hundred years ago Armenians lived in this area which is known as "İçkale". "In the 1940s, there were government buildings like the courthouse in the İçkale area", Margosyan indicated.

DNA analysis

bianet asked Prof Biçer for his opinion on the statement of the Forensic Medicine Institute which was released on 28 February. He said that he did not know whether the bones found in the excavation were preserved as a whole. In general, the examination of bones gave information about the age of that person, the gender, height and even if the person was right or left-handed, the expert explained.

"After this evaluation, a DNA analysis is being applied. If the bones were not preserved as a whole it would be more difficult to achieve a sound result from the DNA analysis", Biçer said.
He noted that a DNA analysis with teeth was easier to do and even if the bones were crumbled DNA could still be extracted from the teeth.

"I can only comment on the reported news since I did not see the actual report. The information disclosed is insufficient. Even if the Forensic Medicine Institute does not inform the public, they could share their information with experts on the topic", Biçer said.
He mentioned that the lawyers of the families of the disappeared might apply for an investigation of the findings by an independent delegation. Such a request would not breach the confidentiality of the investigation, he indicated.

Factors that affect the deterioration of bones

"We announced in the beginning of the process that the Forensic Medicine Experts Association or other experts could give an independent opinion and that we could provide for an evaluation of the forensic medicine process".
Biçer emphasized that an evaluation was impossible just by looking at the bones alone. He added:
"Soil properties, humidity, salt and minerals can slow down or speed up the deterioration of bones. Without such an evaluation it is impossible to state that the bones are a hundred years old".

"However, from what was reported to the public it was understood that the investigation remained limited to the analysis of the bones only. It is of course impossible to make a final interpretation before having seen the examination methods, the analysis of the soil and the prepared report", Biçer concluded. (AS)

Diyarbakır - BİA News Center 01 March 2012, Thursday

http://bianet.org/english/human-rights/136589-bones-in-mass-grave-100-years-old-experts-doubt-it

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KATH to undertake mass burial of unclaimed bodies

Kumasi, March 12, GNA – The authorities of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) had announced the decision to undertake a mass burial of all unclaimed bodies at the hospital's mortuary.

This has been fixed for Monday, March 26, and it is meant to decongest the mortuary to improve the quality of pathological services.

A statement signed by Mr Kwame Frimpong, the Public Relations Officer, in Kumasi, said the affected bodies, some of which had been in the morgue for over six years were brought in by the police and other members of the public.

The identities of majority of these dead persons are unknown and were victims of road traffic accidents.

The rest include those suddenly taken ill or collapsed in public places and brought to the facility by “Good Samaritans.”

The statement said the hospital's morgue was now choked and that the authorities were left with no choice but to bury them in mass grave.

It appealed to people who have not been able to trace their missing relatives to contact the mortuary manager for possible identification before the scheduled date.

GNA - 12 March 2012

http://www.modernghana.com/news/383051/1/kath-to-undertake-mass-burial-of-unclaimed-bodies.html

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Swedish rescuers find wreckage of crashed plane

Rescuers have found the wreckage of a Norwegian military plane that crashed with five people on board during an exercise in northern Sweden, officials said today.

Parts of the C-130 cargo aircraft were found scattered over a glacier on mount Kebnekaise, Sweden's highest mountain, rescue spokesman Mathias Hansson said.

Four men and one woman — all Norwegians — were on board the plane heading from Evenes, on Norway's Arctic coast, to the Swedish city of Kiruna when it disappeared from radar screens just before 3pm Thursday over the mountain range.

Hansson said the crew had not been found, but "there is nothing that indicates" they had survived the crash.

"There are a lot of wreckage parts spread out over a large area. It suggests it was a major impact," Hansson said.

The plane was participating in a Norwegian-led military exercise with 16,000 soldiers from 14 countries taking part. Rescue helicopters and military aircraft taking part in the drill searched the mountainous area about 50 miles west of Kiruna but were hampered by poor visibility brought on by low clouds, snow and strong winds.

Rescuers searching the area around Kebnekaise on the ground found some small debris Friday, but couldn't confirm whether it came from the missing plane. The wreckage parts were found on other side of the mountain early Saturday, on Rabots glacier, Hansson said, adding that "there is no doubt" that those parts belonged to the missing C-130.

Kebnekaise is Sweden's highest mountain, more than 2,100 metres above sea level.

The Norwegian Armed Forces identified the crew as Lt. Col. Truls Oerpen, 46; Capt. Staale Garberg, 42; Capt. Bjoern Yngvar Haug, 40; Capt. Steinar Utne, 35; and Capt. Siw Robertsen, 45.

Saturday 17 March 2012

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/swedish-rescuers-find-wreckage-of-crashed-plane-7576027.html

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Families taken to identify Swiss bus crash victims

Grief-stricken relatives of those killed in a horrific bus crash inside a Swiss tunnel earlier this week were taken to identify the bodies Thursday, police say.

Relatives were driven from a hotel in the Swiss town of Sion to a nearby morgue where the bodies of 22 school children and six adults killed in Tuesday's crash were being held ahead of repatriation.

"Where possible the bodies will be shown to the families," police spokesman Jean-Marie Bornet said. "In some cases this is not possible because the bodies are too badly injured."

"The families are there to identify the bodies and to give information to help in the formal identification of those who cannot be identified" visually, a police spokesman told AFP.

Some of the bodies are to be repatriated to Belgium Thursday, he confirmed.

The bus from Belgium was carrying 52 people when it hit a wall inside the Tunnel de Geronde about an hour after heading home from a skiing trip in the Swiss Alps, killing 21 Belgians and seven Dutch passengers.

Twenty-four other children were hurt in the crash, some suffering serious injuries.

In Belgium, efforts were being made to repatriate the injured and killed as early as Thursday.

Police are focusing on three potential causes of the crash that include mechanical failure, a health issue with the driver or human error, CTV's Ben O'Hara-Byrne reported Wednesday.

Swiss and Belgian media reported Thursday that survivors of the crash claimed the driver had reached to change a disc on the onboard entertainment system shortly before the crash.

It was unclear whether that could have contributed to the crash. Neither police nor prosecutors could be reached for comment.

Residents in the town of Sierre where crash occurred were shocked over the tragedy and the fact most of the victims were children.

"I am very sad because I have children and today I awoke with them and I think very strongly about these people because it's really very hard," said pharmacist Genevieve Romailler.

"It's very hard to come to terms with this kind of situation and even if we didn't know these young victims we are really taking this to heart and we really moved by this tragedy," said barman Franck Bartolucci.

A Catholic church in the town was opened for the public to pay their respects and a memorial mass was planned for Thursday night.

Thursday 15 March 2012

http://m.ctv.ca/topstories/20120315/families-swiss-bus-crash-identify-bodies-120315.html

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12 dead in Afghanistan helicopter crash

Twelve people died today when a Turkish helicopter crashed into a house near the Afghan capital Kabul.

Ten of the victims were on board the aircraft and two were on the ground.

Authorities were trying to determine the nationalities of the people who were in the helicopter when it crashed. Some of the bodies were almost completely burned.

The house hit by the helicopter collapsed. Rescue workers were searching through the rubble to determine whether there were any more casualties.

Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu confirmed that a Turkish helicopter crashed near Kabul, but he did not have information about casualties.

Mr Davutoglu said the Turkish commander of the Kabul regional command has left for the area.

The aircraft went down in the Hassian Khail area of the Bagrami district of Kabul province.

It was unclear what caused the helicopter to crash.

Friday 16 March 2012

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/12-dead-in-afghanistan-helicopter-crash-7574831.html

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Guatemalan ex-soldier jailed for 6,060 years over Dos Erres massacre

Pedro Pimentel Rios is fifth member of elite military force to be imprisoned for role in killings of 201 people in 1982

A former Guatemalan special forces soldier has been sentenced to 6,060 years in prison for his role in the killings of 201 people in a 1982 massacre.

Pedro Pimentel Rios was the fifth member of the elite military force to be sentenced to 6,060 years or more for what became known as the Dos Erres massacre after the killings in the northern Guatemala village during the 1960-96 civil war.

The sentence handed down by a three-judge panel is largely symbolic since under Guatemalan law the maximum time a prisoner can serve is 50 years. It specified 30 years for each of the 201 deaths, plus 30 years for crimes against humanity.

Pimentel Rios, 54, is a former instructor at a training school for the military force known as the Kaibiles. He lived in Santa Ana, California, and worked in a clothing factory for years until being detained by immigration authorities in May 2010. He was extradited to Guatemala last year.

The civil war claimed at least 200,000 lives, with the country's US-backed army being responsible for most of the deaths, according to the findings of a truth commission.

In December 1982, several dozen soldiers stormed Dos Erres, searched homes for missing weapons and systematically killed men, women and children. Soldiers bludgeoned villagers with a sledgehammer, threw them down a well, and raped women and girls before killing them, according to court papers filed in a case brought by US prosecutors against another former kaibil.

Pimentel denied being present at the massacre, saying he left the area in November 1982 to prepare enrolment papers for the US military training centre at the School of the Americas in Panama.

Guatemala opened an investigation into the killings in 1994 and unearthed 162 skeletons. Several years later, authorities issued arrest warrants for 17 kaibiles but the cases languished.

In August 2011, a Guatemalan court sentenced each of three other former special forces soldiers to 6,060 years in prison for the massacre, and sentenced a former army second lieutenant to 6,066 years.

The ruling comes as Guatemala seeks to clean up atrocities from the civil war in which nearly a quarter of a million people died or went missing.

In January, courts opened a trial against the former dictator Efrain Rios Montt who ruled the country for 17 months during the war's bloodiest period from 1982-1983.

Montt, denied amnesty by a judge last month, faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. He is accused of ordering the killings of at least 1,700 innocent Mayan people during a government crackdown on leftist insurgents. Montt appealed the amnesty decision to Guatemala's constitutional court and is awaiting a verdict.

His defence lawyers have said the 85-year-old did not control battlefield operations and that commanders were responsible for making decisions in their own posts.

Tuesday 13 March 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/13/guatemalan-ex-soldier-jailed-dos-erres?CMP=twt_gu

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Mexico: Argentine Forensics Speak Out on Disappeared Women

The Argentine Forensic Anthropologist Team (EAAF), a civil organisation that has assisted with victim identification for massacres in several countries, has spoken out about its work on disappeared women in Ciudad Juarez.

The EAAF, originally hired to conduct research in 2005, has been working to match the remains of missing women with collected DNA samples from more than 195 people who have reported the disappearance of relatives as far back as 1993.

In response to the recent discovery of 50 unidentified remains that have been stored at a local morgue for more than a year, the EAAF has addressed the political failures to stem the chronic problem of disappearing women in Ciudad Juarez.

In a report published in 2010, a special prosecutor in Ciudad Juarez listed 379 women murdered and 4,456 missing between 1993 and 2005. Figures from NGOs in the area, as well as from the EAAF, suggest that these numbers are in fact higher.

“It was not an easy job,” said Sofía Egaña, member of the EAAF, whose future in the area is now uncertain after two years of escalating disputes with the city government.

In many cases, investigations have been complicated by incomplete court records and physical remains, or delays in processing bodies stored indefinitely in morgues.

“It seems that they have not spent these years pursuing claims,” Egaña said. “There is an alarming lack of institutional memory.”

In particular, the Office of Chihuahua, which originally hired the EAAF in 2005, claims the civil organisation did not provide a full forensic report of its investigation in 2011. The office also says it does not know why the 50 bodies in question have remained in a morgue for this length of time.

The EAAF denies the office’s claim about its reports, citing one for each of the past two years, and has countered by pointing out that the persistence of the underlying problem remains as though time has stopped.

“Again mothers are protesting, and again there is a demand as if nothing happened in the past,” Egaña said. “Yes, there was an effort.”

Local civil organisations say that in the first two months of this year, at least 26 women have been reported missing in Ciudad Juarez.

08 March 2012

http://www.argentinaindependent.com/currentaffairs/newsfromlatinamerica/mexico-argentine-forensics-speak-out-on-disappeared-women/

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Guatemala: Mass Graves Excavated at Former Military Outpost

Guatemalan anthropologists are excavating mass graves at a former military outpost near Cobán, Alta Verapaz, searching for the remains of 200-300 people.

The bodies are suspected to belong to people who were disappeared during the country’s internal armed conflict, which lasted from 1960 to 1996.

The former outpost – Now a UN peacekeeper training centre – has five mass graves nearby, said the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala’s deputy director José Suasnavar.

“In the fifth pit, which we are working on now, we have already found 14 skulls,” he said at a press conference earlier this week.

A search warrant drawn by the First Court of High Risk allowed Attorneys of the Public Ministry (MP) and researchers at the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala to go to the site, and they have been working there since the 27th February.

“It is very uncertain, determining the number of bodies that can be located in the former military detachment, because there are indications that there are more graves in the region,” Suasnavar said.

Aura Elena Farfan, director of the Association of Relatives of Detained-Disappeared of Guatemala, said the action for excavation was initiated by relatives who complained about their disappeared family members.

“During the years 2004 and 2005, many people approached us from Cobán to ask for help,” she said. “At that time, we started soliciting the MP for an intervention, to clarify the facts.”

Suasnavar said since the institution began the process of exhumations in 1992, the bones of 6,000 victims have been found; 65% of the remains have been identified.

According to a UN-sponsored Truth Commission, about 250,000 Guatemalans were killed or disappeared during the 36-year armed conflict. Most of them were indigenous, and the commission attributed 93% of all atrocities to state and paramilitary forces.

08 March 2012

http://www.argentinaindependent.com/all/guatemala-mass-graves-excavate-at-former-military-outpost/

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Colombia: Nine Bodies Recovered From Mine

Emergency services have recovered nine bodies from a coal mine in the Antioquía province in the northeast of Colombia.

The miners had been trapped underground since Wednesday, when a local water deposit burst and flooded the mine.

While there was hope some miners would survive, it was extinguished today when the last body was brought to surface at about 5am local time.

“The rescue team recovered all nine dead bodies of the miners trapped in the coal mine El Desespero,” the government body for risk management reported.

The cause of the accident at the El Desespero (Despair) mine is still unknown.

The tragic event has sparked a dispute between local and national governments over the legality of the mine and whether it should have been operating at all.

“This mine had been closed last June because it didn’t comply with the [safety] standards,” said Mauricio Cárdenas, the minister for energy and mining. “It was clearly an illegal activity.”

Cárdenas said he blames the local authorities for letting the mine continue to operate, but did not say if they were going to press charges against mine owner Arnulfo Velásquez, who said he has all the right paperwork.

Investigations into the accident are ongoing, but authorities have announced the immediate closure of El Desespero.

“The conditions of the mine don’t fulfil the security regulations and we have taken the decision to close it until the owner can prove its legality,” Édgar Fabián Morales, director of the Miner Rescue group, announced at the site.

The funeral for the nine workers is to take place today near the mining site. Around 6,000 people, most of whom are involved in coal mining in the area, are expected to attend.

According to government figures, 45 people died in mining accidents in Colombia last year

09 March 2012

http://www.argentinaindependent.com/currentaffairs/newsfromlatinamerica/colombia-nine-bodies-recovered-from-mine/

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Mass funeral for victims of Congo blasts

BRAZZAVILLE – Thousands of people attended a memorial service on Sunday for the victims of last weekend’s munitions dump blasts in the Congo capital, as authorities announced a new death toll of 223.

Medard Milandu, who conducted the service, said 159 of the bodies had so far been identified.

An earlier toll said nearly 200 people were killed and more than 2 300 injured in the explosions, which destroyed hundreds of houses, leaving 14 000 people homeless.
Relatives of the victims took their places in six white tents opposite a pavilion for officials erected on the esplanade outside the Congress Centre in the capital.
The coffins of 145 victims arrived 10 at a time on lorry trailers shortly after 11h00. The coffins were draped in Congo’s green, yellow and red flag and adorned with wreaths.

Family members, many in tears, clutched photos of their dead relatives and crosses bearing their date of birth and death on Sunday March 4.

On the other side of the avenue separating the esplanade from the foreign ministry building, thousands of people, mostly in black or white, stood behind barriers put up for the ceremony. The tents were not big enough to accommodate all the mourners.
Congolese President Denis Sassou placed a wreath before an ecumenical service and the reading of a funeral oration by the minister of social affairs.

The coffins were then taken to the city’s main cemetery for burial, where special burial chambers have been dug to receive them.

Sunday’s memorial service marked the end of the official period of national mourning decreed on Tuesday.

On the day of the explosions, 35-year-old Gildas Assama Ndinga identified the body of his nephew, a sergeant in the regiment where the ammunition depot was located.
“I was able to mourn for a week,” he said. “It’s with sorrow I accompany him to his resting place. He’ll be with us in spirit through his large family he left: six children and two wives.”

Last Sunday’s blasts, blamed on a short-circuit and fire, destroyed hundreds of homes around the depot. The homeless are being sheltered in reception centres while nearly 300 of the injured are still in hospital.

Authorities have warned that the death toll could continue to rise as recovery workers continue to pick through the rubble left by the explosions.

The Congolese Observatory for Human Rights has slammed leadership failures in the wake of the disaster “at all levels”, highlighting the lack of victim support. –

Nampa-AFP - Tuesday 13 March 2012

http://www.namibian.com.na/news/africa/full-story/archive/2012/march/article/mass-funeral-for-victims-of-congo-blasts/

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Bangladesh ferry sinks with 200 people on board

A ferry packed with about 200 people has capsized in a river in southern Bangladesh, drowning 18 people and leaving dozens more missing, according to the authorities.

Death toll expected to rise from initial 18 deaths after double-deck vessel capsizes near Dhaka

Police chief Mohammad Shahabuddin Khan said around 35 people were rescued after the double-deck ferry sank on the Meghna river after a collision with a cargo boat early in the morning. Divers have recovered 18 bodies from inside the sunken ferry, he said.

He said the dead included a young woman found cradling her baby.

"The death toll is likely to rise as more bodies are feared trapped inside," Khan said. "We will get a better picture of the casualties once the ferry is pulled out of the water."

Hundreds of anxious people gathered near the scene of the accident to look for their loved ones.

The MV Shariatpur-1 was travelling to the capital, Dhaka, from neighbouring Shariatpur district to the south-west. The accident site is in Munshiganj district, about 20 miles south of Dhaka.

Dulal Dewan, a survivor, described a scene of chaos as the ferry collided with the other ship. "I was awakened with a big jolt," said the businessman, who was asleep on the top deck. "I jumped into the river in darkness as the ferry started going down.

"In minutes there were screams all around. People were shouting for help."

Dewan said he was rescued by a nearby boat, but eight other family members travelling with him were still unaccounted for.

Estimates varied as to how many people were on board the ferry.

Khan put the number at close to 200, while Dewan said about 300 people were on board.

Ferry operators rarely keep a list of passengers. Most passengers buy tickets once on board.

Tuesday 13 March 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/13/bangladesh-ferry-sinks-200-aboard

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