Tsunami bodies stranded amid Thai-Myanmese row
A standoff over the bodies of tsunami victims is straining relations between Thailand and Myanmar and causing embarrassment to the broader international community, especially Australia.
Myanmese living in Thailand say up to 70 bodies of their compatriots killed by last December's tsunami have been identified by the international Thai Tsunami Victim Identification team, which is operating on the resort island of Phuket. But although relatives are keen to claim the bodies, officials have declined to release them until Yangon acknowledges that they are citizens of Myanmar, something the country's military government has so far refused to do.
As many as 100,000 expatriate Myanmese work along Thailand's tsunami coast, but Myanmar denies responsibility because these people fled the country illegally, mostly by sea.
Thai authorities acknowledge the workers who, despite their illegal entry, have been granted permission to work in Thailand, but those who are caught working without permission are swiftly sent to the border.
Officially the international identification team, which originally numbered more than 30 nations, says the issue is a matter for the Thai authorities.
But the core commitment of the countries involved in trying to identify the tsunami's nameless dead is to treat all victims equally - and at present the Myanmese victims and their families are clearly suffering discrimination from their own country, along with apparent indifference from the rest.
An official with the International Organisation for Migration, one of several NGOs that provide assistance to the expatriate workers, said that talks on the issue between Thailand and Myanmar had broken down because Myanmar refuses to acknowledge the existence of the hapless illegal migrants.
Trapped in the middle of this tangle are the grieving families who were encouraged by the identification team to overcome their fear of Thai and Myanmese authorities and come forward to seek their missing relatives. Having appealed to these Myanmese to trust them, the team now appears to be distancing itself from the issue.
Australia faces particular embarrassment because of its leadership and large financial commitment to the identification project, which has been successful in identifying more than 2,654 victims so far.
One local leader of the expat Myanmese community, Htoo Chit, said yesterday: 'We would like the international community to look at this issue because we are humans too.'
Now that the majority of western victims have been identified, the international commitment to the identification team is drawing to an end. Within weeks, the headquarters will move from Phuket to Bangkok, leaving the remaining bodies behind in the neighbouring province of Phang Nga.
Ironically, it is mostly Myanmese labour that is rebuilding resorts and hotels to revive the tourist industry along Thailand's tsunami-affected coast.
Future seabed earthquakes will trigger warnings in five languages from an elaborate system of towers now being erected along the shoreline. Yet while the Myanmese clearly constitute the largest minority among the coastal populations, their language will not be among those in the broadcasts.
