Putting a face on unidentified skulls
CIFS acting director Khunying Porntip Rojanasunan shows a picture of a facial reconstruction in Pattani’s Yaring district.
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Facial reconstruction and modern forensic skills will be used to try to identify hundreds of bodies, in the hope of matching them with missing people.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and Central Institute of Forensic Science (CIFS) are working to identify several hundred bodies in the country's far South and a dozen or more found in the Northwest close to the Burma border. CIFS acting director Khunying Porntip Rojanasunan told a press conference yesterday many human skeletons were found recently in Tak's Phop Phra and Mae Sot districts. In Mae Sot, bones were found in the backyard of a millstone house, believed to be a Karen cemetery. These were suspected to belong to Burmese workers, she said. The forensic team would use facial reconstruction on complete skulls they found and DNA tests on the partial skulls and bones. In Phop Phra, bones were found in two separate locations. Over 30 small pieces of human bone were found on a hill, while over 10 burnt bodies were found on a plain. But none of them yielded complete skulls. Thus the use of sculpted facial reconstruction was impossible. So far, DNA tests had revealed that some of the bones found on the hill belonged to two men, she said. The facial reconstruction technique mainly comprised drawing and sculpting done by the well-trained CIFS team, Porntip said, but it could be used only if the skulls were complete, not burnt nor damaged, especially for facial sculpting with plasticine. Porntip said the CIFS would soon identify the 300 bodies found in a Chinese cemetery in Pattani that included complete skulls and DNA traces, as well as other areas found with bones. She urged people with missing relatives to contact the CIFS and the NHRC so direct relatives' DNA could be compared with traces from the skeletons that had been found. The team had searched for missing Muslim lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit, but none of the bones found so far in various locations matched his. Somchai's wife Angkhana Neelaphaijit said yesterday she remained hopeful her husband's body would be found. She urged the authorities to put more effort into the search.
Onnida Aditapsatit The Nation
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