Western countries send complaint to police after loss of money donated to identify victims

Seven major Western countries recently submitted a joint complaint to the Royal Police Headquarters alleging that money intended to help identify tsunami victims had been stolen, according to informed sources.

The sources, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the subject, said funds contributed by Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States and France amounted to almost Bt60 million.

The money was donated by the citizens of those countries, who wanted to help victims of the tsunami that killed more than 5,000 people in the Phuket, Phang-Nga and Krabi areas.

The source said more than 60 per cent of the funds were wasted and disguised as travelling and other miscellaneous costs. "To be frank, someone has stolen our citizens' money," said one of the sources, who has followed the victim identification process from the beginning.

Thailand Tsunami Victim Identification (TTVI) was established by the international community in January 2005. With its disaster victim identification (DVI) operation, TTVI is considered the largest such multinational operation ever conducted. At one point there were at least 600 officials from Thailand and 30 other countries to help the victims.

In a joint letter dated November 22 addressed to General Kowit Watana of the Royal Thai Police, diplomats raised two pivotal issues: the status of DNA data of over 400 bodies and the bodies of over 400 missing victims which have not been located.

"Without any additional new information or discoveries of further bodies (now very unlikely), these last remaining bodies and missing people are sadly unlikely to be reconciled," the letter read.

The source said the Public Health Ministry had constantly refused to hand back DNA data.

"We want the data to be returned to the centre for further testing and matching," said the source.

The issue was raised in the letter in a more polite way. It said that during the first 10 days after the tsunami, approximately 2,000 bodies were released to relatives. Among them, the diplomats believed, were some misidentified bodies. At the time, nobody wanted to raise any questions as efforts were concentrated on helping the tsunami victims.

The diplomats also urged the Royal Thai Police to help ensure that DNA analysis is completed by tomorrow, the second anniversary of the tsunami. Since the letter's submission, there has been no response from the police or the Foreign Ministry, which was given a copy of the complaint.

The most damaging part of the letter was the request to have an internal audit concerning the funds. The sources claim to have reliable information that the funds contributed by the seven countries were misused. It requested an internal auditing by "a reputable and qualified private accountancy company" covering the period from January 2005 until the present time.

The sources said the US government had agreed to meet the costs of the audit using the funds available in the tsunami-related cooperative agreement with the TTVI and DVI, which began in January 2005.

The letter said that "any such misuse would be an especially sensitive and distressing matter for us all, given the generous-spirited and cooperative nature of the whole DVI operation".

According to General Amarin Niumsakul, assistant police commissioner-general, the letter from the envoys alleging misuse of funds was a serious allegation, which he said could be a misunderstanding.

Deputy police commissioner-general General Achiravit Suwanphesad said the funds were used not only by Thai officials but foreign experts as well.

The joint letter, which was also addressed to Foreign Minister Nitya Phibulsonggram, was signed by Sweden's Lars Erik Backstrom, German Ambassador Dr Christoph Bruemmer, Dutch Ambassador Pieter Marres, Swedish Ambassador Jonas Hafstrom, British Ambassador David Fall, US Ambassador Ralph Boyce and France's charge d'affaires Pascal le Deunff.

This is the first time that such a large group of Western countries has questioned the integrity of Thai police in an official letter.
Follow this link to see the full letter.

The Nation