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THE GRAVES of the unnamed victims of the Andaman coast's 2004 tsunami are in a shocking state. Two-metre tall grass grows over some of the markers above the 380 dead.
What was once a fitting symbol of Thailand's loss and the generosity of the global community is today a shameful untidy mess.
Phuket, keen to not be stigmatised as the ''tsunami island,'' made its attitude plain back in 2006 when the remaining unnamed bodies were spirited north in a convoy of container trucks in the middle of the night.
Today the unnamed victims lie in the unkempt Tsunami Victim Cemetery at Baan Bang Maruan, in Phang Nga, about an hour's drive north of Phuket. At the gate of the cemetery, a handsome plaque projects the names and the flags of 39 nations who lost citizens to the tsunami on December 26, 2004, beginning with 1. Australia.
A huge international effort after the big wave restored identities to most of the 5400 victims in Thailand. They were about half Thais and half tourists and Burmese laborers.
''We will take them home'' was the motto of the international Thai Tsunami Victim Identification unit, which for a time did a superb job in giving names back to thousands of victims.
Now that motto should read ''We will let the grass grow and forget them.''
The international tsunami cemetery was created to become a memorial, and it has a splendid wave sculpture at its centre, together with flagpoles for all 39 flags. Huge lights enable the cemetery to be visited at night - if anyone cared.
While unnamed soldiers who died under those same flags on the plaque are honored and remembered for eternity in neatly manicured cemeteries around the world, the innocent nameless victims of the tsunami are being treated with contempt and neglect.
Nation by nation, the countries involved in the identification process through 2005 and 2006 packed up and went home. Budgets shrank. The grand plan that began with the noble concept of restoring all victims to their families, regardless of their background, rich or poor, Western or Asian, was eventually handed over to a purely Thai unit.
Calls to officers who once ran the Thai Tsunami Victim Identification unit were not being answered today. In Phang Nga, there is no sign of life among the tsunami dead.
On Monday, Phuket Governor Wichai Praisa-ngob reassured the ''mini-UN'' summit of honorary consuls and embassy representatives on Phuket that the tsunami warning system was in place and operating effectively.
However, the annual demonstration drill was not being held this year, he said, cancelled for the first time because tourists seemed to be reluctant to be involved.
Yet the last real tsunami drill, during a genuine alert earlier this year, illustrated that there are some deep flaws in the warning system. Some resorts evacuated their guests, others did not.
This is typical of the divide in attitudes. Some people are happy to forget. Others wish to make sure the tsunami disaster is never forgotten, and never repeated.
The question now has to be asked: if tall grass is now growing over the graves of the remaining unnamed tsunami victims, how can we be absolutely certain that grass is also not growing over the tsunami warning system?
Phuketwan COMMENT In the latest blow to Thailand's tsunami warning system, the buoy in the protective frontline has broken free and then been recovered off the Phuket coast.
Update: Phuket Tsunami Warning Buoy Floats Free
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Wow, your "unnamed victims" piece seems pretty severe. The tsunami was a horrible, horrible event. But a neatly-groomed cemetery with lights, flagpoles or whatever is really not necessary. I am so sorry for those who have lost loved ones, but I am sure most would agree. "Contempt and neglect"? Let's educate and feed some that are still alive with those funds.
Posted by Doretta on August 26, 2010 16:41
Editor Comment:
The big money has been spent but the place is not being maintained. It's disrespectful and unacceptable.