DNA database to help identify bodies
Reported May 21, 2008
The government will build a DNA database of the unidentified bodies of the people who died in the quake, Civil Affairs Vice-Minister Jiang Li said yesterday.
The data can be used to identify the victims later, she said at a press conference organized by the State Council Information Office.
The ministries of Civil Affairs, Public Security and Health have sent experts to the quake-hit areas to supervise the handling of bodies.
The identified bodies have been cremated or buried to pre-empt the outbreak of disease, Jiang said. Unidentified bodies have been photographed and their body tissues collected by police and medical workers for DNA tests.
Jiang said 80 percent of the corpses in Sichuan province have been buried or cremated.
About 48 sets of machines and vehicles have been sent to transport the bodies.
The identification process for the corpses must be completed as soon as possible, Jiang said. They should be handled with respect and in accordance with the Ministry of Health’s rules, and the task of ensuring that has been entrusted to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
The central government has announced a compensation of 5,000 yuan ($714) to the family of each victim.
Bodies of overseas people who died in the quake will be handed over to the State-run China Funeral Association, which will embalm them so that their relatives can perform their last rites later, Xinhua News Agency said. Relatives can contact the association at http://bzxh.mca.gov.cn.
The death toll in the quake has risen to 39,577 in Sichuan, Vice-Governor Li Chengyun said yesterday.
Source : China Daily