PHI PHI, Thailand (23 Jan 2005) -- EVIDENCE that could help to trace scores of missing Britons is being trampled into the dirt and debris of what was one of Thailand's most popular tourist haunts. Documents and paperwork from guesthouses and shops on the tsunami-ravaged island of Phi Phi are being tossed on to bonfires, buried in landfill sites or blown out to sea. At least 100 Britons may have died on this narrow strip of beach, but, nearly a month on from the disaster, hotel registers still lie amid piles of rotting rubbish. In the wreckage of the many scuba-diving centres along what was Phi Phi's cluttered main street, there is a paper trail of the holidaymakers who had signed up for courses. Their names, nationalities and sign-up dates are clearly visible on the application forms trodden underfoot. The small contingent of Thai police sent to Phi Phi says that it is too busy searching for bodies and preventing looting to investigate the thousands of pieces of paper that could reveal whether a missing relative was on the island when the waves rolled in. A senior officer shrugs when asked what he is doing to trace the 369 foreigners listed as missing on his notice board. On a ledge behind him is an assortment of stained identity documents that have been handed in, driving licences, identity passes and credit cards. The officer is unsure whether the information about the owners of these items has been passed on to Western embassies. Behind him, two dozen other officials in a variety of uniforms are either stretched out on camp beds or lounging in beach chairs in the shade, smoking cigarettes. The Scotland Yard-led investigation team sent to Thailand to conduct Britain's biggest- ever missing persons hunt cannot go to Phi Phi until they are given permission by their hosts. By the time that they are allowed to make the 50km (31-mile) boat trip from their base in Phuket, much of the evidence is likely to have vanished. In the wreckage of shops and restaurants lies a carpet of dated and signed credit card slips. In the devastated reception area of one guesthouse popular with young backpackers there are personal diaries and organisers, and other forms of identity, including a British university library card. On Phi Phi, local volunteers in lime-green T-shirts say that they have been ordered to sweep everything into a monstrous tangle of discarded clothes and broken furniture. Eventually it will be scooped up and dumped. "There is a lack of heavy equipment and muscle to speed the clean-up and I don't know why. The money is there, but the organisation is abysmal," Gregory Poupon, a French businessman who is on the island with a Bangkok-based charity, said. | | Evidence that could help to identify victims of the tsunami is being destroyed in the rush to save Phi Phi. Most of the work seems to be done by locals pushing small metal carts that barely scratch the surface of the tonnes of debris that need clearing. From the stench it is obvious, the senior police officer says, that human remains lie beneath the mangled masonry. The officer says that he has asked for help, but reinforcements have yet to appear. Many survivors, such as Mike Nolan, 28, from Sydney whose best friend is missing, have come back to the island to search for themselves through the broken buildings. "The lack of interest by the authorities here is shocking and frustrating," he said. The Thai authorities keep emphasising that they are sparing no effort to restore tourist resorts to their former glory, but here the progress is painfully slow. This island has been very popular since Leonardo di Caprio's film of Alex Garland's novel The Beach was made here. Phi Phi was bursting with visitors when the tsunami came. In the makeshift crisis centre in an abandoned seafront hotel, the official tally is that 693 bodies have been found. There is also a growing row over what should become of this wasteland, with survivors proposing that the beach that divides Ton Sai Bay and Lohdalum Bay be turned into a memorial park for the tsunami victims. Local hoteliers insist, however, that they want to build a bigger and brasher resort to cash in on its new-found infamy. SOURCE - The Sunday Times |
