Workshop assists Sri Lankan Disaster Relief Workers

29 September 2006

Forty-five forensic practitioners and trainees from across Sri Lanka attended a three-day workshop in Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) in Galle in July.

Response to the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami showed that many countries needed improvement in DVI procedures.

Five members of the Centre for Human Identification at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine - which is Monash University's Department of Forensic Medicine - provided the workshop funded by the faculty.

The costs of the participants' attendance were met by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the participants themselves.

The workshop detailed the history of natural and human induced disasters and provided an account of the handling of the aftermath of the Tsunami. Effectively, the workshop was a debriefing exercise for the country's forensic community.

Participants gained 'hands on' experience of the DVI procedure through a mock disaster scenario of a light plane crash. They also practiced the mortuary phase of the DVI process using the National DVI training kit which consisted of real human and non-human skeletal remains (all properly provenanced and legally and ethically obtained). Interpol DVI forms for clothing and personal effects; autopsy observations; skeletal and dental examinations and recording were completed. This was followed by reconciliation of ante- and post-mortem data and presentation of the identifications to a mock board chaired by a Magistrate.