Nothing can be more despicable than making money from the dead. But that is precisely what Burmese junta administrators and a section of police personnel in Mon state did in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, when scores of bodies in various stages of decomposition floated into the Mon state coastline in the month of May.
In an unabashed move that carried on for days, the police in Mon state kept stripping rotting bodies floating into the coastline of jewellery and personal belongings, all in the pretext of searching for some kind of identification.
Ever since the cyclone left a trail of death, bodies were washing up on the beaches in Mon state in areas such as Kyaikkami and Set-sae. The military junta administrators, which had to dispose off the bodies in various stages of decomposition, ordered it to be either burnt or buried with a mixture of limestone. Soon after instructions to this effect, the police barred ordinary people from going out to sea since the middle to the end of May.
The police went out to sea on a regular basis to find bodies, ever since the first sightings of bloated bodies were made in the coastline of Mon state. They stripped the bodies, many of which were dismembered and pocketed necklaces, rings, bracelets, earrings and other valuables. Villagers watched the gruesome greed in awe and shame.
Ironically, villagers who were prevented from going out to sea and witness the veritable loot of the dead were in dire need, when it came to disposing off the bodies on different beaches, emanating a foul stench, whether by burning or burying. All this was done as surreptiously as possible and the gruesome activity aimed at enriching police personnel were never reported to the higher authorities.
Nearly 400 bodies floated to the beaches of Mon state in the aftermath of the killer cyclone where 1, 34,000 people were estimated to be killed or missing. Furniture, refrigerators, myriad house hold items and even a house boat wrecked in the cyclone, floated to the Mon coastline, even as junta officials from police stations waited hungrily to make a killing. While the official line was that an attempt was being made to identify the bodies the truth was that the International Red Cross said tens of thousands of people killed in the cyclone would never be identified because the bodies washed up miles from their homes and were badly decomposed.
It was not that the Township Peace and Development Councils (TPDC) were unaware of what was going on. The TPDC members were the ones who ordered villagers to dispose off the bodies.
There was a pattern in the way officials went about disposing the bodies. The police would first case out the area, spot the bodies floating in, take boats out to sea, search the badly decomposed bodies for valuables, strip them and drag them on to the beach.
The TPDC in Thanpyuzayart Township for instance earmarked 20 feet of the coastal stretch for a cluster of four villages. Villagers were then asked to dispose off the bodies, shorn of the valuables that may have been on them. Interestingly most of the bodies that floated into Mon state were that of women increasing the chances of finding jewellery. The ratio was said to be 60 women to 20 men.
As if looting the bodies of valuables was not enough the township authorities collected 1,000 Kyat per household as expenditure for disposing off the bodies floating into Mon state in areas like Pa-nga in Thanpyuzayart and Chaung-zone Township . While villagers who witnessed and disposed off the dismembered and bloated bodies bobbing in the water, were sick to the stomach, police personnel fishing for bodies in search of valuables did not seem to be similarly affected or else they would have stayed clear.
The level of satiation seemed to be unending when it came to making money from the dead. As bodies kept floating in, there were other scavengers. Money was made from the cremation and burial of the hapless souls, who died a violent death after the killer cyclone, lashed the Irrawaddy delta and Rangoon division.
The Thanpyuzayart Township Peace and Development Council TPDC for instance gave an account of the expenditure for cremating bodies on the coastline. Interestingly there was nary a word on the huge amount of money that was collected from residents as expenses to dispose off the dead.
The Thanpyuzayart TPDC for instance had collected 1,000 Kyat from each family in town which is home to 6,000 households accounting for 6,000,000 kyat. The TPDC told town residents that people were being hired for the cremation.
The TPDC submitted accounts to the tune of 442,000 Kyat for disposing off 391 bodies where it was said to have used 25 gallons of diesel for burning the bodies, 19 gallons for hiring boats and trucks to carry the bodies and purchased 25 sacks of lime stone and other material for the burial of bodies.
The millions of Kyat collected by the TPDC from residents seemed to have disappeared into thin air. To make matters worse the TPDC officials had the gall to deduct payments to those they hired to burn the bodies. Those hired were to be paid 5,000 Kyat per day, but they ended up getting paid 2,000 Kyat after the job was complete. Some owners of vehicles and boats were forced to carry the bodies without payment while the officials submitted accounts for hiring both.
The TPDC list submitted showed 217 bodies were cremated in Setse beach, 102 in Paran Parin beach, 48 in Kadart Though beach, two in Ankae beach, and 22 in Panga village.
