178 Finns Perished in the Tsunami

In all 178 Finns perished in the tsunami disaster in Southeast asia. Nearly three months after the tsunami the authorities are for the first time certain of this figure.
     Until March 18, 90 dead were identified as Finns, of which 81 definitely. Identifying children is more time-consuming, said supreme superintendent Göran Wennqvist to the Finnish newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet., so most of those already transported back to Finland are adults.
     In the end of December 2004 the lists of missing persons from Finland comprised no less than 233 names.
     Wennqvist does not want to speculate on how many Finns will finally be identified. So far the identifying could be done through dental identification. For younger ones the identification must be made through DNA testing.
     He estimates that the approximately 25 Finns working with the identifying process in Thailand will stay there at least until the summer 2005.
     Overall the identification process for the Nordic countries has been most successful mainly due to comprehensive dental data available