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HAITI / DEATH FIGURES
STORY: HAITI / DEATH FIGURES
TRT: 2:24
SOURCE: MINUSTAH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGAUGE: FRENCH / CREOLE / NATS
DATELINE: 25 JANUARY 2010, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
1. Wide shot, downtown Port-au-Prince commercial district in ruins
2. Med shot, a corpse decomposing on the street
3. SOUNDBITE (French) Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lessgue, Minister of Communication:
"In the first 24 hours, it was difficult. The dead were piled up in the streets everywhere. By the third day, we began asking the population to assemble the bodies in front of the cemeteries, or the churches and the Cathedral. In this way, we could count the dead. And we could pick them up and bury them, notably in the cemeteries. That's where we get the number for 150,000 dead."
4. Wide shot, main cemetery of Port-au-Prince pan to a pile of human remains
5. Med shot, human remains decomposing, in pieces
6. Wide shot, partial corpse on the ground
7. Wide shot, dumped corpse
8. Wide shot, ceremony with corpses in a pile
9. SOUNDBITE (French) Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lessgue, Minister of Communication:
"In this type of situation there is always a margin of error. But we think we will arrive at a final count. We still need to reconcile the numbers we've gotten from the mayors offices, from the public works department, and then the families.”
10. Wide shot, man pulls multiple corpses wrapped together in a sheet from a car at the cemetery
11. Close-up, close up of flies on the feet of the corpses
12. Wide shot, men carry the corpses to a tomb
13. Med shot, cross on top of a grave
14. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Grave Digger:
"We are going to have to put all the bodies together. This grave can hold up to three bodies."
15. Wide shot, men push the bodies into a tomb
Thirteen days following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti, ten of thousands of bodies remain buried beneath the rubble and in mass graves around the capital Port-au-Prince.
As each day passes the dead keep coming. Precious few of the quake victims are receiving proper burials. Other uncollected bodies have been burned in the streets.
It is impossible to know how many victims are buried in mass graves.
SOUNDBITE (French) Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lessgue, Minister of Communication:
"In the first 24 hours, it was difficult. The dead were piled up in the streets everywhere. By the third day, we began asking the population to assemble the bodies in front of the cemeteries, or the churches and the Cathedral. In this way, we could count the dead. And we could pick them up and bury them, notably in the cemeteries. That's where we get the number for 150,000 dead."
Shallow graves may allow family to eventually go back and try to retrieve their loved ones, but by now they are unrecognizable.
Red Cross officials are encouraging authorities to fill out forms that include taking photographs of jewelry and marks on the body that may identify the person.
Lessgue is confident that Haitian authorities will eventually arrive at a final count when total figures from mayors’ offices, the public works department and families are added up.
SOUNDBITE (French) Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lessgue, Minister of Communication:
"In this type of situation there is always a margin of error. But we think we will arrive at a final count. We still need to reconcile the numbers we've gotten from the mayors offices, from the public works department, and then the families.”
This Haitian grave digger working at cemetery in Port au Prince said that most graves can only hold up to three bodies.
Currently, cemeteries remain overflowing and there still random bodies reported to be piled up in various parts of Port au Prince.
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