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Cablegate: Tfus01: Additional Details On New Zealand's Offer

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 WELLINGTON 000683

SIPDIS

STATE PASS USAID/OFDA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: AEMR EAID PREL US NZ
SUBJECT: TFUS01: ADDITIONAL DETAILS ON NEW ZEALAND'S OFFER
OF ASSISTANCE FOR HURRICANE KATRINA RELIEF

REF: (A) WELLINGTON 679; (B) STATE 163414; (C) STATE 163366;
(D) WELLINGTON 675

1. In response to ref B, post provided in ref A the names
and contact information for the New Zealand disaster
assistance teams that the New Zealand government has offered
for assisting in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.

2. In further response to ref B, following are additional
details on the disaster assistance teams:

(a) Urban Search and Rescue Team:

The Urban Search and Rescue Teams locate and remove trapped
and often injured victims from collapsed structures or
environments. The teams bring together highly trained
personnel (some of whom have trained with U.S. counterparts
and would be fully interoperable with FEMA teams) from New
Zealand's emergency services along with engineers, medics,
and search dog pairs. They have specialized equipment and
effective communications. There are about 50 people in one
task force. They can deploy at relatively short notice and
could operate for one to four weeks. The team would take
its own equipment.

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Instead of the full team, individual elements of the
taskforce could be provided if this would meet particular
needs. For example: up to 14 support personnel
(communications/logistics); a team of up to 4 engineers; up
to 48 rescue technicians (who can do a vast array of
activities ranging from technical rescue body recovery, to
stabilizing, to assessment); or, a team of up to 6 medics
(these personnel are not from the New Zealand Fire Service
and would need to be released from their host agency).

(b) Police Disaster Victim Identification team:

The New Zealand Police could deploy 10 staff members with
skills in logistics and Disaster Victim Identification
(DVI). The team has experience operating overseas and has
been deployed in the Solomon Islands, exhuming bodies, and
after the tsunami in Thailand, where it worked as part of a
multinational team on all phases of the recovery and
identification of victims.

The team would include a management cell. It would comprise
both sworn police offers and non-police staff members, as
follows:

Contingent leader, responsible for management and liaison
Contingent 2I/C, responsible for logistics, administration
and intelligence
Forensic pathologist, non-police
Forensic odontologist, non-police
Six-member police DVI team (sworn police officers trained
in: crime scene investigation; fingerprint examination;
other specialist forensic service areas; all property
sections; missing persons)

The contingent skills could, if necessary, be mixed and
matched to include extra dentists, fingerprint officers or
pathologists. However, from experience, the above makeup
and number of team members have been optimal to form a self-
resourcing unit.

New Zealand Police DVI members are experienced in:
-- Initiating DVI scene procedures.
-- Searching for all remains and property.
-- Recording and retrieving all remains and related
property.
-- Dividing the incident site into grid areas, taking into
account the terrain and position of all remains and debris.
-- Monitoring and coordinating DVI Phase One teams,
including support.
-- Receiving and storing human remains.
-- Removing, recording and storing property.
-- Conducting scientific examinations of the human remains.
-- Coordinating the repatriation of the human remains.
-- Establishing the DVI Ante Mortem Coordination Center.
-- Establishing the DVI Ante Mortem Files Section.
-- Establishing a missing persons/potential victims list.
-- Conducting interviews with the potential missing
person/potential victim's next-of-kin.
-- Providing the analyzed information about the missing
person/potential victim to the DVI Reconciliation Center, on
the relevant yellow Interpol DVI Ante Mortem Form.
-- Establishing the DVI Reconciliation Center.
-- Establishing the DVI Reconciliation File Section.
-- Operating the DVI Reconciliation Specialist Team.

3. Post has been told that the New Zealand Embassy on
September 7 also will provide the above information to
Ambassador Malloy.

BURNETT

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