News and press interest – 25th May 2007

Prof Margaret Cox, Mark Viner and Roland Wessling were invited to participate in the Annual Meeting of the Interpol Standing Committee on Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) conference in Lyon in May. The Interpol DVI committee meets once a year and this years conference saw around 120 delegates representing 37 countries, academic institutions, NGOs and some private companies. Over the three day period delegates heard presentations which ranged from scientific methods of computer facial reconstruction to case studies of aircraft crash investigations.

Prof Margaret Cox had been invited by the Chair of the conference, Helena Ras to present the Inforce protocols and Standard Operating Procedures for atrocity crime investigations and their significance for DVI operations. Mark Viner was also asked to present  on the role of radiography in mass fatality incident mortuary operations in general and in the 7/7 London bombing operation in particular. Roland Wessling presented Inforce's experience and expertise in training and exercising using large scale simulation workshops, such as the mass grave excavation or mass fatality incident mortuary workshops. All three presentations were very well received and generated much discussion amongst delegates from various countries. Throughout the conference, the Inforce representatives were able to network with many representatives with differing backgrounds in DVI operations and some of these contacts have already resulted in joint projects.

Inforce is very much looking forward to cultivating these new contacts and to meeting some of them again at next year's Interpol DVI conference.