Quake victims, Syrians seek news of missing

JANDARIS, Syria — The simple gravestone of a girl killed in last month’s earthquake in Syria bears no name, but notes she was wearing a green sweater at the time of her burial, a description left in the hope it may help someone identify her.

The bodies of up to 70 unidentified people have been buried in the cemetery in the northern Syrian town of Jandaris since the devastating Feb. 6 earthquake.

The cemetery’s caretaker Maysara al-hussein said people burying unknown victims would sometimes take pictures of their faces.

“Other times — for this child, for example — they couldn’t take a picture. Why? Because of disfigurement or because there’s no one who can identify her,” he added. “So we wrote down that she was wearing a green sweater, things like that.”

Hussein shows the images to people who visit looking for missing loved ones. Occasionally, he has managed to identify a person and guided relatives to their tombstone. But, more often, he is unable to help and points them to other graveyards to continue their search.

Local authorities have no figures for the number of people still missing since the earthquake, which killed thousands of people in Syria and tens of thousands in Turkey.