Thais dig up graves to ID bodies
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 Tensions high in Aceh, long the scene of a separatist rebellion.
 New video shows violent flooding in the streets of Banda Aceh.
 A man survives in the tsunami rubble for two weeks without food or water.
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(CNN) -- As many as 800 bodies are being exhumed from mass graves in Thailand in a bid to help identify thousands of people still listed as missing following the December 26 tsunamis.
The bodies were buried in shallow, sandy pits at Bang Muang on the southwest coast in the days immediately following the disaster because the Thai authorities lacked sufficient refrigeration units to stop the corpses rotting.
About 5,300 people were killed in the tsunami tragedy in Thailand and a further 3,700 are listed as missing, including more than 1,000 foreign tourists.
Thai authorities are still pumping lakes in the region on the country's southwest coast, hoping to find some of the missing bodies.
The Thai government has announced DNA tests will now be carried out on all the confirmed dead in a bid to clear up any misidentifications that may have occurred.
Local officials had earlier insisted that only Thais were buried at Bang Muang, but there are now concerns that Westerners may have been wrongly identified as Asians in the chaos following the tsunamis.
Thailand's Interior Ministry now says the nationality of nearly 2,000 of the bodies is unreliable and will need to undergo further testing.
Some Western-looking corpses have been placed in refrigeration units at Yan Yao temple, the main temporary morgue in the area, the Associated Press reports.
Forensics teams from Germany, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, as well as a joint Scandinavian team, are now working at Yan Yao to identify the bodies.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Monday he was confident that all the corpses would be properly identified through DNA samples taken from teeth, but he warned the process could take some time.
Thai authorities are planning to move the bodies of still unidentified tsunami victims to a single location on the outskirts of the hard-hit tourist resort area of Phuket.
The move would make identifying the dead more efficient, the deputy permanent secretary of the Public Health Ministry, Dr Supachai Kunarattanapreuk, said according to Thailand's The Nation newspaper.
Meanwhile, a United Nations aid conference will get underway on Tuesday, aiming to turn pledges of $8 billion into cash.
A working group of 250 representatives from governments, aid organizations and countries in need of assistance will gather in Geneva.
The devastating tsunamis killed more than 140,000 people in south Asia and east Africa.
In some places, the relief effort is harder than in others -- places like Indonesia's Aceh province, where the western coast was just 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the earthquake's epicenter.
The tsunamis hit the shore within 15 minutes of the earthquake, taking with them whole villages and the roads between them.
Adding to the difficulties in reaching parts of Aceh is the three-decade conflict between the Indonesian government and separatist rebels. The government initially delayed allowing the U.S. military into the province and even now watches closely who goes where.
"There is a need to build trust to a certain extent, to offer a helping hand, to say, 'We are here to support your efforts, at your direction, where you need it,'" said Brig. Gen. Christian Cowdrey.
Aid groups, too, sometimes have to wait. One French medical team has been waiting four days for permission and a lift into the area west of Banda Aceh.
And the Indonesian military presence in Banda Aceh, a staple before the tsunami but lower after so much of the infrastructure -- including the military infrastructure -- was destroyed, has now returned. Soldiers are again common sights on the streets.
But the relief agencies talk more of hiccups than crises.
"When issues arise, where there is a difference of opinion, we can negotiate and discuss ways it ought to be done," said Michael Bak, a coordinator for the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Aceh operated under martial law until the Indonesian government relaxed its restrictions after the tsunami.
Human rights agencies such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch accuse the Indonesian military and rebels of human rights abuses, but have not been allowed into the area for either relief work or a closer look at the situation.
Other groups -- including the United Nations and the European Union -- have repeatedly asked Indonesia to allow relief agencies in to Aceh.
Now, some relief workers quietly discuss moving beyond refugee camps and trying to document alleged human rights abuses -- and they talk of establishing long-term missions here.
The military, however, makes clear its promised accommodation is by no means open-ended.
"Of course, the level of importance will be assessed," said military spokesman Col. Ahmed Yani. "The government would make an assessment decision from these assessments, just how important it is for these groups to stay."
The worldwide death toll has topped 140,000 and is expected to go much higher. In Indonesia alone, which has reported 95,000 deaths, the Health Ministry says 77,000 people remain missing.
Other developments
Schools in Sri Lanka and Banda Aceh have reopened as the communities there try to recover some sense of normality.Aftershocks from the quake continued to rattle Banda Aceh on Monday, sending people scrambling from their homes.A new video has brought a fresh perspective to the horror of the disaster. The tape -- shot by a wedding photographer perched on a rooftop in Banda Aceh -- shows a torrent of dark brown water flowing fast and furious down the street below. (Watch the video)CNN's Correspondents Kasra Naji in Costogoda, Sri Lanka and John King in Banda Aceh, Indonesia contributed to this report.
Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
