Quick burials spark anger among families<\/p>\n
Apriadi Gunawan and Dedy Ardiansyah, The Jakarta Post, Medan<\/p>\n
Deep sorrow engulfed Bungaran Simaremare as he put a Bible and
\nulos (a traditional Batak cloth worn covering the shoulder) on
\nthe coffin of his son Welman Chansisko Simaremare.<\/p>\n
He had to accept Welman being buried in a mass grave on
\nWednesday along with 33 other victims of a Mandala Airlines plane
\ncrash in Medan, North Sumatra, even though his family had managed
\nto identify his body.<\/p>\n
Bungaran was forced to allow his 33-year old son to be buried
\nin the mass grave because the bodies of Welman's wife Desy
\nTogatorop, 31, and his brother-in-law Maramos had still not been
\nidentified three days after Monday's tragedy that killed at least
\n149 people.<\/p>\n
"Let him be buried in a mass grave here. Maybe he wanted to be
\nwith his wife. We tried hard to find his wife, but to no avail,"
\nBungaran told The Jakarta Post after the mass burial.<\/p>\n
Welman's younger sister, Fordes Niaty Simaremare, 28, said her
\nextended family had agreed to allow the couple to be buried in a
\nmass grave, should the body of one of them not be identified.<\/p>\n
"We believe that they wanted to always be together," Fordes
\nadded.<\/p>\n
The corpse of Welmar was identified by his brother, who just
\narrived from Lampung, in the last minutes before being brought to
\nthe mass grave along with 33 other bodies.<\/p>\n
"We thank God that we were able to recognize his body. That's
\na miracle for us," said Fordes.<\/p>\n
As many as 34 charred bodies of victims killed in the crash --
\nall unidentified, except for Welman -- were buried in a field
\nclose to Medan's airport, where a Mandala Airlines Boeing 737-200
\nslammed into a densely populated residential area, creating a
\npath of destruction as it plowed into houses, cars, and
\npedestrians.<\/p>\n
The mass burial took place next to the mass grave of the
\nunidentified victims of a Garuda Indonesia Airbus A-300 that
\ncrashed in a mountainous area near Medan in September 1997,
\nkilling all 234 people on board.<\/p>\n
Tuesday's funeral, led by Medan Mayor Abdillah at around 1:30
\np.m., was witnessed by hundreds of people including families and
\nrelatives of the victims.<\/p>\n
North Sumatra provincial administration spokesman Eddy Sofyan
\nsaid the decision for the mass burial was made after a forensic
\nteam working around the clock could not identify them.<\/p>\n
"We have to bury the unidentified charred bodies today. We
\ncan't wait any longer," Sofyan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur,
\nreferring to Islamic customs that require quick burials of the
\ndead.<\/p>\n
However, several families of crash victims were upset about
\nthe fast process of identification, which left many of the
\ncharred remains unrecognized.<\/p>\n
Pesta Christina, Welman's elder sister, said the time for the
\nidentification process should have been extended for one more day
\nto assist families to find the bodies of their unidentified
\nrelatives.<\/p>\n
"We believe that if an additional day was given for
\nidentification, we would have found Welman's wife," Christina
\nadded.<\/p>\n
The three-day identification process also caused a dispute
\nbetween two families, who fought over a burnt corpse.<\/p>\n
The forensic team temporarily handed over the disputed body to
\nthe Sitanggang family after they claimed that it was a family
\nmember named Rohida Lumbanraja.<\/p>\n
However, the forensic team will be conducting DNA tests on the
\ncorpses in a bid to ascertain identity.<\/p>\n
All 34 bodies were placed in coffins and loaded onto military
\ntrucks for burial 100 meters from the Medan airport runway.<\/p>\n
Mourners threw flowers into the mass grave. Bulldozers then
\nheaped mounds of dirt over the coffins.<\/p>\n
The coffins were each given numbers, like the coffin of Welman
\nthat was numbered 34 P.<\/p>\n
The numbering of coffins was to enable possible identification
\nof the corpses sometime in the future if their families wanted to
\nmove them to other graves, said identification team chief Amri
\nAmir.<\/p>\n
He added that the possibility was still open that the buried
\nbodies could be identified.<\/p>\n
Amir said the forensic team had taken DNA samples from all 34
\nbodies before they were buried.<\/p>\n
"The results of the DNA tests are being examined in Jakarta
\nand could be known in a month at the latest. If the results are
\nconsistent with claims by the families of victims, they will be
\nallowed to resume the grave and move the bodies of their family
\nmembers," he added.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/quick-burials-spark-anger-among-families-1447893297",
"image": ""
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