140 bags of body parts from Bali attack to be buried
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Police said it would soon bury 140 bags containing the charred body parts of Oct 12. Bali bombing victims whose identities the forensic team could not establish.
Australia, whose nationals comprised most of the victims, had signaled its approval of the burial plans, said Bali police spokesman I Gde Nurjaya on Wednesday.
"The confirmation from the Australian Ambassador shows that the certainty of final handling through a burial is nearing 80 percent," Gde was quoted as saying by Antara.
He said Australian Ambassador to Indonesia David Ritchie had told Bali Governor Dewa Beratha that he entrusted the handling of the unidentified remains to the local government of Bali.
The Bali bombing killed at least 190 people, of whom 88 were identified as Australians. Britain and Indonesia followed Australia in the number of their nationals lost in the bombings. Nearly all of the victims died in the bombing at the Sari Club, which was favored by Australian tourists.
A team of forensic experts from Indonesia, Australia, Singapore and Thailand had been working to identify the victims through DNA tests, but many still remained unaccounted for.
Most of the bodies of identified victims were flown back to their home countries for burial, while the bodies of Indonesian victims had been cremated or buried in Bali depending on their families' requests.
Gde said his office had also contacted other embassies to seek their input over the handling of the body remains, but had been unsure of their thoughts on the matter until Australia responded.
Gde said that the administration had decided to bury the body parts instead of cremating them. This way, he said, the parts or bones could always be exhumed, if necessary.
However, the location of the burial had not yet been decided, he said, adding that it might be in the Mumbul area.
The Bali administration had set aside a plot of land for the Bali victims' mass grave in the Mumbul area of Jimbaran subdistrict, some 30 kilometers south of the provincial capital of Denpasar.
Officials have said the area already contained several cemeteries and that it was wholly owned by the administration.
Some locals would not permit the burial of unidentified remains for fear that they would defile the spiritual realm of their villages.
Four bodies of Swiss, Dutch, Danish and Brazilian nationals had yet to be claimed, said Gus Sumastra of the Bali administration's foreign office.
Gus said his office had contacted the families of the victims, but had received no response so far. The process of burying, cremating or sending the victims home required their families' written approval.
"We have finalized the administrative work on the bodies, and as soon as we have received confirmation from their families, we can start to meet their requests to either cremate the bodies or send them home," he said.