140 bags of body parts from Bali attack to be buried

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.