99 bodies sent to RSCM in two months

JAKARTA (JP): As of Monday, Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital records show a total 99 bodies admitted to its morgue this year, of which only seven have been identified by family members and/or friends.

The records show the bodies were found in different parts of the capital with various causes of death.

The seven bodies were identified by relatives and friends of the deceased a few days after their remains were admitted to the morgue. Identification revealed that 40-year-old Rasman died after being electrocuted while sitting on the roof of a train; Sukron, who drowned in Ciliwung River in Jatinegara, East Jakarta. The other five were murdered, including a transvestite identified as Hugo Yonathan.

Among the unidentified corpses were nine babies, believed to be unwanted by their parents, some of which were buried in a mass grave in Pondok Ranggon, on the outskirts of Jakarta. One of the nine was found on Monday in Tambora, West Jakarta.

The remaining corpses bore traces of either violent physical assault by blunt objects or sharp weapons; a number of bloated corpses indicated the cause of death was either accidentally or murder. One woman's decomposed body was found by a fisherman in Ancol, North Jakarta, four days after she had been murdered. A fisherman found her remains half-naked and her hands tied with her clothes.

Signs indicating death due to drug overdose were also present in a number of bodies.

Bruises and marks of beating were also found on several bodies, including that of the man who was beaten up by an angry crowd following Sunday's murder attempt on the National Awakening Party chairman Matori Abdul Djalil in his house in South Jakarta.

Seven of the unidentified bodies were kept for medical studies, while the remaining were buried in Pondok Ranggon cemetery. (06)