Another body found, one victim dies
Rita A. Widiadana, The Jakarta Post, Kuta, Bali
A team of investigators found another dead body and parts of human hands at the bomb site in what was formerly Sari Club in Legian, Kuta, while one critical victim being treated at Sanglah General Hospital died of complications on Thursday afternoon.
Endang, 35, an Indonesian who suffered serious burns from the blast and had been in critical condition, died at Sanglah's intensive care unit.
Her death brought the number of people killed in the blast to 184, said Dr. Ketut Suarjaya, head of the crisis center at the hospital.
At present 41 victims are still being treated in Bali, 31 of them at Sanglah, the remaining 10 at six private hospitals in Denpasar, said head of Sanglah medical team Dr. Cakra Wibawa Manuaba.
Five of the patients are foreigners and all are suffering serious burns, he added.
Meanwhile, identification of the bodies has been very slow, it could take months to complete formal identification of all victims of the Bali bombing and some may never be identified, the head of the team handling the process said on Thursday.
Although some victims had been identified visually, international protocols required that identification be by DNA, dental records or fingerprints, Australian Federal Police officer Julian Slater said, as quoted by AFP.
He said because of the complexities of the process and the protocols involved he could not speculate on how long it would take, even in the simpler cases.
"Until this process is complete, I think it could take months," he told a news conference here.
"That is not to say it will be months before people are identified, but we are still actually examining the scene and the remains of victims are still being recovered.
"It is an extraordinarily long process and something that we cannot carry out any faster."
Meanwhile, thousands of people flocked to a nearby site on Thursday to pay their respects to those killed in the bombing and to hold religious ceremonies.
The provincial government of Bali is still waiting for the investigation team to complete its task before it can clean up the debris at the site.
"We have been cooperating with state-owned electricity company PT PLN, state-owned telecommunications company PT Telkom and the city-owned water company to clear the site to make way for a reconstruction project," said a spokesman at the governor's office.
The Bali government has set aside special funds for the reconstruction of the area damaged in the bombing. The central government has promised to hand over Rp 500 billion for refurbishment and compensation for residents and businesspeople affected by the incident.
The Ministry of Social Affairs has allocated a compensation fund of around Rp 1 billion. Owners of destroyed buildings are to receive Rp 5 million each while families of the deceased will get Rp 3 million each.
The spokesman went on to say that the local government was facing difficulty in finding dump sites for the debris from Legian.
"The Balinese people view the debris as leteh, spiritually dirty," he explained.
He said the provincial government would consult first with a number of High Hindu Priests and traditional leaders on the island to decide the location of the dump sites.
A major ceremony will be held on Nov. 15 in Legian. After the major ceremony, there will be a special pilgrimage to sprinkle holy water of Nunas Tirta on several mountains, namely Bromo, Raung, Arjuna and Dieng in Central Java and Mount Rinjani in Lombok island.
At a media conference held by Bali Tourism Community at Hard Rock Hotel in Kuta, officials from Garuda Indonesia airlines promised to provide two free around-the-world tickets for each victim's family if they participated in the coming ceremony.
The Association of Hotels and Restaurants in Bali is also providing hotel rooms free of charge for three days for families of victims who want to take care of matters related to the Kuta bombing.