Another body found, one victim dies
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.