Bereaved Families bury unidentified crash victims
Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
Grieving parents of 14 of the 54 mainly schoolgirls from Yogyakarta killed in Wednesday's tragic bus inferno in East Java must face further anguish; holding funeral ceremonies with remains that may not be their own children.
With DNA testing required to formally identify 14 of the bodies, the families agreed on Saturday to take the charred bodies they believed to be their children to complete the funerals.
In keeping with their faith, Muslims must be buried as quickly as possible.
Yogyakarta Governor Hamengkubuwono X said if DNA testing found the wrong bodies had been buried, they would be switched and reburied.
He was speaking at a ceremony to receive the bodies of the students and teachers from Yapemda I senior high school in Kalitirto, Sleman regency, 15 kilometers east of Yogyakarta. The emotional event was held near the school.
Among the mourners attending the ceremony was social affairs minister Bachtiar Chamsyah.
All the victims were burned alive after their bus caught fire following a head-on collision with a truck in Situbondo, near the Paiton geothermal plant. They were on their way home after a trip to Bali.
The truck driver and his assistant and the bus driver have been named suspects by police. The truck driver, identified as Kozin, admitted during interrogation that his unlicensed assistant, Syafii, was at the wheel when the accident occurred.
The bodies were handed over to their families shortly after the ceremony on Saturday.
The grieving was evident throughout Kalitirto on Saturday, with residents moving from one house to another to convey their condolences.
Dozens of students were among the mourners visiting the house of Tulus Ikhlas, the founder of the Yapemda foundation that runs the school, who was buried in a public cemetery in the village.
The body of one of the students, Riyani, and her belongings were buried in a public cemetery.
Her twin sister, Riyanti, was confined to her bedroom as she was still in a state of shock, while her mother, Sariyem, fainted, Antara reported.
Another student, Ruli Rubianti, was buried in Karang Kalasan public cemetery in Tirtomartani subdistrict. Her mother, Bujang Purnomo, burst into tears as the ambulance carrying the body arrived.
Ruli's father had pawned his traditional pedicab (becak) at a pawnshop to help pay his daughter's travel expenses.
Uncontrolled grief pervaded Somodaran cemetery in Purwomartani, where Ika Susilowati was buried. She was raised by her mother, Sunarti, after they were abandoned by their father.
The Gadjah Mada University psychology department has provided lecturers and students to counsel the families and friends of the victims.
The high school is expected to reopen on Monday after being closed since Thursday.