Crash victim's body dug up, sent to hospital

JAKARTA (JP): The body of a victim of last Friday's Garuda Indonesia crash was dug up yesterday, three days after being buried in a cemetery in Depok, south of the city.

Agus Irawan returned the body, formerly identified as his wife Retno Winarti, one of the stewardesses, because he was sure that the body was not his wife's.

Agus felt sleepless after the burial. He even dreamed about Retno, who asked him to fetch her from Medan, North Sumatra, where the plane crashed.

"Why don't you fetch me? I'm still in Medan," Retno said in the dream, according to Syafei, a worker at the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital's morgue.

Moreover, Agus's daughter aged one year and seven months has fallen ill since the burial.

Agus flew to Medan after the crash and identified his wife's body. Syafei said Retno's body might have been mistakenly exchanged as it was put in the coffin, or that the casket might not have been labeled correctly.

The body was admitted to the hospital morgue in Central Jakarta at 11 a.m. yesterday and was classified as an unknown victim.

Syafei said the Garuda security officers who brought him the coffin just told him that the body was mistakenly buried as Retno Winarti, who had resided in Ciomas in Bogor.

Retno's body was believed to have been among the 48 unidentified remains buried near Polonia Airport in Medan Monday, he said.

The Garuda plane, flight number GA-152, crashed minutes before it was due to land at Polonia Airport, killing all 234 people on board.

Four Garuda executives, who accompanied the sending of the coffin to the hospital yesterday, declined to comment on the wrong identification of the body.

One of them just said, "It's over. Please don't ask us about this. It's not easy for us."

The head of the hospital's forensic department, Budi Sampurna, said such a mistake could happen in any accident involving many victims.

"The identification process is very difficult because of the very poor condition of the bodies and the limited number of forensic doctors," he said.

Budi refused to give the result of yesterday's identification to reporters.

Investigators thought they identified Retno very soon after the crash because she was wearing a Garuda uniform. Her body was sent to Jakarta Sunday together with two other victims -- the reporter and cameraman employed by private television station SCTV.

Mardiyono, the head of the morgue, said the coffin was sent to the hospital without first being checked by the body's family. It was still sealed and covered in dirt.

"After being unearthed, the family must have not opened the coffin to make sure that the body really was not their family member," he said.

The body will be kept in the morgue until it is claimed. (04)