Crushing grief as remains of crash victims brought home to Yogyakarta

Crushing grief as remains of crash victims brought home to Yogyakarta

Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

The Yapemda I senior high school in Sleman regency, Yogyakarta,
was a place of grief on Friday as parents, other family members
and relatives waited for the arrival of the remains of 54 of the
school's students who died in a recent bus crash tragedy.

A number of mothers collapsed and cried out hysterically as
they saw the photographs of their dead children posted up on a
board outside the school in the hamlet of Pondok, Kalitirto
village, Berbah subdistrict.

A mother, who initially appeared to be coping relatively well,
suddenly burst into tears as she approached the board to look at
a photo of her dead daughter. She then fainted and collapsed on
the ground.

Sorrow, grief and the sound of sobbing pervaded the school all
day long. Hundreds of other local residents came to the school to
express their condolences to the bereaved.

They too were driven to tears by the calamity that had
afflicted their village.

A number of journalists covering the event were also visibly
moved, while many women cried hysterically.

"I am always deeply affected when I see families afflicted by
grief. This is more tragic than the Bali blasts," said Pamungkas,
a photographer.

The remains of the 54 victims -- 49 schoolgirls, two teachers
and two guides -- departed Situbondo regency, East Java, at
around 4:30 p.m. on Friday aboard dozens of ambulances. They were
expected to arrive in Yogyakarta early on Saturday morning.

The schoolgirls were burned to death on Wednesday evening as
the bus the were traveling on as part of a field trip to Bali was
hit by a trailer truck in Situbondo. The bus was also rammed from
behind by a pickup from behind.

The bus, belonging to the AO Transport firm, burst into
flames, incinerating all of the trapped passengers.

Most of the remains have still to be identified, but they are
being sent home at the request of the families and relatives.

Uncontrollable grief also pervaded the homes of the bereaved
families in Sleman, including a rented house in Teguhan village,
Berbah. Five of the dead schoolgirls -- Ari Susanti, Dwi Wahyuni,
Giyanti, Siti Prihatin and Sugiyem -- lived there.

Ibu Yusuf, 40, who owns the rented house, said she still could
not believe what had happened. "I considered them (the five
schoolgirls) as my own children. We always dined, cooked, cleaned
up and watched television together," she said distraughtly.

The girls' mother recalled that when she held a traditional
prayer session for her dead husband a month ago, the five
children had all worked hard to help her. They had asked her to
take photograph of them all together as a keepsake.

"Now they are dead," the sobbing widow said. "I have only one
child left now, who is in Jakarta. They (the schoolgirls) were
all very close to me."

Tugiman, the father of another dead schoolgirl, Vira
Widiyanti, also could not hide his grief. He said Vira's brother
had been injured in a traffic accident last month and was still
in the hospital.

"The night before the (Situbondo) crash, I called her (Vira)
to ask her to bring him some fruit. But I didn't know then that
it was the last time I would ever talk to her," he recalled.

Another father, Sarijo, 40, said his dead daughter, Riyanti,
had decided to go to Bali along with her twin sister, Riyani, to
take part in the field trip.

Their mother had suggested that the twin sisters ride in
different buses before they left Yogyakarta.

"We didn't expect anything at the time. Is this some sort of
natural instinct?" Sarijo said.

The Yapemda school was filled with more than 300 floral
wreaths. Every five minutes on Friday, at least another two
wreaths were left at the school.

Those sending wreaths included President Megawati
Soekarnoputri, People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais,
Minister of National Education Malik Fajar, National Police chief
Gen. Da'i Bachtiar and Yogyakarta Governor Sultan Hamengkubuwono
X.

Other wreaths were sent by regents, mayors and schools in
Yogyakarta, and local government agencies.

"On the first day, around 100 wreaths arrived, and today the
school received around 200 more," Aspandi, a local resident,
said.

Megawati also sent police officer Sr. Comr. Boedi Gunawan to
deliver a letter of condolence to the school and symbolically
present each of the bereaved families with a bereavement donation
of Rp 5 million (US$862).

Malik Fajar handed over Rp 2.5 million to each of the 54
families, while Amien Rais, who directly visited the school, gave
them Rp 3 million each.

Sleman administration spokesperson Sudarningsih said her local
authority had spent around Rp 200 million on transporting the
remains of the victims to Yogyakarta. Identification -- Page 2