RSCM morgue handles 600 bodies every month

RSCM morgue handles 600 bodies every month

JAKARTA (JP): State-run Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital
receives an average of 600 bodies for postmortem every month, a
senior morgue staffer said yesterday.

The bodies are brought in mostly by police and relatives, said
Atjep, who has worked at the morgue for 28 years.

The cause of their deaths range from manslaughter, mobbing and
suicide to traffic accidents and disease, he said.

An average 40 corpses or 6.7 percent of the total are
unidentified corpses due to the lack of information available.

The unidentified bodies -- along with those whose relatives
refuse to claim -- are buried with the help of city authorities,
said Atjep.

"So, rumors that the unidentified bodies are normally sent to
neighboring University of Indonesia for lab experiments by
medical students are totally untrue," he said.

"I've been working here since 1969 and I've never seen any of
the unidentified corpses used by the medical students for
experiments."

He said the bodies were taken to the university's forensic
laboratory only for police reasons.

The unidentified and unclaimed bodies are buried at Semper
public cemetery in North Jakarta and Pondok Rangon cemetery in
East Jakarta, he said.

According to Atjep, the unclaimed bodies were neglected by
their relatives even though the hospital staff informed them
about the corpses.

"If no one claims the bodies after several hours we'll bury
the corpses on our own initiative," he said.

In many cases, he said, the unclaimed bodies had usually met
their fate due to crime or repressive police actions.

"Some had died after committing crimes and out of public shame
their relatives would not claim the bodies," said Atjep. (bsr)