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)