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Some Bali bombing victims may never be identified

October 15 2002

Some Australians killed in the Bali terrorist attack are so badly mutilated they might never be identified.

Others may have no remains to be identified.

That was the grim news to emerge today after the biggest peacetime loss of Australian life on foreign soil.

Only 20 Australian have been confirmed dead but expectations are that the final figure will rise above 100. Officially 160 Australians are still unaccounted for.

The nature of the injuries and the rapid decomposition in the tropical heat mean some traumatised families will have no finality, no closure, to last weekend's nightclub bombings.

As authorities admitted the overall death toll could approach 200, Australia flew in aid and experts to help treat the 300 injured, track the killers and identify the dead.

The equipment included medical supplies, DNA testing facilities and refrigerated containers to ease the crisis at Denpasar's vastly overworked makeshift morgue.

But officials admitted today the carnage was so horrific that technology would make no difference in some cases.

"It's highly likely that some victims will be unable to be identified," said Australia's consul-general in Bali, Ross Tysoe.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, visiting the scene for the first time, said: "Many of them are burnt beyond recognition."

Those close to the deadliest of the two explosions, at Sari's nightclub in the Kuta tourist strip, would have "disintegrated", Mr Downer said.

He said the overall death toll was likely to exceed the 182 confirmed by Indonesian authorities. Three survivors who returned to Australia have since died from their injuries, taking the toll to at least 185.

But Mr Downer indicated the figure of 160 Australians still listed as missing was "pessimistic", and that amount was likely to continue dropping as some made contact with officials.

Consular officials said no seriously injured Australians remained in Bali.

All had been evacuated by early yesterday.

That left the identification and repatriation of bodies as the most pressing problem here.

"We are doing everything we can, but it's going to be a long, drawn-out procedure," Mr Tysoe warned.

He said two Australian Federal Police officers, experts in victim identification, had arrived in Bali and more were on the way.

They include three senior members of the Disaster Victim Identification Unit who helped identify the victims of the Childers hostel fire in 2000.

Crime scene and forensic experts from Australia are also believed to be helping Indonesian authorities.

A laboratory with DNA testing facilities was on its way, along with dental records to help identify victims.

And five refrigerated containers flown in by the RAAF, capable of handling up to 17 bodies each, were being set up at Denpasar's Sanglah hospital, 15km from the scene of the blasts.

Mr Tysoe said the morgue there was under "enormous stress" as workers battled with ice slabs to prevent bodies from decomposing.

The Australian government had contracted the disaster relief organisation Kenyon International to help prepare identified remains for transport.

Not a single Australian body had yet been moved from the hospital, he said, because they had to be prepared first, and local officials did not have the facilities to handle "the numbers we are talking about".

But Prime Minister John Howard told Parliament the first bodies could arrive in Australia later tonight.

"I can inform the House that the government will pay the entire cost of repatriation of the remains of all people killed, back to Australia," he said.

Asked what would happen to bodily remains believed to be Australian but which could not be identified, Mr Tysoe said: "I can't answer that."




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