We are identifying the bodies of the victims."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - A Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team of the Indonesian police has left for Malaysia to identify the bodies of victims of a recent boat mishap, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said.
"The DVI team of the Indonesian police has departed for Malaysia and will communicate with the DVI team of the Malaysian police to identify the bodies of the victims," the minister said here on Tuesday.
The DVI team had found it hard to identify the bodies as many of them were not found intact. Furthermore, only a few personal belongings of the victims were found, she said.
Therefore, she added that the DVI team would focus on identifying the bodies through DNA samples.
"We are identifying the bodies of the victims. The DVI team has been to the scene. We are also cooperating with three provincial police forces to help identify the dead," she stated.
To identify the bodies, the DVI team must follow at least two main processes, she said.
The first process includes postmortem identification of the bodies, for which the Indonesian police has sent a team to gather postmortem samples from the bodies.
The second process is gathering postmortem samples by cooperating with the police of North Sumatra, Aceh and East Java provinces where the victims came from, she said.
So far, 18 bodies of Indonesian citizens, who became victims of a boat mishap have been identified and sent to their hometowns for burial.
"This morning 11 bodies were readied to be flown to their hometowns. Six of them will be flown to Aceh, three to Medan and two to East Java," he said.
The Executive Director of DVI Indonesia, Senior Commissioner Anton Castilani, stated on Monday that the six-member DVI team from the Indonesian police comprises of two forensic specialists, a forensic dentist, a DNA specialist, and two fingerprint specialists from the Indonesia Automatic Finger System (Inafis).
The team is part of a joint operations team of the Indonesian police and the Foreign Ministry, he noted.
By Monday, the Malaysian SAR team had discovered 57 bodies of the victims of the boat mishap. Twenty people have survived the accident.
A boat carrying 70 Indonesian citizens had capsized in the waters of Sabak Bernam, Selangor, Malaysia on Thursday.
The Indonesian passengers, who were illegal migrants, were believed to have departed from Kuala Sungai Bernam and were on their way to Tanjung Balai Asahan, Indonesia, Kosmo Online reported.
(Reported by Yuni Arisandy/Uu.S012/INE/KR-BSR/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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