[Kabar-indonesia] Indo/Bali News - 10/27/02 (Part 2 of 2)

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- Pressure grows on Indonesia to act on terror 
- Abu Bakar Back On Top
- Cleric to Cooperate in Bali Blast
- Indonesia: Foreign experts assisted Bali island terrorists 
- Australia tells APEC: Stop extremists
- UN takes tough stand on Jemaah Islamiah
- PM talks tough with Megawati
- Indonesia asks countries to lift travel bans 
- Identification of dead from Bali bombing delayed by poor coordination, lack 
of resources  
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Pressure grows on Indonesia to act on terror 
26 October, 2002 19:28 GMT+08:00  
By Dadang Tri and Dean Yates 
Solo/Jakarta (Reuters) 

An Indonesian Muslim cleric, alleged chief of a regional terror network, 
entertained more visitors at his hospital bed on Saturday as pressure grew on 
Jakarta to fulfil its promise to crack down on extremists.  

Police who have detained Abu Bakar Bashir at a hospital in the central Java 
city of Solo for more than a week, said they were still waiting to question him 
about allegations he was involved in a plot to kill President Megawati 
Sukarnoputri. 

Police have not detained Bashir over devastating bomb blasts on Indonesia's 
resort island of Bali on October 12, although suspicion for the carnage has 
fallen on the radical Southeast Asian group he is alleged to lead, the Jemaah 
Islamiah network. 

There was still no plan to take the preacher to Jakarta for interrogation as 
police had to wait for him to recover from what doctors said were heart and 
respiratory problems. 

Dr Sathoni, a heart specialist treating Bashir, predicted the preacher would 
soon make a full recovery. 

''Abu Bakar Bashir will be well in two or three days,'' Sathoni told reporters 
at the hospital. He gave no more details. 

But in the aftermath of the blasts on Bali that killed more than 180 mainly 
Western holidaymakers, Megawati is coming under growing international pressure 
to take more action. 

Stung by the deaths of about 90 Australians in the explosions and in an 
apparent swipe at Jakarta, Australian Prime Minister John Howard challenged 
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) nations to fight terrorism on their 
own turf. 

''No amount of international exhortations can substitute for the determination 
of individual governments who know they have a terrorist problem within their 
borders to do something about it,'' Howard said in Mexico at the annual APEC 
gathering. 

Howard and Megawati met at the APEC meeting but no details of their discussions 
were immediately available. 

Indonesia, an APEC member, had been accused in the United States and elsewhere 
of dragging its feet on a promised clampdown on militant Islamic groups. 

The bearded 64-year-old Bashir has denied any terrorism links and insists the 
al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah does not exist. Bashir is suspected of ties to 
a series of earlier bombings in Indonesia as well as a plot to assassinate 
Megawati. 

The United Nations added the Jemaah Islamiah to its list of groups and people 
whose assets should be frozen due to suspected ties to Osama bin Laden or his 
al Qaeda network. 

Yet Another Visitor 
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country and the government is 
counting on support from moderate Islamic leaders to prevent a backlash as it 
tries to crack down on extremists. 

Some saw detaining Bashir and announcing presidential decrees expanding police 
anti-terrorism powers last week as evidence Jakarta was finally moving, 
although little has happened since. 

The head of a small radical Islamic group was the latest in a stream of 
visitors, including one moderate Muslim chief, to make his way past 30 of the 
preacher's supporters and a dozen policemen to Bashir's hospital room. 

Suaib Didu later told reporters Bashir urged him not just to defend the cleric, 
but also the Islamic struggle. Didu said Bashir did not elaborate. 

Asked if Megawati had urged security authorities to step up the pace in moving 
against Bashir, one close aide said the president wanted everything done 
according to the law, and had not given any deadline for Bashir to be whisked 
to Jakarta. 

''There is no deadline, because an investigation cannot be done recklessly,'' 
said Agnita Singedekane Irsal of Megawati's Indonesia Democratic Party-Struggle 
(PDI-P). 

Bashir was detained after investigators returned from questioning Omar al-
Faruq, a self-confessed al Qaeda operative arrested in Indonesia in June and 
turned over to Washington. 

Deputy national police spokesman Edward Aritonang said moving Bashir to Jakarta 
depended on his health. 

He also told a news conference on Bali that investigators had been 
reconstructing events at the main blast site on the famed Kuta beach strip 
involving witnesses, although he declined to give details. 

Police have named no official suspects in the Bali blasts, but said three men 
they had sketches of might include those who carried out the crime and that 
they were re-interrogating 10 Pakistanis previously questioned on the island. 

In Mexico, leaders of the 21-member APEC called for tough action against 
Islamic extremists ahead of a weekend summit expected to focus on finding new 
ways to counter militants. 
-- (with additional reporting by Telly Nathalia in Jakarta) 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Australian Financial Review (via Joyo Indonesia News)
October 26, 2002 
Abu Bakar Back On Top
By Tim Dodd

Public doubt about Abu Bakar Bashir's guilt is fuelling a revival of anti-
Western feelings in Indonesia.

He has a hopeless cause, some repulsive ideas, not many disciples and some very 
bad acquaintances. But nevertheless the extremist Muslim cleric Abu Bakar 
Bashir is making a fool of Indonesia's leader Megawati Soekarnoputri and 
seriously threatens to upset the international effort, following the Bali 
bombing two weeks ago, to lock Indonesia into the anti-terror alliance.

Who would have expected this once-obscure radical leader, committed to the 
unrealistic goal of creating an Islamic superstate in South-East Asia, to ever 
reach this influential position?

But, in the absence of firm suspects for the Bali bombing, the arrest of this 
64-year-old religious teacher has become the international yardstick for 
measuring Indonesia's commitment to the anti-terror cause and the Indonesian 
public is not buying it.

For the past week, since Indonesian authorities moved to arrest him on charges 
of involvement with a string of earlier bombings and an outlandish plot to 
assassinate Megawati, Abu Bakar has lain in a hospital bed apparently too sick 
to be moved to a cell or even answer police questions.

But from this unlikely podium he is winning broad public sympathy. "Across 
Indonesia there is a real scepticism about what proof exists against Abu Bakar 
Bashir, and not just among Muslims," says Jakarta-based analyst Sidney Jones, 
Indonesia project director for the International Crisis Group.

Moderate Islamic groups have flocked to defend him. For example, he is 
receiving free treatment in a hospital belonging to Muhammadiyah, a 30-million 
strong mainstream Muslim group, in the city of Solo in central Java.

The issue is that the evidence for Abu Bakar being the spiritual leader of the 
Jemaah Islamiyah terror group comes from foreign sources US, Singaporean, 
Malaysian and Philippine intelligence agencies. And it is not credible in the 
eyes of the Indonesian public, who are more likely to believe he has been 
framed.

To overcome this problem the US recently allowed Indonesian police to 
separately interview an Al Qaeda supergrass, Omar al-Faruq, who is held in 
Afghanistan, to garner their own evidence. But this is hardly likely to 
convince a sceptical Indonesian public.

Public doubts about Abu Bakar's guilt are also fuelling a revival of anti-US 
and anti-Australian feeling in Indonesia.

"People think that there is an international conspiracy, that there is American 
engineering in this case," says Jakarta lawyer Jimly Asshiddiqie, a well-known 
moderate Muslim figure who is assisting Abu Bakar's defence team.

Anti-Western sentiment is returning to the Indonesian media, which has 
spotlighted the case of an Indonesian woman victim of the Bali bombing who died 
while being evacuated to Australia for burns treatment.

Kadek Alit Margarini, 23, is said to have been a witness to the planting of the 
small bomb in Paddy's Club and insinuations are appearing that Australia 
somehow wanted her evidence hidden. The Jakarta newspaper Republika on Friday 
claimed Kadek was "evacuated by force by an Australian medical team", and that 
her cause of death had not been revealed.

It adds up to a big problem for Megawati, who is under intense Western pressure 
to step up anti-terror measures against Jemaah Islamiyah.

Public and credible evidence is what Indonesia's moderate Muslim leaders are 
looking for before condemning Abu Bakar.

"I think if there is authentic evidence (that Jemaah Islamiyah is a terrorist 
group) all broad-minded people will accept it," Muhammadiyah's national 
chairman Syafii Maarif said this week.

But it is not clear whether Megawati, who is politically slow-footed, 
understands this. She has made no public effort to woo moderate Islam to her 
side.

Indeed Australian National University Indonesia analyst Greg Fealy says he has 
been reliably told that that Megawati turned down requests by three of 
Indonesia's most influential Muslim leaders supreme parliament chairman Amien 
Rais, Nahdlatul Ulama (the biggest Muslim group) chairman Hasyim Muzadi, and 
Syafii himself to meet her after the Bali bombing.

Fealy believes that Megawati has succeeded in alienating herself not only from 
Indonesia's Muslim community but also from her supporters in Indonesia's large 
secular nationalist political groupings.

When Asia-Pacific leaders, including George Bush and John Howard, meet Megawati 
this weekend in Mexico, they are certain to urge her to take tougher measures 
against terrorists. But, if she is in any mood to listen, they should also warn 
her to watch her flank.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cleric to Cooperate in Bali Blast
The Associated Press
Solo, Indonesia Oct. 27 

The ailing spiritual leader of an extremist Islamic organization accused of 
involvement in the Bali nightclub bombings said Sunday he will submit to 
questioning but resist efforts to detain him.

Abu Bakar Bashir was placed under arrest for a 2000 church bombing spree after 
he checked into a hospital in his hometown of Solo with breathing problems two 
weeks ago. Doctors said he could be released as early as Monday.

"I will reject all efforts to detain me, to the extent it is in my capabilities 
to do so," Bashir said from his hospital bed.

However, Bashir said he would allow police to question him.

"I will respect the summons and will go to questioning. But my detainment is 
(illegal)," he said. "The terrorist governments of America and its allies have 
always wanted me detained."

Police said they were waiting for the Muslim cleric to be released from 
hospital before taking him into custody and questioning him about his alleged 
links to Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional Islamic group believed to be seeking a 
Muslim super-state in Southeast Asia and allied to al-Qaida. The group is 
suspected of the Bali nightclub bombing that killed almost 200 people.

Bashir denies any link to Jemaah Islamiyah, and claims that such an 
organization does not exist.

Bashir, 64, was not arrested for the Oct. 12 Bali bombings but has been charged 
with ordering the church bombings that killed 19 people and plotting the 
assassination of President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Bashir's arrest occurred after Indonesian investigators returned from 
questioning Omar al-Faruq, an al-Qaida operative whom they quietly took into 
custody earlier this year, then turned over to the United States.

Al-Faruq claims to have known Bashir well and implicated him in the church 
bombings and the assassination plot.

"Bashir will be ready for questioning midweek to clarify the terror 
allegations. He has not committed any crimes," his lawyer Achmad Michdan said.

Jakarta has been treating Bashir with velvet gloves for fear his supporters 
could trigger riots in Solo, 250 miles east of Jakarta, where he runs a 
religious school.

"Solo has a short fuse," Solo police chief Bambang Hermanu said. "We want to 
prevent that."

Meanwhile, President Bush met with Megawati on the sidelines of the Asia 
Pacific Economic Cooperation forum Saturday in the Mexican resort of Cabo San 
Lucas.

Bush praised the steps she has taken to combat terrorism, while acknowledging 
the country still has a long way to go, a senior U.S. official said.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington is prepared 
to help Indonesia in its efforts to locate those responsible for the Bali 
bombings.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ha'aretz, Israel 
15:10 26/10/2002 
Indonesia: Foreign experts assisted Bali island terrorists 
By Ha'aretz Service and Agencies 

An Indonesian official said that the terrorists who carried out the terror 
attacks in the island of Bali two weeks ago were assisted by experts from other 
countries, Israel Radio reported Saturday. 

The official said that one of the bombs was activated by a cellular phone, a 
method not previously used in Indonesia. The explosives used for making the 
bombs were imported from overseas. 

An Indonesian Muslim cleric, alleged chief of a regional terror network, 
entertained more visitors at his hospital bed on Saturday as pressure grew on 
Jakarta to fulfil its promise to crack down on extremists. 

But police who have detained Abu Bakar Bashir at a hospital in the central Java 
city of Solo for more than a week, said they were still waiting to question him 
about allegations he was involved in a plot to kill President Megawati 
Sukarnoputri. 

There was still no plan to take the preacher to Jakarta for interrogation as 
they had to wait for him to recover from what doctors say are heart and 
respiratory problems, they said. 

But in the wake of devastating bomb blasts on Indonesia's resort island of Bali 
that killed more than 180 mainly Western holidaymakers on October 12, Megawati 
is coming under growing international pressure to take more action. 

Stung by the deaths of about 90 Australians in the explosions and in an 
apparent swipe at Jakarta, Prime Minister John Howard challenged Asia Pacific 
Economic Cooperation (APEC( nations to fight terrorism on their own turf. 

"No amount of international exhortations can substitute for the determination 
of individual governments who know they have a terrorist problem within their 
borders to do something about it," Howard said in Mexico at the annual APEC 
gathering. 

Howard and Megawati met at the APEC gathering but no details of their 
discussions were immediately available. 

The United Nations added the Jemaah Islamiah to its list of groups and people 
whose assets should be frozen due to suspected ties to Osama bin Laden or his 
al Qaida network.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABS CBN News, Philippines 
Saturday, October 26, 2002 8:50:33 p.m 
Australia tells APEC: Stop extremists

Los Cabos, Mexico - Angered by the Bali bomb attacks that killed 90 
Australians, Prime Minister John Howard challenged regional governments on 
Friday (Saturday in Manila) to tackle extremist groups operating on their soil. 

Howard said countries should work together against the threat of extremist 
Islamic groups but it was even more important that governments step up to the 
challenge at home. 

"No amount of international exhortations can substitute for the determination 
of individual governments who know they have a terrorist problem within their 
borders to do something about it," Howard told business leaders at a summit in 
Mexico of the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation grouping. 

The Oct. 12 bombings that ripped through a Kuta Beach nightclub area on the 
Indonesian island of Bali killed around 180 people, around half of them 
Australian tourists. 

Indonesia, a fellow APEC member, was criticized in the past for not trying hard 
enough to track and stop militant Islamic groups operating on its soil, but it 
has stepped up its efforts since the Bali attacks. 

Australian experts have been allowed to join the Bali investigation, which has 
focused on the Muslim militant group Jemaah Islamiah, and Howard said he was 
grateful for the level of cooperation. 

But he also said the extremist group "does have support and networks throughout 
Indonesia and obviously it's important that all steps are taken within that 
country to identify and curb its activities and to take whatever action should 
be taken to deal with people who have committed criminal offenses." 

Howard said the bombers had clearly wanted to attack Westerners, even if there 
was no evidence they wanted to target Australians specifically. 

"The twin aims of the attack were to inflict damage and death and grief and 
destruction on Westerners generally ... and secondly, to destabilize the 
government of Indonesia. The people who did this are no friends of Indonesia," 
he said. 

New measures to prevent militant groups from launching new attacks are at the 
top of this week's APEC summit agenda and the Bali bombings have clearly added 
to the pressure on some nations who have in the past been skeptical about the 
U.S. government's anti-terrorism campaign. 

A series of U.S.-proposed measures to be approved by APEC leaders this weekend 
include more effective baggage screening, sharing information on possibly 
dangerous passengers, using fingerprint technology on travel documents, 
reinforcing flight deck doors and putting electronic seals on cargo shipments. 
-- Reuters/abs-cbnNEWS.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Age (Melbourne)
UN takes tough stand on Jemaah Islamiah
October 27 2002
By Tony Parkinson, Washington

The United Nations has declared Jemaah Islamiah an outlawed terrorist 
organisation, after Australia pushed strongly for a forceful international 
response to the Bali massacre.

The proposal to list the network of South-East Asian Islamic extremists 
alongside international terrorist groups such as al Qaeda won the unanimous 
support of all 10 member states of the Association of South-East Asian Nations, 
including Indonesia and Malaysia.

The UN decision came into effect in New York yesterday morning, Australian 
time. It will mean the radical Islamic organisation, based in central Java but 
with offshoots in Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines, faces a 
concerted international campaign to deny it the financial resources and freedom 
of movement to carry out further acts of terror.

As the prime suspects in the October 12 Bali bombings, leading figures in 
Jemaah Islamiah are being pursued in a joint investigation by Australian and 
Indonesian authorities.

The spiritual leader of the movement, the Solo-based cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, 
is facing questioning by Indonesian police, while the chief operations officer 
of the organisation, a 37-year-old Indonesian national known as Hambali, 
remains at large. With established links to the Middle East-based al Qaeda, he 
is believed to be in hiding in South-East Asia.

Under Security Council Resolution 1390, the UN action will mean the freezing of 
financial and other economic assets of Jemaah Islamiah. It will ban the supply 
or trade of arms to the organisation, and prevent international travel by any 
individuals identified with the group.

Regional solidarity against the threat of Islamic terror in Asia was further 
bolstered when the People's Republic of China and India lodged letters of 
support for the Australian proposal with the UN.

None of the permanent members of the Security Council opposed the listing, and 
the United States also undertook this week to include Jemaah Islamiah on the 
list of terrorist organisations deemed unlawful by its own State Department.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Herald Sun
PM talks tough with Megawati
Michael Harvey in Los Cabos 
27oct02

TENSIONS between Australia and Indonesia came to the surface yesterday amid top-
level talks following the Bali bombing tragedy.

Prime Minister John Howard made his strongest call for Indonesia to put its 
house in order and root out terrorists within its borders. 

And, in a clear sign of anxiety over the tourism economy, Indonesian President 
Megawati Sukarnoputri asked Mr Howard when Australia would drop its warning for 
Australians to avoid travelling to her troubled nation. 

The exchange came as the leaders held their first face-to-face talks since the 
Kuta Beach terrorist strike. 

Having spoken twice by telephone since October 12, Mr Howard and President 
Megawati met in Mexico, where they are attending the Asia-Pacific Economic 
Cooperation summit. 

Mr Howard announced a modest $10 million four-year boost for Indonesia's 
counter-terrorism procedures to help guard against a repeat of the Bali 
tragedy. 

The money will be spent improving expertise in Indonesia's police force while 
bolstering customs surveillance at airports. 

At a business lunch before yesterday's meeting, Mr Howard called on regional 
neighbours, especially Indonesia, to get their acts together on terrorism. 

"Nations can make declarations together, nations can cooperate together to 
share intelligence, to enforce multilateral understandings which make travel 
safer and security stronger," he said. 

"But in the end, the sum total of the strengthened determination of the nations 
of the world to combat terrorism is the determination of individual sovereign 
governments to take the steps that are needed inside the borders of their own 
country to counteract terrorism." 

The PM's hardline stand contrasted with the statement earlier this month by 
Indonesia's senior security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono that the al-Qaeda 
offshoot Jemaah Islamiyah – suspected of carrying out the Bali attack – did not 
exist in Indonesia. 

Mr Howard said President Megawati understood "there is a challenge within her 
own country". "She has been left in no doubt about the levels of my concern," 
he said. 

Mr Howard confirmed President Megawati asked him how long Australia's travel 
warning would remain. 

"She indicated that a reduction in tourism to her country following warnings 
would be damaging, and I acknowledged that," he said. 

"But I made it very clear that the paramount concern for me would be the safety 
of Australians and nothing could take priority to that." 

Mr Howard rejected suggestions President Megawati had sought Australia's help 
in encouraging other nations not to boycott Indonesia as a tourist destination. 

Increasing pressure on Indonesia to crack down on terrorists, Mr Howard warned 
President Megawati the Bali bombers wanted not only to kill westerners but to 
destabilise her Government. 

"The plan of the terrorists in Indonesia is to effectively create chaos in that 
country in the hope a more extreme government will emerge out of the chaos," he 
said. 

Jemaah Islamiyah, a radical Muslim grouping aiming to create a South-East Asian 
super state, has now been listed by the United Nations as a terrorist 
organisation. 

APEC leaders are due to start their two-day meeting today, with late arrivals 
including US President George W. Bush, Chinese President Ziang Zemin and 
Japan's Junichiro Koizumi. 

They are expected to build on last year's seven-point APEC plan to combat 
terrorism. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Indonesia asks countries to lift travel bans 
26 October, 2002 23:08 GMT+08:00  
By Jane Macartney 
Los Cabos, Mexico (Reuters) 

Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri asked nations on Saturday to lift 
travel bans imposed on her country after the devastating Bali bombing this 
month. 

Speaking to chief executives on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic 
Cooperation summit in a luxury Mexican beach resort, she said the travel bans 
or warnings issued by several countries since the October 12 bombing threatened 
to do enormous damage to Indonesia's crucial tourist industry. 

"The tourist industry receives a heavy blow," Megawati said, referring to the 
Bali bombing that killed about 183 people, many of them foreign tourists. 

"I hope such travel bans or limitations will soon be lifted," Megawati said, 
adding that such warnings would only create panic and encourage the terrorists 
in their campaign. 

Tourism is essential to enable Indonesia to achieve the goal of prosperity that 
is the mission of APEC, she said. "We are the prime victim of that act of 
terrorism ... clearly we must fight terror that may take place by whoever and 
wherever ," she said. 

The United States, for example, has pulled out dependents of U.S. Embassy staff 
in Jakarta and instructed Americans not to visit and several countries whose 
nationals were among the 183 people killed by the bombing at a Bali nightspot 
have issued travel warnings. 

A day earlier, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, stung by the deaths of 
about 90 fellow Australians in Bali, challenged other APEC nations to fight 
terrorism with strong international agreements and, more importantly, on their 
own turf. 

"No amount of international exhortations can substitute for the determination 
of individual governments who know they have a terrorist problem within their 
borders to do something about it," Howard said in a speech to businessmen. 

Indonesia, an APEC member, had been criticised in the United States and 
elsewhere for allegedly dragging its feet in the effort to clamp down on 
militant Islamic groups, but it has apparently been galvanised into action by 
the Bali attacks. 

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo told the conference that the 
challenge was to bring down borders, not only to nurture business but to enable 
nations to join hands in tackling violent extremist attacks. 

The Philippines has been rocked in the last few weeks by a series of bombings, 
many in the south where a Muslim insurgency with links to the al Qaeda 
organisation of Osama bin Laden has been raging for years. 

"That (Bali) attack and the other attacks in November remind us that this war 
on terrorism will be long, difficult and borderless," she said. 

"If we neglect the economic imperative at this time when we are so concerned 
with terrorism, we would be feeding terrorism by promoting hunger, disease and 
ignorance." 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Identification of dead from Bali bombing delayed by poor coordination, lack of 
resources  
Associated Press 
Bali, Indonesia, Oct. 26 

It could take weeks to identify all 191 victims from the Bali nightclub bombing 
because many bodies were so damaged by the blast or the ensuing fires, 
authorities said Saturday. 

So far, 77 people — mostly foreign tourists — have been identified from the 
Oct. 12 attack, said Gen. Edward Aritonang, a police spokesman.  

But the pace could slow as forensics experts find it hard to identify the 
remaining dead through dental records or fingerprints, officials said. At that 
point, they would have to match DNA from body pieces with samples either from 
the victim before he or she died or samples from a relative. 

''Given the state of many of the remains, it is likely we'll have to rely on 
DNA, which will be a drawn-out process,'' said Kirk Coningham, a spokesman for 
the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital. 

Forensic experts also are hampered by having to work in a hospital with minimal 
equipment and deal with conflicting casualty lists. 

Witnesses at the morgue said the first few days were chaotic and confusing. 
They said bodies were laid out on a tile floor with only ice to preserve them 
and people looking for missing relatives and friends crowded into the unguarded 
room. 

Corpses were misidentified, tags attached to bodies deteriorated in Bali's 
sultry weather and lists identifying the dead often included names of 
survivors. 

''This was a big problem,'' said Raphael Devianne, who runs the French consular 
office in Bali and is searching for four French nationals presumed to be 
dead. ''We had one body that was identified as a female but we are now sure it 
was a male. The family must now wait.'' 

An Australian forensics team that arrived four days after the bombing 
reorganized the morgue. But working conditions are still a problem, with only 
three examination tables, poor lighting and a shortage of facilities to 
preserve bodies. 

Relatives of victims have complained of red tape slowing the release of 
remains. But Australian authorities said international protocol requires that 
bodies — even if identified visually — also be additionally identified through 
dental records, fingerprints or DNA. 

''I am really hopeful we can identify everyone,'' said Andrew Telfer, who 
oversees the Australian group.