REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and South Korea have joined the Indonesian Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team to assist in the identification process of Air Asia QZ8501 flight's crash victims.
Senior Commissioner Awi Setiyono, the East Java DVI spokesperson, stated in Surabaya, East Java, on Tuesday, that five UAE nationals and a South Korean have joined the team today.
"We are also a member of the International DVI, which is a trans-border organization. We communicate through Interpol network, so that every DVI institution in every country can be informed about an incident in other parts of the world. When the Air Asia incident occurred, some of them offered empathy and came to assist" he noted.
Setiyono explained that the UAE and South Korean teams will join the Australian and Singaporean DVI teams, which had earlier worked together with the national DVI.
Currently, 20 foreigners comprising ten Singaporeans (since Jan. 4), four Australians (since Jan. 5) and today, the UAE and South Korean DVI arrived and directly joined the team.
"The East Java Police, as the coordinator, will deploy each DVI member according to their expertise, whether for fingerprints identification, pathology, or physiology. Each section works in a parallel system," Setiyono explained.
The Indonesian DVI alone has deployed 229 forensic experts in order to accelerate the identification process, particularly in collecting antemortem data.
"With regard to the antemortem data, we really have to work in detail and collect the most complete data, moreover if it is needed for DNA identification. Sometimes, the DVI team must come directly to the family's house to find the victim's DNA traces, such as a toothbrush or comb," Setiyono stated.
Until now, a total of 37 bodies had been evacuated from the Air Asia flight QZ8501 crash site in Karimata Strait to Surabaya's Bhayangkara Hospital, where 13 of them had been successfully identified by the East Java Police's disaster victim identification team.
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