Agnes S. Jayakarna, THE JAKARTA POST, SURABAYA | Fri, 02/27/2009 2:14 PM
The body of Dean Lesmana has been recovered from a fire site in Marysville, leaving his family reeling as they seek help bringing his body back home.
Dean was one of the two Indonesian students missing in the deadly wildfires in Victoria, Australia, earlier this month.
"The whole family is in mourning as we remember him. We can't do anything, but we hope the Australian authorities and the Indonesian Embassy will help our parents facilitate his body's return home, following the autopsy and the DNA test," Dean's younger brother Donny Lesmana told The Jakarta Post on Thursday in Surabaya.
Donny confirmed his family had received information from the Victorian authorities dealing with the fire victims that they had already discovered two bodies, believed to be those of Dean and fellow student Rudy from Belawan, North Sumatra, in a burned-out car in Marysville, 100 kilometers east of Melbourne.
The Indonesian Consulate General in Melbourne said in a statement made available to the Post on Thursday that the car, a Honda Jazz with license plate number UTL 027, was identified as that driven by Dean and Rudi.
"The hospital appointed by the Victorian federal authorities to handle all fire victims, with a forensic team from the Indonesian National Police, is still conducting an autopsy and a DNA test on the two bodies to make sure they are those of Dean and Rudi," Donny said.
"My parents and Rudy's older sister Yuliana, are already there to give blood samples to check against the bodies' DNA."
He added he hoped the two bodies were neither Dean's nor Rudy's, and would not accept they were dead until a confirmation was made and the bodies were flown home.
He added the condition of the car the two were in was formless because it was completely razed by one of the many fires that claimed more than 200 lives, destroyed 1,800 homes and other buildings, and scorched 450,000 hectares of scrubland and forest.
The bushfires, the worst natural fire disaster in a century, has made insurance companies receive general claims worth A$810 million (US$523 million), according to the Insurance Council of Australia. Insurance firms have received 6,760 claims for property, businesses and farming losses from the Feb. 7 fires so far, with 60 percent of domestic and commercial claims already assessed.
Officials were increasingly worried that Friday's predicted temperature of 38 Celsius degrees combined with strong, erratic winds and lightning could send the flames out of control.
Dean's parents Sandi Satrio Lesmana and Sonya Dju Tju departed for Melbourne last Wednesday after obtaining visas from the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, Donny said, and are expected to remain there after the autopsy and the DNA tests are complete.
Donny added he would also continue monitoring the latest developments while making the necessary preparations at home.
Dean and Rudi went missing on their way to Marysville on Feb. 7, 2009, unaware that wildfires were ravaging the forest around the town.
Dean, set to graduate from a culinary arts school in Melbourne this July, came to Indonesia on holiday on Dec. 17, 2008, and went back to Melbourne on Feb. 4, three days before he went missing in the disaster.
