RIYADH: Indonesian forensic experts are in Saudi Arabia to help identify those still missing from the country which suffered one of the heaviest losses in last month's hajj disaster, an official said Tuesday.
Arsyad Hidayat, the senior Indonesian official in Mecca, said that 11 specialists had arrived three days ago from police headquarters in his country, the world's largest Muslim-populated nation.
"They have special capability in forensics," including fingerprint data, he said, adding that Indonesia's death toll has now risen to 103, with 25 still missing.
It is unclear whether other countries have sent their own forensic specialists but Saudi Arabia's Al-Madina daily reported last week that 20 teams from the Saudi passports department were visiting Mecca-area hospitals to record fingerprints of the dead and of unidentified injured.
In Indonesia's case, Hidayat said "there have not been meaningful obstacles" encountered by his country's teams of military and police officers.
The teams, headed by a colonel from Indonesia's Kopassus special forces, have been gathering data, checking hospitals and searching for and identifying dead bodies.
"God willing, we are hopefully getting near to the final result," Hidayat said.
AFP
