ABSTRACT
Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) is the term given to the procedures used to positively identify deceased victims of a multiple-casualty event. Natural disasters generally result in complete bodies, which may exhibit incineration and/or decomposition. Other factors that influence the nature of the DVI process include these: record keeping, criminal activity, multinational involvement. The nature of the Bali incident, with multiple fatalities involving incineration and fragmentation of remains, particularly among those close to the center of the explosion, indicate a need for expertise in the analysis of bone fragments. In Bali, anthropologists were involved in only the reconciliation phase, as observers; the stand-alone identifiers were a pathologist, a forensic odontologist, and a DNA expert. At a mass disaster, the anthropologist will usually work in conjunction with a pathologist and an odontologist. The Bali incidents had serious implications for regional governments, forcing both Indonesia and Australia to take the threat of terrorism more seriously.
