JEMBER - Volunteers for the funeral of the COVID-19 body from the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) in Jember Regency, East Java, were persecuted by residents after the forced retrieval of positive confirmed bodies to be buried according to the COVID-19 health protocol.
"Residents grabbed the coffin and opened it, then they planned to bathe the body. This is not in accordance with the protocol for recirculating bodies that have been confirmed positive," said the Acting Head of BPBD Jember Moh. Djamil during a press conference was quoted by Antara, Friday, July 23.
The forced attempt to retrieve the body of a patient who was confirmed positive, causing a number of volunteers to feel pain after being beaten and stoned, occurred in Jatisari Village, Pakusari District, Jember Regency on Saturday, July 17.
According to him, the Jember BPBD volunteers decided to return to the headquarters because the situation was not conducive. However, there were residents who tried to block the volunteers either using vehicles or on foot.
"There were two volunteers who claimed to be hit and one of the volunteers' hands was twisted in pain and fell, there was even a volunteer whose head was hit by a stone. It was really outrageous," he said.
He said residents did not seem to accept that the body was buried according to the COVID-19 protocol, but the wrong way was to abuse the volunteers who buried the bodies that were confirmed positive.
"We only carry out our duties to bury people who are confirmed positive for COVID-19, so residents should be able to understand our duties and help with funerals," he said.
Djamil said similar incidents related to family refusal of funerals according to the COVID-19 protocol often occur, but they are not as severe as what happened in Jatisari Village, Pakusari District.
"We hope that the incident of mistreatment of the volunteers for the funeral of the COVID-19 corpse will be repeated in Jember and we urge a legal process to be carried out regarding the incident," he said.
In addition, he continued, BPBD Jember asked for security guarantees for volunteers who worked to bury bodies that were confirmed positive for COVID-19 because volunteers sometimes came home until morning because of the large number of bodies being buried.
"We are only carrying out our duties and when the incident of mistreatment by residents against volunteers is also known by the local police chief and muspika, so we will not report the case to the police because it is not a complaint offense," he said.
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