Anger over 'appalling' support from consulate

Frustration at the bureaucracy confronting bereaved families in Bali boiled over yesterday when the British consulate was criticised for providing inadequate support.

Tobias Ellwood, who flew to the island to try to bring home his dead brother, Jon, described the back-up from British officials as appalling.

Last night, as the Foreign Office announced that Baron-ess Amos, one of its ministers, was flying out to visit consular officials, the department insisted that staff on the island were working round the clock to provide assistance.

Though Jack Straw has said the Government will pay for two relatives of each victim to travel to Bali, its honorary consul, Mark Wilson, urged families to stay away, saying there was little they could do at the moment.

Mr Ellwood arrived yesterday morning to identify his 39-year-old brother, a man who had dedicated his life to multicultural understanding as an international teacher. A history teacher, whose last post was as director of studies at the International School, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, he was enjoying a few days of rest before attending an International Baccalaureate Organisation conference, due to start today but since postponed.

When Jon was declared missing, Tottie Ellwood, 31, his sister, flew from Malaysia, where she is also a teacher, to begin the tortuous trawl of hospitals and morgues looking for her "soul mate". Yesterday she was joined by Tobias, who flew from Britain with medical records to help with the identification process.

Tobias, 36, a former captain in the Royal Green Jackets, who had served in Bosnia and the Gulf before taking a job in the City, said he was unhappy with the way relatives were being looked after. "I do not think the British consulate is very impressive," he said. "The Australian consulate has briefings every day, a place where relatives can vent their feelings. We are having none of that. It is appalling."

Relatives trying to bring home the dead have been confronted by horrific scenes at the severely crowded Sanglah morgue, where body bags were piled haphazardly on a filthy, blood-soaked floor.

Yesterday Jon Ellwood's mother, Caroline, said her second son and daughter had been further frustrated by bureaucracy, adding: "They are just hoping to get through some of the red tape."

Gary Dressel, 31, from Fleet, Hampshire, was in a bar near the site of the explosion and had to confront the "war zone" outside. He flew back to Gatwick yesterday, and said: "The British government staff were being a nightmare out there about getting information to us. One official told me to ring my mother to find out what was going on."

In the past few days Alan Marshall, the British consul in Jakarta overseeing operations in Bali, has described how staff have been reduced to tears as they tried to help families.

"We are sorry Mr Ellwood feels let down," a Foreign Office spokesman said last night. "The consulate has been working around the clock to help British nationals caught up in this terrible incident." Staff had been working "tirelessly", he said.

Five consular staff, some drawn in from Jakarta and Singapore, with 11 Metropolitan Police officers and 30 local volunteers, have been providing a 24-hour service for relatives. Liaison officers are assigned to families to help with transport and accommodation as well as negotiating Indonesian bureaucracy. Staff have been helping to track down missing relatives.

The confusing situation greeting consular staff was also evident yesterday as Mr Marshall complained that efforts to identify British citizens were being hampered. "As soon as we identify the bodies, we move them from the other trucks and put them in our own refrigerated container," he said. "However, some people are moving the bodies. We go there to identify them one day and then we go back another and they have been moved. It is so frustrating."

Eight Australian forensic scientists are attempting to identify more victims, though some require DNA testing which could take months.

Mr Wilson, the honorary consul, said: "We are advising people not to come out. There is very little they can actually achieve and we have limited facilities. The number of counsellors is very limited and they could get much better counselling facilities in the UK."

Mr Wilson said the process of identification was being handled by the Australian police, who were being very strict about releasing bodies. "For repatriation, visual identification is not enough. It has to be confirmed through dental records or fingerprints."

Australian friends and relatives have criticised their own consulate for not allowing the dead home even after they had been identified.