60 people feared dead in hot spring mud slide

Ainur R. Sophiaan, The Jakarta Post, Mojokerto, East Java

Rescue teams combed through rivers and streams on Thursday to search for survivors of Wednesday's mudslide that killed at least 31 people at the Pacet hot spring resort in Mojokerto, East Java.

Local officials fear as many as 60 people may have died as dozens of people are still missing after the calamity, which environmentalists called a "man-made disaster". Hopes of finding the missing alive were fading, rescuers said.

Most of those killed were women and children enjoying a holiday break until disaster struck.

A massive wave of mud, water and rocks triggered by three days of heavy rain obliterated the resort, where scores of people were bathing in the Padusan hot spring pools.

Police said some of the visitors were unable to escape when the mudslide hit because there was only one exit gate.

"So far we have discovered 31 bodies," rescue official Andi Susetyo told journalists.

At least 19 of the dead have been identified. Other bodies were taken to the Dr. Sutomo public hospital in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya for identification.

Around 200 rescuers, comprising police, military, forest rangers and villagers armed with picks, shovels and crowbars, were searching rivers and streams below the resort.

They discovered several corpses up to 12 kilometers from the site of the accident, whose location made it difficult to bring in heavy equipment and large vehicles.

The rescue efforts were also hampered by huge boulders, broken tree trunks and thick mud. Bad weather temporarily halted the search for survivors at around 1:30 p.m.

"When the weather gets better again, we will resume the search until night," Mojokerto Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Sobri Efendi said, adding that state-owned electricity company PT PLN was preparing to assist in the search.

The search was focused on four areas -- the hot spring pools, the waiting room, the gate and the Sumber Glagah riverbed, which were buried under rocks, mud and sand.

Sobri said police dogs had been brought in to help sniff for bodies at the four locations.

He said the search efforts would take in a 10-kilometer stretch of river and that the rescuers were expecting heavy equipment to arrive to help remove rocks and sand.

East Java Governor Imam Utomo arrived at the disaster site at 9 a.m. and ordered Mojokerto Regent Achmady to shut down the Pacet resort indefinitely.

"We should find another resort that is safe. Pacet is too prone to disasters," he said.

Despite that, some 500 people gathered to watch the search even after police blocked the road to the resort.

The governor expressed condolences to the victims of the mudslide and promised to provide them with Rp 100 million in humanitarian assistance. They would receive Rp 2 million each.

Speaking to journalists while accompanying the governor, Achmady said the Mojokerto administration would cover the medical costs of all the victims.

Utomo said the deadly mudslide was purely a "natural disaster" and warned people against blaming each other.

"It is really a disaster that we are all concerned about. No need to blame others. We have to work hard to find the missing victims," he said.

But local environmentalists rejected the governor's claim, saying the disaster would not have occurred if forestry authorities had stopped rampant deforestation by loggers and housing developers at the resort.

Syafrudin Ngulma, director of East Java's Walhi environmental group, blamed state forestry company Perhutani, which owns the resort, for ignoring illegal tree-cutting above the hot springs.

"Perhutani is responsible. It also did not inform the public of an earlier landslide on Dec. 4. Police should investigate this immediately," he said at the scene.

Syafrudin said the Dec. 4 mudslide, although much smaller, followed the same path as the slide on Wednesday.

He said Walhi had for years been warning Perhutani to properly manage the forest in Pacet and its surrounding areas of Tretes and Trawas by halting illegal logging.

"They (Perhutani) even planted pine, teak and mahogany trees in order that they could later harvest them," Syafrudin added.

Police said there had indeed been illegal logging taking place in a pine forest above the resort, which is 30 kilometers southeast of Mojokerto.

Syafrudin said Walhi would file a class action against Perhutani over the calamity.