'Man-made disaster' still looms in East Java

Ainur Sophia'an, The Jakarta Post, Mojokerto

Still in mourning, hundreds of residents from the East Java village of Sambringan, were shocked on Friday with the recovery of an arm, which according to examinations, belonged to a female child, on a small river 15 kilometers below from the Padusan hot springs tourist resort which was hit by a sudden landslide on Wednesday.

The villagers found other body parts as well as clothing, shoes and sandals.

The body parts were taken to nearby public health center and experts from the Surabaya-based Dr. Soetomo General Hospital predicted the two body parts belonged to a female child who was believed to be drowned and killed in the mudflow.

Fourteen families, including three from the village, went to the local police office to report on their children who went missing in the incident.

Some 60 people, mostly school-age children, were feared to be killed, 29 bodies had already been identified, seven others have yet to be identified while the remaining 26 are still missing. The mudflow also injured five others, three in serious condition.

The latest bodies to be identified on Friday were of Deni Damayanti of Mojokerto and Iwan Bachtiar Huda of Sidoarjo. They were taken by their relatives from the hospital for burial. The hospital management said the remaining bodies would be buried in a mass grave if their families do not claim them soon.

Using two cranes, 160 rescue workers resumed their search on Friday but only for a few hours because of thick fog and heavy rain. The search, which was conducted along the Dawuhan River flowing from the hot springs, was halted due to fresh fears of another landslide.

Heru Sukarno, a rescue worker from the local mining and energy office, said his team would resume the search work until next Wednesday to recover bodies who were believed to be buried by the mud and stones.

He said that the rescue workers would check into possible victims in two nearby waterfall recreation centers which were also full of school students and youths on Wednesday.

Mojokerto regent Achmady said the local administration was considering total closure of the two recreation sites in Jolotundo and Delanggu in the regency because they were also prone to landslides and floods.

Meanwhile, the state-owned forestry company PT Perhutani II is still evaluating 35 other tourist resorts in the province which are prone to natural disasters because they are located on the slopes of numerous mountains.

The spokesman for state-owned forestry company Perhutani II, Sutowibowo, said the company's management had instructed the evaluation of the tourist areas in response to the increasing criticism of the company in connection with the recent disaster.

The number of vacationers to the tourist resort reached some one million in 2001 with a total income of Rp 1.5 billion (about US$165,000) to Perhutani which operates the recreation business.

The Environmental Forum (Walhi) that has blamed Perhutani for the incident is preparing a class action lawsuit against the company. It said that the incident had a lot to do with human error factors since it had failed to give preliminary warning to visitors against such incidents.

It also said that Perhutani had encouraged local people to plant pine trees, a species which is not compatible with the local environment, and allowed the wealthy to build luxurious houses in the upper part of the recreation site.

Sobri Effendy, chief of the Mojokerto Police, said the police would investigate the case soon after the search and rescue work ended.

"We have put our focus into searching for other victims who went missing in the incident. But, we have collected initial data and information and evidence to investigate the case," he said.