Police gather list of suspects in dump disaster

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post/Bandung

A team of four experts from the Office of the State Minister for the Environment has been assigned to determine whether the management of the Leuwigajah dump was responsible for the garbage collapse on Monday that buried more than 100 residents.

Sixty-eight bodies had been recovered from the mountains of garbage as of Friday, while 88 others are still missing.

The police drew up a list of suspects in the case after questioning four residents and officials who managed the dump.

Cimahi Police chief of detectives Adj. Comr. Slamet Uliandi said the police would not release the names of the suspects for the time being.

"We have the names (of suspects) but we will not announce them because we are still waiting for supporting facts from the environment ministry's team of experts," he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Over the last two days, detectives have questioned four residents as witnesses, as well as three officials from the Leuwigajah dump, which receives garbage from Bandung regency and mayoralty, and Cimahi mayoralty.

The officials were identified as the head of sanitation in Cimahi municipality, Sutisna Sumantri, the director of Bandung sanitation firm PD Kebersihan, Awan Gumelar, and the head of Cimahi's environmental agency, Arlina Gumira.

Detectives not only want to find out whether there was unlawful taking of life, as defined by Article 359 of the Criminal Code, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, but also whether there were any violations of Law No. 23/1997 on environmental management.

The team of experts dispatched by the Office of the State Minister for the Environment's deputy assistant for law enforcement, Darsono, arrived at the dump on Friday to determine whether the dump met national standards. It will also establish whether the dump has a mandatory environmental impact analysis and operating permit, and if it meets the designated spatial plan for open dumps.

"We will ask for their information tonight, meaning we will get their response on Saturday," Slamet said.

Fifty-eight families forced from their homes by the garbage collapse and now sheltering at the SD Batujajar II elementary school demanded the administration permanently relocate them to a safer area.

Residents living near the dump had long complained of air pollution and ground contamination from the dump long before the garbage collapsed buried 70 homes.

The Bandung regency administration, however, said there were no locations to where it could relocate the affected residents.

The search for more bodies was temporarily halted on Friday because of heavy rain.