Police gather list of suspects in dump disaster
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.