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Bandung, W Java (ANTARA News) - Fifteen bodies of Tuesday`s landslide victims had yet to be found as of Sunday at 01.00 pm although the evacuation process would have been ended on Monday mid-day.

"The search and rescue efforts will end on Monday mid-day. For the victims who remain buried, the people will perform a funeral prayer for them," Head of Bandung regency Obar Sobarna said.

Speaking to reporters here Sunday, Sobarna said 29 of 44 victims of the landslide that destroyed PT Chakra`s Tea Plantation area in Tenjolaya village, Pasirjambu subdistrict, on Tuesday had been found.

The final day for the search and rescue efforts had been decided at a meeting attended by him, the victims` families and local police chief Ajunct Senior Commissioner Imran Yunus on Sunday.

Managing Director of PT Chakra Tea Plantation Rachmat Badruddin, and a number of local Council of Ulemas (MUI) were also present at the meeting, he said.

Sobarna said among the discovered bodies were three infants and 17 women. The families whose relatives remained missing said they could accept the almighty God`s divine decree.

Udin Tajudin, for instance, said he lost his daughter, Suminar, and her grand daughter, Risma. "Suminar and Risma remain buried but I can accept this fate," he said.
The same words were also uttered by Nia and Nurhayati who respectively lost her husband, Juju Rustandi, and her son, Ihsan.

A local resident named Asep Kurnia who lost his brother and four nephews said he was not satisfied with the search and rescue workers` evacuation efforts.

Bandung regency`s police chief Ajunct Senior Commissioner Imran Yunus said two more caterpillar tractors had been deployed to the landslide-hit areas to help the search and rescue efforts.

Therefore there had been four caterpillar tractors in the disaster sites. However, local residents gave different information on places the missing victims might be buried, he said.

This condition had made the search and rescue workers uneasy to do their work, he said.

Earlier on the day, Head of West Java`s natural disaster management Udjwala Prana Sigit said the evacuation process would only be conducted for seven days.

During the evacuation process, weather condition also hampered the search and rescue workers` efforts to find the buried bodies.

In response to the natural disaster, the State-owned workers` social insurance company PT Jamsostek had pledged to pay insurance money to the heirs of workers who died in the landslide.

A total of 483 workers of PT Kabepe Chakra company`s tea plantation were registered as Jamsostek clients.

Last Tuesday`s landslide that hit the Dewata tea plantation area in Tenjolaya village, Pasirjambu subdistrict, Bandung district, killed at least 44 people.

The victims were buried under the soil of the landslide in the plantation area, plantation offices, and the plantation factory.

Vice President Boediono and some cabinet members visited the natural disaster area on Wednesday.

In search for the missing victims, the West Java provincial government had ordered search and rescue workers to work for a week amid a lack of caterpillars and absence of cellular phone signals.

The landslide that had buried almost all parts of the tea plantation, including its offices, occurred at about 08.00 am local time.(*)

Editor: Jafar M Sidik

COPYRIGHT © 2010

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