Family Requests Search For Arjasari Longsor Victims Continued, Bandung Regency Government Adds 3 Days

Bandung Regent Dadang Supriatna gave a statement to the media crew. BETWEEN/HO-Bandung Regency Government

BANDUNG - The Regency Government (Pemkab) of Bandung, West Java, has extended the search for three landslide victims in Arjasari for the next three days, after an official search operation with Basarnas and a joint team lasted for seven days.

Bandung Regent Dadang Supriatna said the follow-up search would involve village volunteers under the escort of the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD).

The three residents who have been missing since the landslide on December 5 are Aisyah (60), Citra (20), and Alfa (11).

"We will end the search by Basarnas and the joint team tonight. However, further searches will still be carried out by village volunteers under the escort of BPBD," Dadang said in his statement in Bandung, Antara, Friday, December 12.

He explained that the joint team's official operation was stopped referring to Law Number 29 of 2014 concerning Search and Rescue (SAR). According to him, the victim's family understood the rules and the government respected the victim's parents' request to extend the search until Sunday.

Various search efforts have been carried out, including the use of heavy equipment and detection devices, but until now there have been no signs of the victims' whereabouts.

"Various steps have been taken, including the decline in search equipment. But until now there have been no signs of the whereabouts of the body," said Dadang. He emphasized that if indications of the point of existence of the body emerged, Basarnas would be lowered again.

In addition to focusing on searching, the government has also begun to prepare protection measures for residents living in vulnerable areas. The Bandung Regency Government will record the number of affected houses and provide rent assistance for three months, until February.

Dadang added that relocation assistance had also been prepared in the form of providing land for six houses from the Deputy Speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Cucun Ahmad Syamsurijal, with the construction to be supported by the local government.