FINAL EVACUATION OF W JAVA'S LANDSLIDE VICTIMS

Bandung, W Java, Feb 28 (ANTARA) - Head of West Java's natural disaster management Udjwala Prana Sigit said the evacuation process of Tuesday's landslide victims would be decided on Sunday morning.

"Whether the evacuation process will be continued or not will be decided this Sunday morning," he told reporters at the landslide-hit tea plantation area here.

On Monday, the authorized persons, victims' families, community leaders and members of local Council of Ulemas (MUI) would attend a meeting for talks about the end of evacuation, he said.

According to the emergency-response procedures, the evacuation process would only be conducted for seven days, he said.

However, during the evacuation process, weather condition always hampered the search and rescue workers' efforts to find bodies of the landslide victims, Sigit said.

Since the landslides crushed Pasirjambu's tea plantation area on Tuesday, at least 30 victims had been found but, as of Saturday, 16 others were believed to remain buried.

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 more than 40 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 caterpillar tractors 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.