Traggic of Dam Disaster

More Than 100 Still Missing in Dam Disaster, Officials Say

The death toll from a burst dam which unleashed a wall of water on the outskirts of the Indonesian capital rose to 77 and authorities were searching for than 100 people still missing, officials said on Saturday.

Volunteers joined hundreds of rescue workers scouring through the rubble and a nearby river in Tangerang, officials said, after the Dutch colonial-era Situ Gintung dam collapsed early on Friday.

"The death toll may climb as authorities are focusing on finding the missing people," said National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono.

Heavy rain overflowed the dam's wall, sending water and mud crashing into a crowded residential area nearby.

While landslides and floods are fairly common during the rainy season in Indonesia, the latest disaster was probably caused by a combination of torrential rain and poor maintenance, officials said, reflecting years of under-investment in much of the country's crucial infrastructure.

The dam collapse flattened at least 300 houses and about another 200 houses remained flooded, Kardono said.

Authorities have set up a relief post at a nearby university, while more than 500 police and military personnel combed the area, said Jakarta police spokesman Chrysnanda Dwilaksana.

North Korea Missile Test

Report: NKorea preparing for another missile test

By HYUNG-JIN KIM – 1 hour ago

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea is preparing to launch a short- or medium-range missile, possibly right after it carries out its plan to fire a long-range rocket in early April, a Japanese newspaper reported Sunday.

North Korea says it will launch a communications satellite into orbit between April 4 and 8 as part of its space development program. Regional powers, however, suspect the North is using the launch to test long-range missile technology, and have warned it could face international sanctions under a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution prohibiting ballistic activity by North Korea.

U.S. officials said last week that North Korea has mounted a rocket onto its northeast coastal Musudan-ni launch pad, putting the country well on track for a launch. U.S., South Korean and Japanese officials have warned they will take the North to the U.N. Security Council if it goes ahead with its plan.

Tokyo's Sankei newspaper, citing several unnamed Japanese government sources, reported Sunday that the North is also preparing to test-launch another missile from Wonsan, about 155 miles (250 kilometers) south of Musudan-ni. It said U.S., South Korean and Japanese intelligence analyses said the missile could be short or medium range.

The report said the North may conduct another missile test if the U.N. Security Council approves sanctions against it, or if it cannot wrest concessions from the United States.

Japan's Defense Ministry declined to comment on the Sankei report. South Korea's Defense Ministry and National Intelligence Service — its main spy agency — said they couldn't immediately confirm the report.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in an interview broadcast Sunday he thinks North Korea will launch a missile soon and there's not much the U.S. can do to stop it.

"I would say we're not prepared to do anything about it," Gates told "Fox News Sunday."

Senior U.S. officials believe the technology involved in the launch is intended to mask the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile, Gates said.

The North's long-term intent was to try to put a nuclear warhead atop a missile, but Gates said he was skeptical Pyongyang had that ability now.

North Korea warned last week it would take "strong steps" if the Security Council even criticizes the launch, suggesting it will reverse the steps it has taken so far to disable its nuclear facilities if sanctions are levied.

Under a 2007 deal with the U.S., South Korea, China, Russia and Japan, North Korea agreed to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for aid. The process has been stalled, however, by a dispute over how to verify the North's accounting of its past nuclear activities.

South Korea's foreign minister said in an interview published Sunday that the U.N. ambassadors of South Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan have begun discussing how to respond to North Korea's rocket launch.

"We can't let it pass as if nothing happened if (the North) violates the Security Council resolution," Yu Myung-hwan was quoted as saying by the mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo newspaper. "An appropriate U.N. measure based on the five countries' common stance will come out."

Sankei said in a separate dispatch from Washington that 15 personnel from the Iranian satellite and missile development company Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group are staying in North Korea at the invitation of the North Korean government.

Quoting unnamed intelligence sources in Washington it said are close to North Korean affairs, Sankei said the Iranians are likely to join North Korean preparations for the launch and also observe it. The report said North Korea sent missile experts to Iran when it launched a satellite in February.

North Korea is believed to have sold missiles to Iran, and Iran's Safir-Omid space launch vehicle owes much to the North's Taepodong missile.

Japanese and South Korean officials were not immediately available for comment on the report.

A recent satellite image suggests North Korea "is on or even ahead of the schedule" for an early April launch from its Musudan-ni site, according to Jane's Defence Weekly.

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Associated Press writer Shino Yuasa in Tokyo contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS Gates' interview Saturday, broadcast Sunday)

Tragedy of Situ Gintung Dam

Indonesia crews resume dam rescue

Soldiers, police and volunteers worked together to find survivors and bodies

Bodies are still being recovered more than two days after a dam burst near the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, killing at least 93 people.

Disaster officials said about 700 rescuers and volunteers continued to sift through debris trying to find dozens of people still unaccounted for.

The Situ Gintung dam gave way early on Friday after hours of rain, deluging about 400 homes in Tangerang district.

Residents likened the onrush of water to the impact of a tsunami.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited the scene on Friday and promised to help families reconstruct their homes.

See map of affected area

Torrents of water mixed with boulders and debris crashed through a 70m (230ft) gash in the dam, sweeping away buildings in the Cirendeu suburb of the town of Ciputat.

In pictures: Dam burst Dam burst felt 'like tsunami hit'

The deluge destroyed hastily erected flimsy wooden houses as well as more solid concrete buildings.

On Sunday, search and rescue co-ordinator Suyatno told AFP that 93 bodies had been recovered - up from 77 known fatalities on Saturday.

He said that about 700 rescue workers, police and military personnel joined forces Sunday in a third day searching for 102 people still listed as missing.

"We will extend today the location of the search for the missing people," he said.

Maintenance questions

The Situ Gintung dam, which stood 16m high and held back a lake of two million cubic metres of water, was built out of dirt by Dutch colonialists in 1933.

Experts told the BBC that little maintenance had been carried out on the dam since then, and warned that many dams in Indonesia are in a similar state.

The Jakarta Globe newspaper reported that Cirendeu residents had spotted cracks in the dam a year ago.

They were so fearful of a flood that they had even practised evacuation drills, the newspaper reported.

But following hours of heavy rain during Thursday evening, the dam burst at 0200 (1900 GMT Thursday) when most people were asleep.

The BBC's Katherine Demopoulos in Jakarta says the area has an ageing, poorly maintained drainage system which struggles to cope with heavy rainfall.

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