A huge boulder measuring 20 feet in diameter crashed into a housing area from the top of Kukusan Forest Reserve after a powerful round of rock blasting at the Hap Seng Quarry at 11.00am Saturday 6 April 2013.
The loose boulder came from the 6.9-hectre Trig Reserve at the top of a 600ft high Class 2 Kukusan Forest Reserve, a Forest Reserve of Malaysia which shouldn't be touched in the first place,
Police have ordered the quarry company to immediately stop operations at the controversial site where previous public protests went unheeded.
The impact damaged 7 houses and injured 3 women and 3 children. No severe injuries or death have been reported. Losing these homes are 12 families comprising 65 people.
Firemen from Tawau raced to the scene to help evacuate people, some of them forced to limp due to injuries.
Troubles rolled down from the top of this hill:
Kukusan Hill was named by the Japanese around WW One. Kukusan is a Japanese name.
Japanese has a strong business present in Sabah before WW Two. After the Japanese loose the war and surrendered, their business men left Sabah and returned to Japan for good. The business empire they established in Sabah (then North Borneo) were then divided between the Chinese and the British.
When British took over administration of Sabah after WW Two, the name of "KUKUSAN HILL" was already well established in official documents and records. It is difficult to amend government documents and records. Hence this Japanese name "KUKUSAN HILL" continued to be used till today eventhough this new generation of Malaysian no longer able to explain why this hill got a Japanese name.
The KUKUSAN FOREST RESERVE is a 13.77 HECTARES of protected forest at Kukusan Hill.
The top part (the submit) of the hill is a 6.9-hectre Trig Reserve. Trig Reserve (trigonometry) is a protected area for The Lands and Surveys Department to be used as a point of survey in official maps and charts. Removal of a Trig Point is removal of an Official gazette point of survey of the Government. (It is a serious offence). It is very difficult to understand how such serious error could happen such as this blasting off a gazetted landmark of the Government.
At around 2:30PM the next day of this tragedy, a helicopter came circle above the top of the reserve. The real condition of damaged to the Trig Reserve could only be clearly observed from above the hill, not from the foot of the hill.
Green environment seriously damaged:
An environment group based in Kota Kinabalu for years has been trying to protect this forest, but the Chinese quarry company failed to consider the serious hazards to the nature and to the safety of local residents below the hill.
The trail left by the giant boulder the size of a house, had loosened the soil and this could create mudslides when the rainy seasons came. Local authority should seek all preventive measures, including the assessment of the environmental impact as the villagers could be facing other future natural disasters.
Tawau member of parliament Datuk Chua Soon Bui visited the site the following day. She suggested the local authority to provide the villagers with places at the People Housing Project which has vacancy.
Relief Team arrived:
Tawau Branch of Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation
台灣佛教慈濟基金會馬來西亞（斗湖聯絡處）志工勘災進行生活包發放
Relief Team from Tawau Branch of Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation arrived the next afternoon. They hand out to the victims begs of rices and foods staff.
Another separate and different group decorated the area earlier with political parties flags reminding the victims voting day is near.
At bottom of the hill are Chinese Buddhists handling out to the victims some rice to eat.
An the end of a hard working day of blasting for profit, the Chinese Capitalists would go to the Buddhist temples to purify their spirit.
The next morning these Holy Buddhists will return to their Capitalist Office to blast more rocks for profits.
Tzu Chi, an international NGO, is well known for their EMERGENCY RELIEF works.
When ever news of emergency reached Tzu Chi, the local relief team of this Buddhists organization will respond immediately. Their systematic of organized works is : first a team made quickly an investigation and assessed the emergency situation with help from local authority such as Police Department, then on the same day or the following day they will carried out relief distribution in the areas, providing emergency relief to the victims. Relief funds are also immediately collected from public and used for the benefit of victims.
The man who saw all from the very beginning :
While non of the villagers below the quarry able to see the full scenario of this sudden tragedy, a man witness the whole process at one kilometers away. He is a caretaker of a warehouse with a big wide open grass ground, and he was cutting grasses that morning on 6th April 2013. The wide open compound gave one of the best and complete view of Kukusan Hill.
He descript what he saw yesterday. The usual quarry syringe sounded at 11:00AM as a signal explosive blasting will explore shortly alerting the people near by the quarry. Then followed the routing several explosions in blasting the rocks. As a habit he would look up and have a glance at the hill where the explosive sound came from and then expecting see the routine small stones flying into the sky follow by dust cloud covering the hill top for a while.
But today he saw something else unusual. He saw the tip of the hill is cramping slowly down.
"Bommm..... Bommm.... Grooooommmmm. A Batu Besar dropping down ... a house disappeared...."
He kept on repeating this to me. After seeing what happened before his eye, for a long long time he just stood there steering at the hill with the grass cutting marching still running. As a care taker, he could not leave the compound to go to see what happened to the villagers. All he could was to share what he saw with a few residents of the housing estate opposite. These few residents happened to be witnessing the scenario at that moment too.
While falling, that huge rock hit on rock surface two times and bounces two times each time creating the huge sound of "Bommm...."
At reaching the edge of the Protected Forest Reserve only then the giant rock started to roll it way down the hills crushing the forest and villages houses on the way.
What the news media talked about this happening ?
Being a caretaker of a private property, this caretaker has to live within the property compound with little access to the outside. Even given the Newspaper covering the news, he might not even know how to read. He, after see such a tragedy probable first time in in his life, might be wondering what the outside public react upon it.
By now, just 1 day, this happening in a quiet town in an unknown village has reach national coverage in Sabah and received attention of authority.
Here are some links and some news extract :
April 8, 2013, Monday - Incident prompts lawyer to contest : http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=84868
April 8, 2013, Monday - Repeated Warnings : http://www.sepa.my/press-release-repeated-warning
April 8, 2013, Monday - MP seek compensation for victims : http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/04/08/incumbent-mp
Lawyer Marcel Jude Joseph on 7 April 2013 (day after the incident) announced that he will be contesting in the 13th General Election with an aim to champion environmental and other issues that affected the public. For the last three years he fought some of the issues in court such as the Atkinson Clock Tower case. "There has been some success in making the public, the government and the courts to be more aware of environmental and public matters. However, this is not enough. I realize I have to take it to the next level. We not only have to fight these matters in court but need to change the law to better protect the environment and its citizens. This can only be done in Parliament and in the State Legislative Assembly,"
Lawyer Marcel Jude Joseph
Daily Express
Published on Monday, April 08, 2013
|
Tawau member of parliament Datuk Chua Soon Bui will seek compensation from the Kukusan Quarry on behalf of the 13 victims of Kampung Tanjung Batu Tengah (Besi Buruk), after their houses were flattened by boulders that crashed down from Kukusan Hill following blasting operations“I urge the operator to compensate for their losses and also medical fees....We are looking at another future disaster as the soil on the hillside has been exposed and I fear the safety of the villagers here....Otherwise, the locals who are squatting here should be relocated to a more suitable and safer place.”
Datuk Chua Soon Bui
Borneo Post Published on April 8, 2013, Monday |
And who are these villagers living below the hills ?
They are the illegal squatters. Who live quietly a low profile to contribute to Malaysian economy in the labor force in return for a humble survival in the society.
Here are a few photographs scattered at the debris of 2nd crushed house (House #2).
Kampung Bukit Kukusan
Injured are 3 women and 3 children after a huge boulder from the quarry at top of the hill smashed and flattened seven homes in Kampung Bukit Kukusan on 6th April 2013 at 11:00AM. They were sent to Tawau Hospital for treatment.
This tragedy resulted 65 victims from 12 families who lived in the 7 affected wooden houses. There are 300 homes in the village of Kampung. Bukit Kukusan.
A huge boulder measuring 20 feet in diameter crashed into a housing area from the top of Kukusan Hill after a powerful round of rock blasting by Hap Seng Quarry at 11.00am Saturday 6 April 2013.
This giant loose boulder came from the 6.9-hectre Trig Reserve at the top of a 600ft high Class 2 Kukusan Forest Reserve.
The Trig Reserve is a protected Government property which shouldn't be touched in the first place. However, begining 2012, Hap Seng Company's Kukusan Quarry began to blast off the rocks on hill top intensively phase by phase before the public eyes.
Below the Trig Reserve is another protected Government property Kukusan Forest Reserve which shouldn't be occupied in the first place. However, decades ago, homeless squatters began to take shelters with simple huts. Babies were born, children grew up, young men and women married, and this little town's economy develop and grew. Then handsome wooden houses were erected with electricity and water supply.
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