The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Jakarta

Hours of heavy rain triggered landslides Wednesday that killed at least 81 people in western Indonesia, a rescue official, while floods inundated other parts of the country.

The deaths occurred in several districts on the main island of Java after more than 12 hours of nonstop rain, local search and rescue chief Eko Prayitno said.

The landslides occurred on the third anniversary of the Asian tsunami, which killed some 160,000 people in Indonesia. Those deaths occurred on Sumatra island, far from Java. The landslides did not disrupt a tsunami warning drill held on Java to coincide with the anniversary.

"At least 51 victims have been buried, but the numbers could still rise," Prayitno said of the landslides. El-Shinta radio station said 61 people had been killed.

Prayitno said rescue workers were trying to get heavy lifting equipment to the affected villages, but were being hampered roads blocked by landslides.

Seasonal rains and high tides in recent days have caused widespread flooding across Indonesia, where millions of people live in mountainous regions and near fertile flood plains close to rivers.

On Wednesday, floods were reported in numerous locations elsewhere on Java, as well as Sumatra and Sulawesi islands. Thousands of homes were affected, witnesses and media reports said.

Another report adds: Hundreds of Indonesians prayed at mass graves in Aceh province on Wednesday to remember relatives who died in the Indian Ocean tsunami three years ago.

On Dec. 26, 2004, giant waves triggered by one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded pulverised villages along Indian Ocean shores, killing or leaving missing about 230,000 people.

Aceh, on the northwestern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island, suffered the most, with about 170,000 dead or missing and billions of dollars in losses.

"We pray for the victims that God may accept their good deeds," said Kamal Usman, a survivor in Calang, an area in western Aceh where hundreds of officials and residents prayed at a ceremony to mark the anniversary.

Elsewhere in Indonesia, thousands of factory workers and villagers scrambled to higher ground as sirens blared in a drill to mark the third anniversary of the disaster.

In Ciwandan on the shore of northwestern Java, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono watched the drill to test a tsunami early warning system.

As part of the drill, authorities also tested the response of emergency relief teams to a mock chemical leak in a factory if an 8.5 magnitude quake were to hit the area.

"We hope through this exercise people begin to understand that they live in a tsunami-prone area and know what to do in case of an emergency," said Ami Pramitasari of the research and technology ministry, which led the drill.

Since the tsunami, Indian Ocean countries have installed expensive warning systems and staged periodic evacuation drills to prepare better for another such disaster. Indonesia, situated in a belt of intense seismic activity known as the "Pacific Ring of Fire", has installed sirens along the coast of quake-prone islands such as Sumatra and Java.

Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, head of BRR, the agency charged with rebuilding the Indonesian regions hit by the tsunami, said the reconstruction pace was the fastest in the world.