ADB aid to be used to resettle villagers

PALU, Central Sulawesi: The Central Sulawesi provincial administration in the 1999/2000 budget year will receive aid worth some US$3 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Antara reported.

The fund will be used to resettle villagers in Katu, North Lore district, Poso regency, in conjunction with the Lore Lindu National Park project.

The head of the Central Sulawesi Board of Regional Development Planning, Rais Lamangkona, said on Thursday that Katu villagers would be resettled in Balaiura (Besoa), some 15 kilometers away. The resettlement will take three years to complete.

Separately, a traditional elder of Katu village, Patorae, aged 70, said his community rejected the resettlement program. He said they wanted their new homes only in the village of Parawali, some three km from the village of Katu.

"We refuse to move too far away from the village of Katu because if we do the spirits of our ancestors will get angry and curse us," he said

Katu village, which is included in the area of Lore Lindu National Park, is home to 60 families comprising 226 people.