Merapi victims need resettlement

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Local government officials are still undecided as to where the displaced 3,000 victims of the Merapi eruption will be resettled.

The 3,000 villagers lost their homes in the Nov. 22 Merapi eruption and now live in makeshift tents in evacuation centers thrown up by the Sleman regency government.

The government has permanently closed the worst-hit hamlet of Turgo and declared several others "no-entry" until the volcano returns to normal.

Approximately 5,500 people from 11 villages near Mount Merapi were moved to safe grounds in Sleman following the eruption, which has so far claimed more than 50 lives. Dozens are still missing and feared buried by hot lava the mount gushed.

At least 12 hectares of land must be made available for the displaced people because they refuse resettlement outside of Java, under the government-sponsored transmigration program, Sleman regent Arifin Ilyas said yesterday.

"Frankly speaking, we still have no idea about where to find substitute land to resettle the people," Arifin told The Jakarta Post.

He said he would continue to try and convince the people to join the transmigration program.

President Soeharto has personally advised that the people take part in the program. Business tycoon Probosutedjo has also offered the villagers work in his plantations in Sumatra.

Under the transmigration program, people from densely populated areas like Java and Bali, are moved to sparsely populated islands like Sumatra, Kalimantan and Irian Jaya.

Heavy rains pounded Mount Merapi yesterday for an hour and a half, but there was no word of calamity caused by sliding lava from the slopes.

"Had it not stopped in three hours, stones at the bottom of the Boyong river (which begins on Merapi) would have been washed down by the flow of water. This would have been quite disastrous," Mas Atje Purbawinata from the volcano monitoring agency said. (har/sim)