Merapi victims need resettlement

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)