More Merapi victims resettle

YOGYAKARTA: Another 40 families will be leaving soon to settle in West Sumatra after their homes were ravaged by the eruption of Mt. Merapi last month.

The families were scheduled to leave on Saturday for the transmigration site in Sungai Lilin and begin a new life as workers in a palm oil plantation.

Most of them were villagers from Hargobinangun and Turgo, Daru Sudjatmoko of the Yogyakarta Transmigration office said.

In addition, 17 families from the Gunung Kidul regency, who lost their homes because of a hurricane, will also join in the transmigration program, Antara reported.

Sudjatmoko said that from the Mt. Merapi eruption, the office has already sent out 151 families on the transmigration program. At least 11 villages on the slopes of Mt. Merapi have been declared unsafe. Some 2,600 people from these villages are now being sheltered in various barracks in and around Yogyakarta. (emb)