Scores of Indonesian villagers tried to return to their homes on the slopes of Mount Merapi yesterday despite its danger status and the risk of eruption.
Authorities ordered the mandatory evacuation of thousands of residents living around Merapi on Saturday as lava blazed from its crater and thick clouds of charcoal gray smoke tumbled toward villages.
But many residents in the danger zone remained calm and unruffled, insistent that there was no imminent threat and refusing to flee.
PHOTO: AFP
"As long as I remember, and also according to my great-grandfather, I have no recollection of either lava or heat clouds coming to my village," said 74-year-old Marjo in Kaliadem, one of the northernmost villages on the slope.
Sucking on a clove-flavored cigarette, he releases a puff of smoke, mirroring the volcano in the background, as he says nobody in his village thought they needed to evacuate.
"It is only the authorities that believe this area is dangerous. We don't," he said.
Livestock
Like many other villagers, Marjo has continued to cut grass on the edge of the forest higher up the mountain to feed his milk cows, the main source of income for people here.
Tarjan, a man 20 years younger that Marjo, has also refused to leave his home.
"We have spent our entire lives here and we know when its dangerous, and right now it's not," he said, adding that his three cows still needed to be fed and they could not be evacuated.
"They can force us to evacuate if they want, but we know how to return home," Tarjan said.
But officials were continuing to tell people to leave. In one district alone, they relocated more than 5,000 people from villages near the boiling crater to dozens of temporary shelters after Mount Merapi sent two massive heat clouds swirling 2km down its northwestern slopes.
In Sleman district as of midday officials had transported 5,093 people from seven villages to shelters, said Ani, of the district evacuation agency.
In Magelang district "there is no panic but the evacuation is still ongoing. We are intensifying efforts because there are a lot of residents that need to be evacuated," said Edy Susanto, head of the district evacuation team.
Hot clouds
Susanto said officials and volunteers had taken "more than 50 percent" of residents from 11 villages deemed to be at immediate risk of the heat clouds and moved them to safer ground.
All the villages, Susanto said, were "located very near Merapi and we fear that the head clouds" could reach the area.
"There are a lot of people who need to be evacuated, including babies, pregnant women and elderly. It's not easy to perform an evacuation but this is something that we continue doing," he said.
No figure was immediately available for the number of residents still to be moved in Magelang or Sleman.
However, Vice President Yusuf Kalla said on Thursday that around 34,000 people living below Merapi's crater should be evacuated.
Susanto estimated that about 17,000 people from 21 villages across Magelang could be in danger from Merapi's lava flows, but said only 11 of the villages needed immediate evacuation.
Geologists say heatclouds, known locally as wedus gembel or "shaggy goats," are the main danger to local people.
The clouds, a mixture of volcanic gases, ash, and dust which can reach temperatures of 500oC, killed 66 people when Merapi last erupted in 1994.
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