Mt Rokatendo's 2,000 Catholic refugees still in a critical situation
Jakarta (AsiaNews) - Thousands of people displaced on 2 February by the eruption of Mt Rokatendo, on Palu'e Island, are still living under emergency conditions. What is more, despite their critical situation, the central government in Jakarta and local authorities in Sikka Regency have done little to alleviate their problems.
The area is remote, difficult to reach, off the island of Flores, in East Nusa Tenggara Province, in eastern Indonesia. By history and tradition, its people are Catholic.
The isolation and the difficulty of reaching the refugees, however, do not justify the sluggishness and indifference shown by the authorities towards the residents who still endure shortages in basic necessities.
In recent weeks, a Catholic physician, Dr Linda Nurtjahja, together with her colleagues from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Atma Jaya in Jakarta, visited the site of the eruption and associated refugee camps. What they saw was "far beyond anyone's imagination."
Most of the people displaced were surviving "without sufficient food, water and clothes," she said. For them eating twice a day, she added, would be considered a "luxury".
The Diocese of Maumere spoke about the fate of Rokatendo refugees, clearly concerned about the community's survival, including on Flores Island.
"At least 2,000 people," said Fr Yoris Role, who heads the diocesan Rescue and Recovery Agency, are in living precarious conditions, in dozens of shelters across the regency, "refugees from Palu'e," he added. The authorities, he believes, have a duty to provide for their care.
Local priests have appealed to the authorities in Sikka, who want to move the refugees to three new centres in Hewuli, Patisomba and Wuring, because the "evacuation plan is not yet finalised, and conditions in all three centres are less than ideal for [permanent] human presence."
At about 875 metres above sea level, Mt Rokatenda has been a source of troubles for the island's residents in the past. The worst event in recent history goes back to 1928, when an eruption was followed by a powerful tsunami.
Surrounded by the waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the thousands of islands and atolls that make up the Indonesian archipelago sit on what earth scientists call the 'Ring of Fire', an area associated with intense volcanic and earthquake activity caused by the collision of several continental plates.
Most Indonesians can vividly remember the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit the region in December 2004, with its epicentre just off the coast of Aceh, that killed hundreds of thousands of people in Asia.
.png)
