OVER 500 TSUNAMI REFUGEES GET PERMANENT HOUSES 

Banda Aceh - At least 500 tsunami refugees or families have left their emergency tents at Labui village, Krueng Raya Sub-district, Aceh Besar District, Aceh Province, for new permanent houses in their villages of origin.

"Some 13 refugee barracks of tsunami survivors have been dismantled as the refugees have received new permanent houses constructed in their villages," a spokesman of the Aceh-Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (BRR), Mirza Keumala said in Banda Aceh on Saturday (26/05).

Labui Village Head Mawardi Hasan said that 162 houses were currently being constructed in the village for tsunami survivors. Coordinator of the BRR's Committee for Housing Reconstruction Rahmat Fadhil said that BRR would do its utmost to accelerate the development process of houses for the disaster's victims.

"During May 2007, we aim to dismantle 68 emergency barracks located in Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar," he said.

On December 26, 2004, a deadly earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter Scale and a subsequent gigantic tsunami devastated the Aceh Province and Nias Island (North Sumatra) and killed over 170,000 people and destroyed most houses and infrastructures.

Over two years after the massive disaster, a number of tsunami survivors have been forced to stay in emergency tents as new permanent houses promised to them were not yet completed (Antara, 26/05/07).

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