- Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard (L) shake hands with Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa (R) on arrival at Jakarta airport on November 1, 2010. Gillard will be meeting Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on November 2. AFP PHOTO / ROMEO GACAD (Photo by ROMEO GACAD/AFP/Getty Images)
November 02, 2010 (KATAKAMI / THE JAKARTA POST) --- President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to fly to Yogyakarta later today to meet people displaced by Mt. Merapi multiple eruptions in the past few days.
The President is slated to fly to Yogyakarta at about 2 p.m. Tuesday, after meeting with visiting Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Tempointeraktif.com reported Tuesday.
Yudhoyono earlier said that he had contacted governors of Yogyakarta and West Java, to make sure that people displaced by the eruption are taken care of.
"I ordered (the two governors) to try their best to save the lives of our brothers and sisters around Mt. Merapi," he said.
He also called on the people to improve their preparedness in the face of multiple disasters, considering that Indonesia is prone to natural disasters.
"We have to change the way we see disasters in this country. Our country is prone to natural disasters such as earthquake, tsunami and volcano eruption. When we are aware of our geography, we have to do whatever we can do for our survival to face these disasters," he said.
Yudhoyono cut short his visit to Vietnam and returned home to visit victims of tsunami disaster in West Sumatra last weekend, and flew back to Vietnam to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit.
(MS)
