Fery looks forward to the future<\/p>\n
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Fery Santoro has come to terms with the months he spent as a
\nhostage of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), and does not feel any
\nresentment nor regret for his ordeal.<\/p>\n
Born in Purworejo, Central Java, on Feb. 18, the 36-year-old
\nhas only taken the brighter side of his recent predicament, and
\nit seems nothing angers him except for one thing: that nearly one
\nyear was taken away from him, time he could have spent with his
\nfamily and toward his career as a television cameraman.<\/p>\n
The costly and devastating experience of being held captive by
\nGAM guerrillas and losing a friend and colleague, RCTI reporter
\nSori Ersa Siregar -- who was tragically killed by the Indonesian
\nMilitary (TNI) in a crossfire -- has woken him to the realization
\nthat life and simply being alive are precious.<\/p>\n
\"There was nothing that I could do (when Ersa was shot),
\nexcept to surrender to God and keep on believing that He, with
\nHis unconditional love, would not leave me,\" said Fery, whose
\nskin is darker from exposure and who has lost at least 17
\nkilograms.<\/p>\n
Good-natured and composed, Fery has passed the point where his
\nlife was tried and tested in the deep jungle hideouts of the GAM
\nfighters. Escaping bullets from fierce gunfights between the
\nguerrillas and TNI soldiers was a daily exercise. He was
\nbasically forced, by the nature of survival, to be like them.<\/p>\n
It all began on June 29 last year when Fery, Ersa, two
\nAcehnese women Cut Farida and Cut Soraya and local driver
\nRachmatsyah were on their way to a refugee camp. The entourage
\nwas intercepted by GAM on the road connecting Peureulak and
\nLangsa in eastern Aceh.<\/p>\n
It was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time,
\nas GAM was on the lookout for Jakarta-based journalists who were
\npart of the TNI's media program. The journalists had undergone
\nspecial training for covering the war zone as embedded
\njournalists.<\/p>\n
To compound the situation, the women were the wives of
\nIndonesian Air Force officers.<\/p>\n
\"I never thought that giving a ride to these Acehnese women
\nwould endanger myself. No one understood that these women had
\nasked us for a ride to go to a refugee camp in Peureulak because
\nthey wanted to give food and clothes to the refugees,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The separatists took them to a remote area and interrogated
\nthem one by one. The situation was immediately clarified, but
\nthat did not mean freedom for the five. The commander, Ishak
\nDaud, told them that their release would likely take more time,
\nbecause \"the situation is getting worse outside there and we do
\nnot want to let you go before the right time\".<\/p>\n
Fery had never expected to confront such drastic changes in
\nhis daily life and feared what was to come.<\/p>\n
He did not understand what Ishak meant, but he guessed it was
\nall about the government's integrated operation.<\/p>\n
\"It was Ersa who comforted me. He even advised me to kill the
\ntime by writing everything that we felt in a diary,\" Fery said,
\nadding that the rebels allowed them each to have a book, so they
\ncould write their experiences during their time as hostages.<\/p>\n
\"I wasn't as sentimental as Ersa. He was so expressive, he
\nwrote in the book that he truly wished to see his eldest son
\ngrown up and that he wanted his wife to do anything she could to
\nsend their three children to school.<\/p>\n
\"I sometimes joked with Ersa, saying that we were going to
\nwrite in hundreds of books because we were not going to be freed
\nand Ersa was angry...,\" he recalled.<\/p>\n
His captors also gave him clothes after his were worn out and
\na pair of sandals in place of his tattered shoes. The GAM
\nguerrillas were also his best instructors in teaching him how to
\nsurvive gunfights. He was usually told to lie down and crawl into
\nmud or a swamp until it was safe enough for them to run away.<\/p>\n
\"As a hostage, of course, I didn't have any other choice than
\nto follow the guerrillas' commands. I couldn't scream for help
\nfrom the soldiers in hope that they would recognize me as a
\ncivilian hostage. I was scared the soldiers might think I was one
\nof the guerrillas, anyway.\"<\/p>\n
Food and water was always scarce, as the guerrillas preferred
\nto carry firearms instead of meal rations, and they drank water
\nfrom nearby rivers.<\/p>\n
\"It looked so good, it made you feel like you had drank a
\nglass of hot chocolate,\" Fery said.<\/p>\n
\"So I thanked God if I could eat a plate of rice with a piece
\nof salted fish once a day -- this seemed to be the guerrillas'
\ndaily fare, beside cigarettes.\"<\/p>\n
But the most painful episode came in February, when he got
\nsick, and the rebels had no rice to cook. Fery's condition was
\ndeteriorating.<\/p>\n
\"My high fever made me wake up frequently in the middle of the
\nnight and hear delirious sounds of bullets firing. When I
\nrealized that it was only a dream, I laid back down on the
\nmattress and thought that this might be the end of me. I was so
\ndepressed and suddenly remembered my wife and son. I missed them;
\nI missed my home. I missed everything and eagerly wanted to eat
\nmeals cooked by my wife,\" Fery said, smiling at his wife.<\/p>\n
\"At the time, I also wondered whether I still had friends
\noutside who would do anything to help release me. Did people
\noutside still remember me? Deep down inside, I believed that my
\nfriends would continue facilitating negotiations between the
\nmilitary and the rebels, but I couldn't help my doubts.\"<\/p>\n
The guerrillas cured him, treating him with medicinal plants
\nand herbs they found in the jungle.<\/p>\n
Now, as he breathes the air of freedom, there are many things
\nthat Fery wants to do, including writing a book or perhaps even
\nmaking a movie on \"anything that I think will be useful for
\njournalists in covering conflicts across the nation\". But before
\nthat, he wants to take some time to heal.<\/p>\n
Asked whether he was still dreaming about Aceh, Fery replied,
\nsmiling, \"I really want to return to Aceh -- but as a free man,
\nas an independent journalist.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/fery-looks-forward-to-the-future-1447893297",
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