Hunger becomes common feature at 'hotspot' areas<\/p>\n
Santi W.E. Soekanto, Contributor, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Baharudin and the other men of Buyung Katedo, a small Muslim
\nenclave in the Christian village of Sepe, Poso, Central Sulawesi,
\nknew they risked their lives by returning home only days after
\nthey had fled an enemy attack that claimed the lives of 13 women,
\nchildren and elderly men in July last year.<\/p>\n
Armed with sharpened machetes, Baharudin and three other
\nsurvivors stood on top of the hill overlooking the clove
\nplantation that they built years ago as migrants from South
\nSulawesi. They had toiled, they had built a good life in Poso,
\nbut unrest flared in 1998 that claimed thousands of lives from
\nboth the Christian and Muslim sides. Buildings, trees and places
\nof worship were burnt down. Neighbors became enemies, and none
\ncould enter the home or land of the other without risking death.<\/p>\n
"We have to return home and maintain a vigil here, "Baharudin
\ntold me. "This land and these clove plants are our only
\npossession, if we abandoned them the enemy would take over and
\nwhat would we eat then?"<\/p>\n
Tiwi was a three-year-old girl; however, so undernourished was
\nshe that she weighed far less than most two-year-olds. She had
\nnot yet learned to speak and had not yet walked, much less run
\naround like other toddlers. She also suffered from shortness of
\nbreath and when she cried her face turned blue due to lack of
\noxygen. Her mother was concerned about Tiwi's health but was also
\nvery confused.<\/p>\n
"I have taken her to a shaman, I have taken her to a midwife
\nfor some treatment, but she remains like this," the mother of
\nfour said in front of her hut in a small fishing village, Labuan,
\nPoso subdistrict, Central Sulawesi. Tiwi definitely needed to see
\na doctor, but she said, "I have never taken any of my children to
\nthe hospital. Do you think I should?"<\/p>\n
Before the Malino peace talks in late 2001, the only health
\nfacility available was Poso Hospital in Poso City, 30 minutes
\naway by car from Tiwi's village. However, since the violence
\nerupted in December 1998 a long trail of destruction had been
\ncreated, the district was almost deserted and not many public
\nbuses were seen around Poso. Besides, anyone from Labuan wishing
\nto enter Poso would have to go through some enemy-controlled
\nareas. Sniper attacks were not uncommon.<\/p>\n
The Muslims, however, were not the only party suffering from
\nfood shortages in the Poso conflict. A Christian woman, driven by
\ndesperation for food following restriction of movements affecting
\nenclaves on both side, donned a Muslim woman's headscarf, a
\njilbab, and entered the Poso city market one July afternoon last
\nyear.<\/p>\n
She was stooping to select vegetables when the crucifix
\npendant of her necklace swung out of the fold of her jilbab,
\nright before the watchful eyes of the vendor. "We beat her up,
\nand sent her away," one local man told me. Without her groceries,
\ncertainly, but at least she was alive.<\/p>\n
Hunger is part of the scenery of any armed conflict in the
\ncountry. Some 90,000 Muslim refugees in Ternate, Maluku Utara,
\nwho have been sheltering in various makeshift refugee camps, are
\nused to it.<\/p>\n
In this hotspot of Indonesia, 10-year-old Mito waved his right
\nforearm, severed at the wrist following a bomb explosion in 2000,
\nwhile begging for scraps of food from passersby in front of the
\nTernate post office. He had lost not only his hand but also his
\nparents, and now begged in order to survive.<\/p>\n
"I could have saved his hand, he wouldn't have needed the
\namputation, had it not been for a feud between doctors (sent from
\nJakarta by the Ministry of Health and the local ones)," the
\northopedic surgeon, who worked at the clinic that treated Mito
\ntold me ruefully. "But, OK, I think he would still have needed to
\nbeg, even with his right hand intact, because there are simply
\ntoo many refugees in Ternate and not enough food."<\/p>\n
Some young girls and women refugees in Ternate have had to
\nsell their bodies for food.<\/p>\n
Compared with the relatively recent past, we live today in a
\nworld of abundance. Improved health and increasing agricultural
\nproductivity in the 20th century have catalyzed unprecedented
\nsocial and economic transformations.<\/p>\n
Today there is more than enough food for all ...
\ntheoretically. The problem is that food is neither produced nor
\ndistributed equitably. All too frequently, the poor in fertile
\ndeveloping countries stand by watching with empty hands -- and
\nempty stomachs -- while ample harvests and bumper crops are
\nexported for hard cash. Short-term profits for a few, long-term
\nlosses for many.<\/p>\n
Hunger is a question of maldistribution and inequity -- not a
\nlack of food. That is why, despite abundance, hunger hovers;
\ndespite progress, poverty persists.<\/p>\n
Who gets to be at the lowest rung of poverty-driven hunger?
\nInternally Displaced People (IDPs) in conflict zones, certainly,
\nand Indonesia has thousands of them. Earlier this year, 1.3
\nmillion refugees were scattered across 22 provinces, mostly from
\nAceh, Ambon, Poso and North Maluku.<\/p>\n
Coordinating Minister for Peoples' Welfare Jusuf Kalla vowed
\nto solve the refugee problem by the end of 2002; he recently
\nannounced that 900,000 refugees had been repatriated and
\nresettled. In areas where violence still simmers, such as Poso,
\nAmbon, Aceh and North Maluku, an announcement such as this did
\nnot mean prompt settlement of the hunger problem for many.<\/p>\n
Aid continues to be poured into these conflict zones, but in a
\ncountry known to be the most corrupt in the region, this often
\nmeans that the officials get richer while the refugees continue
\nto suffer. This is what happened in North Maluku, where a former
\nsenior official at the administration is being accused of
\nembezzling Rp 79 billion of aid for the refugees.<\/p>\n
At the end of the 20th century, according to the Food and
\nAgriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN, food emergencies
\naffected 52 million people in 35 countries, mainly in the
\ndeveloping world. Some of these situations have resulted from
\nadverse weather or economic and financial crises, but violent
\nconflict, mainly in the form of civil wars, was frequently the
\nmajor factor.<\/p>\n
In February, 2000, armed strife left more than 11 million
\npeople in 6 developing and transition countries in need of food
\naid and other international humanitarian assistance, and
\nvulnerable to malnutrition. In addition, over 3 million people
\ncontinued to require food assistance in the aftermath of
\nconflict, as they remained displaced from their homes and
\nsustainable livelihoods.<\/p>\n
Protecting nutrition, especially that of young people, is a
\ngreat challenge facing Indonesia today. More so in regions of
\nconflict such as Aceh where hunger is only one of a multitude of
\nthreats hovering over refugees.<\/p>",
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