Javanese pessimistic about return to Aceh<\/p>\n
Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Medan<\/p>\n
Syaimin, 59, still feels he is the most unfortunate man in the
\nworld. He lost almost everything he had to the Acehnese rebels:
\nhis wife, six of their eight children, his home and his coffee
\nplantation in North Aceh.<\/p>\n
Of Javanese descent but born in Langkat, North Sumatra,
\nSyaimin now lives alone in a squalid refugee camp outside of
\nMedan. His two remaining sons have moved to Riau to begin a new
\nlife.<\/p>\n
\"I have nobody, I have nothing now. Sometimes, I wanted to
\ncommit suicide,\" Syaimin said, recalling the horrid events of
\nMarch 23, 2001, when suspected Acehnese rebels came to his home
\nin Raunya village, Bireun Bayeun district, North Aceh in search
\nof Javanese.<\/p>\n
He said his children were watching television, while he and
\nhis wife had gone to bed when the suspected rebels came. The men,
\nequipped with guns and machetes, ordered all of them to leave the
\nvillage at once.<\/p>\n
Most of them refused and argued that they were born there. The
\nrebels then reportedly began killing them one by one.<\/p>\n
\"One by one, my wife and children were executed in front of
\nme. Wagio, Machmud, Suroso, Boiman, Sugimin, and Mamek, my
\nyoungest son. I can no longer stand this,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He said his wife was killed for trying to protect their
\nchildren who declined to leave since they were all born in the
\nvillage.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of Javanese and Batak families who have fled Aceh for
\nsimilar reasons are still occupying refugee camps and village
\nbuildings in Langkat and Deli Serdang regencies.<\/p>\n
They have come from East, North and Central Aceh and Aceh
\nBesar, four regencies which have been the stronghold of the
\nseparatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM).<\/p>\n
Soeratmin, 54, who is now living in a refugee camp in Kuala
\nBegumit, Sei Dendang, Stabat, some 50 kilometers north of Medan,
\nsaid he and his six-member family took refuge on the border area
\nin early August after his house was burned down by unidentified
\npeople.<\/p>\n
\"At the beginning, we refused to leave the village, but after
\na series of intimidations that reached its peak on the burning of
\nour house, and the mysterious killing of migrant people, we
\ndecided to leave the province,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"It was very difficult for us to leave our houses and hundreds
\nof hectares of coffee trees which had been ready for harvests,\"
\nSoeratmin, a refugee from Timang Gajah in Central Aceh, said.<\/p>\n
Sumiran, 30, a father of three small children in Perlak, East
\nAceh, said he and his family left their home village on Feb. 20,
\n2001 after intimidation from rebels, including the burning of
\nmigrants' houses.<\/p>\n
\"I left with my family after I was intimidated by six
\nunidentified armed men on the bank of a river near my village.
\nThe men threatened to kill me and my relatives if we refused to
\nleave the province,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Tengku Amri bin Abdul Wahab, field commander of GAM's military
\nwing, said GAM had never driven migrant people out of the
\nprovince because such an action was against humanity and Islamic
\nteaching.<\/p>\n
He noted that many Javanese and Batak people had joined GAM
\nand several of his bodyguards were Javanese.<\/p>\n
Amri conceded that GAM had suggested that migrant people flee
\nthe mounting tension in Aceh and come back to the province when
\nthe situation had returned to normal.<\/p>\n
But Javanese refugees like Sumiran were pessimistic about
\ntheir possible return to Aceh.<\/p>\n
Sumiran said East Aceh regent Ajeman who visited the refugee
\ncamp late last month, told the refugees not to go back to their
\nvillages in the regency until the situation returned to normal.<\/p>\n
\"We are pessimistic about returning as the tension in the
\nprovince is mounting,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Sumiran, who was born in Perlak in 1978 and married an
\nAcehnese woman, said he was forced to divorce his wife but
\nsucceeded in bringing her and their children out of the province.<\/p>\n
\"After I listened to their dialect, I thought the rebels were
\nAcehnese, but they were armed with guns similar to the ones used
\nby the Indonesian Military. They also had cellular phones. The
\nsecurity forces would have difficulties to detect these rebels
\nbecause they live in remote jungles and use a hit-and-run
\ndefense,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Muchlas Sumarto, who along with his Acehnese wife Juhariyah
\nand their four children, has lived in the Tuntungan low-cost
\nhousing compound, outside Medan, for two and a half years, said
\nhe left his village in Meunye Cut Bahagia Village in Kuta Makmur
\nSubdistrict, North Aceh, following a GAM meeting in the village
\nin 1999.<\/p>\n
\"During the meeting presided over by Ibrahim Saleh, a GAM
\ncommander in North Aceh, all migrant people, especially Javanese,
\nwere ordered to leave the village because in their next move to
\nAceh's independence, the province will not have any Javanese
\npeople who, they claim, have occupied the Acehnese land
\nillegally,\" he recalled.<\/p>\n
Before the meeting, he said, all migrant people in the village
\nwere directed to join the so-called People's Gathering in Banda
\nAceh to demand a self-determination referendum for the province.<\/p>\n
Muchlas, whose younger brother was killed by suspected GAM
\nrebels, including his brother-in-law after refusing to leave
\ntheir village, was also pessimistic about the possibility of her
\nfamily returning to Aceh since their house had been burned down
\nand their four-hectare farm had been given to Acehnese people, as
\nordered by GAM he claimed.<\/p>\n
\"So far, my family has been staying in a vacant house
\nbelonging to a Batak Karo family. We are allowed to stay here for
\ntwo and half years. I have worked as a construction worker and my
\nwife has worked as temporary worker in farming near the housing
\ncomplex, to support our six-member family,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Sido, of Acehnese descent, said he and his family joined the
\nmigrant people to leave the province after opposing the
\nseparatist movement's struggle he considered untrue.<\/p>\n
\"I don't believe in GAM which has exerted violence and
\nextorted villagers to finance their struggle and the rebellion
\nwill end in the immediate future following the deployment of
\nhundreds of thousands of soldiers to the province,\" he said.<\/p>\n
GAM is fighting for an independent state in Aceh, while other
\nAcehnese are pushing for a referendum on independence. During the
\nlast 30 years under Soeharto's transmigration program, thousands
\nof Javanese families relocated to Aceh and were given farm land
\nand housing which has created resentment. Both the GAM and
\nIndonesian military are accused of human rights violations with
\nseveral question marks regarding which side was responsible on
\nany given occasion. Both sides have allegedly posed as the other
\nwhile committing atrocities over the last twenty years.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/javanese-pessimistic-about-return-to-aceh-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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