Javanese transmigrants refuse to return to Aceh<\/p>\n
Debbie A. Lubis
\nThe Jakarta Post
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
Dozens of Javanese transmigrant families who were forced to leave
\nAceh earlier this year now do not want to return to the troubled
\nprovince despite the signing of an agreement between the
\ngovernment and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to end hostilities
\nthere on Dec. 9.<\/p>\n
They urged the government not to send them to any part of
\nSumatra island as they could not yet recover from the trauma they
\nsuffered after being expelled from Aceh by GAM.<\/p>\n
"We do not want to be relocated to any part of Sumatra because
\nwe don't want to be hurt for a second time. It's hard to get over
\nthe trauma," Panggih Suwito told The Jakarta Post over the
\nweekend.<\/p>\n
Panggih, a Javanese transmigrant from Sumber Makmur village in
\nWest Aceh, is just one of dozens of Javanese transmigrants who
\nfled Aceh early this year after GAM leaders gave an ultimatum for
\nthem to leave Aceh.<\/p>\n
Since August 2002, Panggih has had to share with 78 other
\ntransmigrant families, a small temporary shelter owned by the
\nMinistry of Manpower and Transmigration in Pondok Kelapa, East
\nJakarta. The ministry of manpower and transmigration provides
\nfour ounces of rice and Rp 4,000 cash for each transmigrant
\neveryday.<\/p>\n
"It's not an easy life, really, especially for the children.
\nWe have to put up with eating porridge twice a day and we face
\nwater shortages and bad sanitation. Many of us have been sick but
\nthere is nothing we can do," he said.<\/p>\n
GAM forced Panggih and 200 other families to abandon the
\nAcehnese village that they were occupying within 24 hours on May
\n26, 2002, leaving everything they had been given by the
\ngovernment in the transmigrant program for the past 22 years.<\/p>\n
"They (GAM members) expelled us because we are Javanese. They
\nsay that Javanese are not allowed to live in Aceh," he said.<\/p>\n
Some 42,000 out of 48,000 transmigrant families have left Aceh
\nthis year.<\/p>\n
Panggih alleged that his village in Aceh paid "security fees"
\nof between Rp 5 million and Rp 7.5 million to GAM every three
\nmonths.<\/p>\n
"I was even kidnapped three times by GAM since my people
\nrefused to give them money," he said, adding that GAM also burned
\ntheir houses.<\/p>\n
Panggih said that after they were forced to leave Sumber
\nMakmur village, they stayed in a building in Darul Makmur
\ndistrict for one and a half months before leaving the province
\nfor Medan in North Sumatra, Jambi, Jakarta, and several cities in
\nJava.<\/p>\n
Panggih and his fellow Javanese are demanding that the
\ngovernment give them an extra Rp 20 million each to start a new
\nlife in a new place.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, however, has
\nrefused to give in to their cash demands, and offered instead to
\nbe relocated to Jambi to work on the palm plantations.<\/p>\n
"We just want money (from state funds) to be handed to us, to
\ncontinue our lives, to educate our children, and to start
\neverything from the scratch," Panggih stated.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Budi Atmadi Adiputro, deputy for internally
\ndisplaced persons (IDPs) and refugee affairs at the National
\nCoordinating Body for Disasters and Refugees (Bakornas PBP), said
\non Saturday that the transmigrants could not be categorized as
\nIDPs because they voluntarily left their houses.<\/p>\n
"We believe that there could be someone organizing their
\nevacuation with ulterior motives, in order to extort us. Besides,
\nit is common that transmigrants often return to their places of
\norigin if the soil is not fertile or something like that.<\/p>\n
"I think the ministry is wise enough to not start doling out
\npublic money because it would set a dangerous precedent," he told
\nthe Post.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/javanese-transmigrants-refuse-to-return-to-aceh-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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