North Maluku, a greater disaster looming for some<\/p>\n
Santi W.E. Soekanto, Contributor, Ternate, Maluku<\/p>\n
Ridwan Miraj, the chief of Muhajirin district in Ternate City,
\nfought back tears. He was watching the Loloda and Galela refugees
\nsheltering in his neighborhood pack their meager belongings
\naccumulated over the past three years of their displacement. The
\nnext day, from Ternate Port, they would crowd into two ferries --
\nNur Jaya IV and Elite Perkasa -- that would take them back to the
\nvillages that they abandoned at the height of the Christian-
\nMuslim conflict in North Maluku.<\/p>\n
\"I am sad to finally see all of them go home, because I don't
\nknow what awaits them. These people have been wounded to their
\ncore. Their souls have been hurt,\" said Ridwan, who has been, in
\nessence, caring for more than 1,300 refugees in his district
\nalone.<\/p>\n
Many of those refugees have been living in cramped quarters --
\nhalf-burned buildings and abandoned warehouses -- where
\ntuberculosis, malaria, and respiratory tract infections haunted
\nthem and poor sanitation and lack of clean water caused repeat
\noutbreaks of diarrhea.<\/p>\n
\"No, I feel no relief that these people are finally leaving.
\nThey have been a responsibility for me,\" Ridwan said. \"But
\nthere'll be other responsibilities awaiting me.\"<\/p>\n
This includes the possibility of this particular batch of
\nrefugees -- sent off home by acting governor Sinyo Harry
\nSarundayang on Aug. 19 -- returning to Ternate for shelter if
\nthey find that their homeland is not yet the friendly place they
\nused to know before the outbreak of violence in 1999.<\/p>\n
That has happened with earlier attempts at returning refugees
\nto certain areas where conflicts have yet to really die down such
\nas in Tobelo regency.<\/p>\n
\"Who can guarantee the two most important things for refugees,
\nnamely security and adequate living facilities?\" asked Ummi Baba,
\nan eloquent 37-year-old refugee from Dufa-dufa who has been
\nsheltering in an abandoned Ternate nightclub. \"We know how
\ncontractors hired to provide us with living quarters have cut
\ncorners and built shelters that crumbled after only one year.\"<\/p>\n
Saadah, 50, looked down at the grave of her son-in-law who
\ndied in one of the eruptions of violence in 2000, and asked,
\n\"What will happen when we return in large numbers and the 'people
\nnext door' refuse to relinquish the barracks that they now
\noccupy?\"<\/p>\n
Saadah from Tobelo took shelter in Ternate in 2000. She
\nreturned to her village recently and fled again to Ternate
\nshortly afterward when armed assailants attacked the Muslim
\nvillages and killed three men in August. The quaint expression
\n\"people next door\" is used by North Maluku Muslims for their
\nerstwhile Christian neighbors.<\/p>\n
Following the first eruption of violence in North Maluku in
\nlate 1999, thousands have been killed and many more thousands
\nhave been scattered in various refugee camps. As of September,
\nmore than half of the initial 90,000 refugees sheltering in
\nTernate City have been returned to their home villages. Thousands
\nmore remain, especially those from Tobelo, contributing to a
\npowder-keg situation.<\/p>\n
Disease, abuse, drugs, alcoholism and prostitution are on top
\nof social burdens such as street children. Mito, 10, is one among
\nthose children begging on the streets of Ternate: He lost not
\nonly his parents in a bomb blast but also his right hand while
\nscars marked his limbs.<\/p>\n
\"Girls as young as 15 years old have become prostitutes, as
\nhave some widows of the syuhada (Muslim martyrs) because life as
\na refugee is unbearable,\" said Ummi Baba.<\/p>\n
\"Prostitution and alcohol are being sold blatantly in several
\nspots of the town and some cafes, backed by unscrupulous security
\nofficials,\" said Habib Muhammad, a local Muslim teacher, who
\nleads Amar Ma'ruf Nahyi Munkar, a force of hundreds of Muslim
\nyouths ready to fight social vices. The local security, however,
\nsees them as illegal pam swakarsa or independent security forces.<\/p>\n
\"In September last year we raided one cafe in Bastiong area
\nwhere there was prostitution and alcohol. We destroyed the place.
\nThe owner came out and shot one of the youths. He was later
\nstabbed but survived,\" Habib said. \"But, last February, the cafe
\nwas reopened and it is now thriving.\"<\/p>\n
\"These refugees must leave soon. All of them,\" said Abdul Gani
\nKasuba, another Muslim leader, last August. \"This town is simply
\nno longer able to take care of this burden,\" he said, echoing the
\ndetermination of the Coordinating Minister for Social Welfare
\nJusuf Kalla that \"the problem of 1.3 million of internally
\ndisplaced people must be solved by the end of 2002.\"<\/p>\n
The same determination is shown by the administration of
\nacting governor of North Maluku, Sinyo Harry Sarundayang.<\/p>\n
However, sending refugees home is no easy matter not only due
\nto the lack of facilities but because there is no guarantee for
\ntheir security (this, after all, is an administration where a
\nsenior official is being accused of embezzling Rp 79 billion of
\naid for the refugees).<\/p>\n
Neither is it an easy matter in a conflict where, it is known,
\nthe security authorities are split into two camps. Many people
\nfeel that the police elite force Brimob, regardless of the small
\nnumber posted in North Maluku, are siding with the Muslims while
\nthe Indonesian Military (TNI) troops have been suspected of
\nsiding with the Christians.<\/p>\n
\"This creates a situation of 'controlled calm' in Ternate,\"
\nsaid a local Muslim fighter. \"Anything could go off any time.
\nFighting could break out again, and we'd have more bloodshed,
\nespecially if the government forces the repatriation of Tobelo
\nMuslim refugees because the Tobelo Christians have clearly
\nrejected them.\"<\/p>\n
\"They'll start killing us again,\" said Saadah.<\/p>\n
The same could be said for any Christian wishing to return
\nhome to Ternate, which is now controlled by the Muslim side and
\nwhere abandoned churches have became refugee camps. Not many
\nChristians -- who fled the unrest to Christian-dominated regions
\nsuch as North Sulawesi -- would dare return to Ternate and
\nreclaim their properties.<\/p>\n
\"You're dead!\" one Muslim youth hissed at a passing Christian
\nman who returned to Ternate because as a civil servant he had to
\nwork. Before the unrest, the two were close friends.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, a 17-year-old Muslim boy who found the
\ndecapitated head of his father and his worn-out jacket, still
\nspends any spare time sharpening his machetes. Hatred in his
\neyes, he vowed: \"I'll be ready this time around.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/north-maluku-a-greater-disaster-looming-for-some-1447893297",
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