Aceh tsunami refugees moved to new 'homes'

Aceh tsunami refugees moved to new 'homes'

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post, Jantho

Truckloads of displaced persons moved from their tents to their
new "homes" on Tuesday. However, these homes were also tents, and
the sun beat down even more fiercely here in the hills than down
in Banda Aceh.

There is nothing here on these hills but row after row of
tents. The main difference is that after three months of often
forced civility between strangers living together in the same
tent, there is now some privacy.

There are new tents for each family and for hundreds more
expected to arrive in the coming weeks in Jantho, the capital of
Aceh Besar, which lies some 50 kilometers to the southeast of
Banda Aceh.

The town was virtually deserted until recently because of the
armed conflict between the Indonesian Military and the Free Aceh
Movement, and development has been slow to reach the area.

Local authorities, however, said this was the most convenient
site to house tsunami survivors.

It has electricity and running water, though on Tuesday the
water was not yet running, to the exasperation of the women
trying to cook lunch.

Almost 400 people willingly moved to this new site, taking up
an offer from the Taiwan-based Tzu Chi Buddhist Foundation, which
has members in 39 countries.

More families living on the grounds of the TVRI building in
Banda Aceh are waiting their turn to move into the tents. There
are some doubts about the move, because most of the displaced
persons come from Banda Aceh or fishing communities along the
devastated coast.

Zainal Abidin, 34, was among those who made the move on
Tuesday. He was a construction worker before the tsunami and
finally decided to leave the communal tents, along with his wife
and three children.

"If I stayed I would not be able to work and I am just tired
of this," he said. "I have no land, no house; moving to Jantho is
better."

Aisyah said now that she was in Jantho she planned to start up
a small business selling cigarettes. She owned three shops before
the tsunami.

"There will be lots of refugees selling cigarettes," she said,
adding that it would be fairly easy to start a new life because
her children were still young.

The field coordinator from Tzu Chi, Budi Wijaya, said 92
families signed up to move to the new tents. They were mostly
families who lost everything in the tsunami, such as construction
workers, landless farmers and fishermen.

Budi said the displaced persons would remain in Jantho for a
year, after which the foundation plans to build 3,000 houses in
Banda Aceh, although he said everything depended on the final
master plan.

The concept of the assistance, he said, is to help the
displaced persons "but prevent them from being dependent".

Basic needs such as rice will be provided for, he said, but
residents will, at least for now, be left on their own to work
out issues such as their children's schooling and jobs.

He said providing each family a temporary home was an
important first step.

So, what will the families do in such an isolated location?

"I am still waiting for a (promised) pedicab," said Muksin, a
new resident here. "I can be a pedicab driver here."

Muhammad, 45, said he and several others would continue to
work in Banda Aceh, where he works as a cleaner for Rp 40,000
(US$4.44) a day. "We rent a truck together to take us back and
forth between Banda Aceh," he said.

Tzu Chi, which also hopes to build several thousand homes in
Meulaboh, the ruined capital of West Aceh, has helped to ensure
electricity and running water for the 1,800 tents, Budi said.

Thanks to the tsunami victims, this deserted capital of Aceh
Besar is starting to come alive.