Aceh woman activist supports refugees

By Ati Nurbaiti

PIDIE, Aceh (JP): At the end of a long hot day, Farida Hariyani had developed flu symptoms and a relative was massaging her head at her sister's residence in Ulee Glee district.

The recipient of the 1998 Yap Thiam Hien human rights award has moved in with her parents, fearing that soldiers might harass the elderly couple while she undertook her daily duties, checking up on refugees.

"I'll be relieved when my parents reach Medan", she said, adding they would stay with a relative there.

But there were hardly any buses plying the route to the North Sumatra capital because bus owners fear a repeat of violence directed toward public transport vehicles. Armed groups have been holding up buses and burning them, after ordering passengers and crew to disembark.

Farida, 33, who graduated from agricultural studies at Iskandar Muda University in Banda Aceh, had set out in the morning as was usual on her motorcycle.

She had intended to visit a number of sick refugees at a hospital here, but instead found an elderly man from one of the centers had died. Relatives planning to bury him were terrified of the prospect of road checks by the military. A few days earlier, an ambulance driver was taken into custody by the military when he transported student volunteers to refugee shelters.

If circumstances permit, Acehnese will strive to bury their relatives on their own land. So when Farida found the relatives distraught, pacing up and down, she eventually agreed to accompany them to the village of the deceased man.

"Let each of us gather courage and place our trust in Allah," she told them. After much bickering with hospital staff, they secured an ambulance and took the body home. The hospital would not lend them a driver, fearing the venture was too risky. Luckily, the dreaded road checks were not set up.

Farida, a staff member of the Yadesa community development foundation, then learned of a man vomiting blood in a shelter near Bandar Baru district. Again she was involved in arguments with medical staff at the shelter, who refused to transport the man until a doctor signed a release notice. Farida lost the red tape battle.

Inhabitants of the shelter were from the Ring Blang village in Meurudu district, where 68 men sustained injuries, the least of which were blisters and cuts to the feet, from walking and crawling on asphalt at noon on a military order.

On Wednesday, troops had descended into the village, shouting that one of their own had been shot earlier in the night. Village men were told to line up. Many were beaten and the man vomiting blood showed no signs of distress earlier in the day. But victims among refugees say the military aim for the vital parts, such as the chest, with their rifle butts or boots, resulting in physical damage which is not easily seen and which may be felt years after the assault.

Farida fretted over the fact that most of the men were sent back to the shelter after their wounds were dressed at the hospital. "Their relatives might not understand sanitation," she said.

She does not hide her exhaustion. There are few volunteers in comparison to the current estimate of 75,000 refugees, the most recent ones locals from two villages in Meurudu district. The exodus occurred on Friday after armed contact was heard in the vicinity.

Farida's work with victims of sexual abuse and women whose husbands went missing or were killed under military operations in Aceh from 1989 to 1998 increased public awareness of her work, which led to the award. Another recipient was Munir, coordinator of the independent Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), of which there is a branch in Aceh.

Her hard work is compensated by the warm greetings she receives along the road from the many who know her from her work in Yadesa. The foundation's main job in fact, is distributing to the needy capital for small agricultural or animal husbandry produce.

But sadly the poorest here have also become refugees. The capital they received, such as chicks, all died, and peanut crops were ruined following the exodus.

"The most dangerous period," Farida says, "is when refugees return". No one has any idea how they will start over.

For now, only immediate needs can be taken care of. Farida showed a little happiness after ensuring her foundation's contribution of a few hundred kilograms rice had reached one of the centers.

Back home, Farida and her family discussed where they themselves would seek shelter if the military descended on their own village.

She also was seeking help for the release of the ambulance driver detained by the military, who by Saturday had reportedly already been beaten.

His wife had sought her help. Although the work was not really her job, student activists, who have strained relations with the military, also requested her assistance.

At night she took out her Honda Astrea again to make a phone call at the nearest communication center, ruing the absence of logistical relief for refugees. But the National Commission on Human Rights member was already asleep.

"I need a break," she admits. "All this is getting into my sleep."

Few women are working in the area Farida has chosen, one which requires frequent traveling. Even traveling a lot within one regency is perceived as a man's job here; a woman traveler "leads to some negative perceptions", a local man said.

But Farida somehow broke down theses barriers. She recalls an incident during the early years of the military operations when she was still a student that sparked her anger. "There was this road project by the military," she said, in which soldiers chopped down coconut trees without permission, including those in front of her house.

So she marched up to the local military command -- and the entire village was shocked -- thinking that a woman with the guts to enter the military command must have been raped.

"But I was just thinking, who did they think they were, were they the only masters here?" she said.

Hardships in kampong life led her to think that those with a higher education like herself should contribute something, which eventually led to her work in community development.

As Farida speaks, two female students set off for a refugee post in Meurudu, passing the Banda Aceh-Medan highway which buses were avoiding after a bus conductor was beaten the day before.

Nowadays, she notes with appreciation, women students have more self-confidence. With the teeming problems ahead, Aceh needs more and more volunteers and social workers like Farida.