Aceh woman activist supports refugees

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.