Acehnese children learn to forgive, forget

Acehnese children learn to forgive, forget

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

Nur Fatah, a teenage boy from Peureulak, East Aceh, lost his
father, Hanafiah, and two of his elder brothers during a battle
in April 2003, and he immediately resolved to seek revenge.

"My father was a guerrilla. He suffered from malaria and badly
needed medicine. My big brothers were just trying to deliver the
medicine to his camp in the jungle when the soldiers attacked,"
Nur recalled as tears rolled down his face.

"My father, my brothers and six other guerrillas died in the
attack," he said, adding that their mother was only able to
recover and bury the bodies several days after the incident.

Suffering from economic hardship, his mother decided to send
Nur to the Markaz Al Ishlah Al-Aziziyah, an Islamic boarding
school (pesantren) in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, which
provides rehabilitation services to traumatized victims of
violence, mostly children.

Since then, Nur has learned to live normally like other
kids of his age: he plays and goes to school every day. But he
still requires more treatment to fully overcome his trauma.

"Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night when I dream
about my father. He asked me to take care of myself," said Nur.
"I hated the pai (a term of abuse used by the Acehnese for
Indonesian soldiers), and really wanted to shoot them like they
shot my father and brothers."

Nur is only one of many. There are dozens of Acehnese children
participating in the same rehabilitation program. Most of them
have lost, and even had to witness, close family members die
violently since the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) guerrillas launched
its armed struggle in 1976 for the independence of the oil-rich
province.

Several children who have had close contact with GAM figures,
including Munawir, 14, a cousin of Darwis Jeunib, the GAM
commander in Jeunib, and Arsyad, 15, whose house in Nissam was
once used as a meeting place by Sofyan Daud, the GAM commander of
Pasee, North Aceh, are also living in the pesantren and
participating in the rehabilitation and reconciliation programs.

Arsyad has also suffered as his father, Abdulrahman, was
killed by a military bullet. But unlike Nur, his father was a
civilian, who became caught up in the crossfire between the two
warring sides.

"Actually, my father was not a member of GAM. It's just
that our house in Nissam was picked by the guerrillas
as a meeting place," said Arsyad, who speaks little
Indonesian.

"I ran to look for my father's body. I saw a bullet wound in
his chest, and dozens of other wounds caused by sharp weapons. I
was so mad when I saw his body. I really wanted to get revenge,"
Arsyad said.

The co-founder of the rehabilitation center at the pesantren,
Tgk. Tu Bulqaini Tanjongan, has tried to teach the children to
come to terms with their experiences. He teaches them to read the
Koran and to pray.

Bulqaini set up the pesantren soon after he returned from the
United States in 2001, when he learned that nothing was being
done to mitigate the psychological impact on children who
witnessed violence every day in the resource-rich.

"I saw hatred in the children's eyes, and I thought that it
was the end of the world," Bulqaini said.

He dug deep in his pockets and came up with Rp 32
million (about US$3,200) to buy a 2,000-square-meter plot of land
in Lueng Bata, near the center of Banda Aceh, on which he later
built the pesantren.

Apart from the children of GAM fighters, the rehabilitation
center also provides shelter for the children of deceased
Indonesian soldiers and police officers.

"This boy, Rudini, is Javanese and the son of an Indonesian
security officer," Bulqaini said, referring to a boy whose father
died in a gun battle with GAM guerrillas.

Currently, the pesantren provides shelter to 80 children,
including 20 girls. The Dec. 26 tsunami disaster left Bulqaini
with no option but to take in the girls, orphaned by the tsunami,
as they did not want to be separated from their brothers.

For Bulqaini, there has never been an easy way to explain to
the children why they have lost their family members in such
tragic circumstances.

Bulqaini once even asked a soldier to accompany Nur to school
everyday in a bid to make him understand that even soldiers could
be nice.

"The first time a soldier accompanied me to school, I really
hated him. I really wanted to kill him and his children," Nur
recalled. As the days passed, he learned that the soldier was not
so bad after all. "Now, I have learned to forgive and to give up
the hatred," Nur said.

With a peace agreement signed in Helsinki on Aug. 15, the
children hope it will mean lasting peace in Aceh.

"I'm happy with the signing of the peace pact. And I hope Aceh
can be part of Indonesia, but let us (the Acehnese) live in
peace. I don't hate the TNI anymore, but when I grow up I don't
want to be a soldier. I want to be a lecturer," Arsyad said,
smiling.