Acehnese cry for education after schools burned

Acehnese cry for education after schools burned

Achmad Sukarsono Reuters Banda Aceh

Nine-year-old Acehnese schoolgirl Chaerani fears she could end up without an education after her school was set ablaze late on Monday, the first day of martial law in Indonesia's restive Aceh province.

The only thing left at the one-storey Banda Aceh Public Elementary School number 71 hinting it had been a place of learning was a huge, colorful painting of Indonesia's territory and a painted slogan that can loosely be translated as "seize the day" on its white and grey wall.

Few tables, benches and blackboards in the now roofless, charred primary school, located in Mibo district on the outskirts of Aceh's capital, were spared from the inferno that started when residents in the area were about to go to bed.

Dozens of other schools across the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island faced the same fate Monday night.

"I am sad that I can't go to school anymore. Not going to school can make me stupid," said Chaerani, who strolled around the scorched wood and blackened rubble with a group of friends.

Indonesia imposed martial law on the rebellious province after talks with the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), aimed at salvaging a crumbling peace pact, failed on Sunday night, ending a five-month respite from almost three decades of violence that has taken more than 10,000 lives, most of them civilians.

The Indonesian military accused GAM rebels of carrying out the school burning spree to provoke ordinary Acehnese to think martial law would only bring disaster.

A new addition to the razed Banda Aceh school seemed to back that accusation. Just below the map on the wall, there was fresh chalk writing saying: "This school has been destroyed. Freedom. Freedom".

GAM has denied being behind the school fires.

Residents near Chaerani's school did not want to point fingers at anyone and simply said "unknown people" when asked, an answer locals seeking to avoid recriminations from either side tend to give whenever there is an incident in this war-torn area.

"First, we heard gunshots so we thought a crossfire was taking place," a young mother who declined to be named told Reuters.

"We all cried when we realized the school has been reduced to ashes. The kids should have faced their final exams next week. What should they do now? Why should anyone attack a school?" said the 30-year old woman, whose niece went to the school and whose son expected to be enrolled there next semester.

She could not believe such a thing could happen to a school so near the center of Banda Aceh, 1,700 km northwest of Jakarta.

The principal of one burned high school said: "We are now trying to set up emergency tents so that we can proceed with our exams. The problem is all of the exam forms have been burned with the school".

Although Chaerani's school is partly surrounded by paddy fields and coconut groves and several cows graze in its front yard, it is just behind the modern curved-roof Harapan Bangsa stadium, Aceh's largest and only a 10 minute drive from the residence of the province's military commander.

For Chaerani, she just wants a decent education.

"Everything now scares me. GAM. Soldiers. Police. I just want to go back to school," she said.