Acehnese refugees face uncertain future

Acehnese refugees face uncertain future

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

The government is still in the dark over the future of 48,404
Acehnese refugees being sheltered in regencies in North Sumatra.

The North Sumatra provincial administration has offered the
refugees various options, including a production-sharing
arrangement under state plantation companies, enrolling in the
transmigration program and working abroad under programs arranged
by the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration.

"The refugees, whose numbers are increasing each day, have
rejected all the offers except the transmigration program. They
are prepared to be resettled through the transmigration program
anywhere in the country except Aceh," Sofyan Nasution, the head
of the North Sumatra provincial social affairs agency," told The
Jakarta Post in Medan on Tuesday.

He further said that under the transmigration program, the
refugees, who mostly migrated from Java, would be given three
hectares of land per family in the resettlement areas. "So what
they want is to get the same plot of land they left behind after
they were forced to leave Aceh," Sofyan said.

The refugees left the restive province to avoid the armed
conflict between the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the
Indonesian Military (TNI) when police were sent to quell
separatism and restore security there.

Sofyan said that, so far, none of the provinces contacted were
wanting to accept the refugees. "None of them are willing to
provide resettlement areas for the Acehnese refugees."

Citing an example, he said that regency administrations in
North Sumatra were reluctant to accept the refugees who they
called "outsiders".

Camps in Langkat regency, the closest region of North Sumatra
to its strife-torn neighbor, are sheltering 37,768 refugees. Most
come from the East Aceh, West Aceh and North Aceh regencies,
which are reported as having the most rampant armed conflicts.
Most refugees flocked to the regency between September 1999 and
June 2001.

The provincial administration has distributed a total amount
of Rp 8.8 billion (US$880,000) in aid for daily meals and 2.341
tons of rice for the refugees during the same period. The
administration's assistance has not included donations from
locals.