Ambon clashes force Butonese 'back home'

Ambon clashes force Butonese 'back home'

By Elizabeth Collins

BAU BAU, Southeast Sulawesi (JP): The refugee center in Bau
Bau city is an open market next to a sports field. Between 500
and 1,000 refugees crowd under the roof on the cement platform.
It is difficult to imagine how they would all find space to lie
down at night.

The refugees in this center know that sometime in the distant
past their ancestors migrated to Ambon from Buton Island, but
they no longer know which village they came from, so they have
nowhere to go. Many are women with small children and no way to
earn money. Their children crowd around them, and their babies
sleeping on the floor look exhausted and poorly fed. Several
older women crouch over gas burners making snacks to be sold the
next day, but most people seem to have no energy and no idea how
they will manage.

Traumatized by the violence they have witnessed, the refugees
spoke of "the terror". One young man, the youngest of seven
children, had been a driver in Ambon. He said that on Jan. 20 he
returned home to find the bodies of his parents and all his
brothers and sisters cut to pieces. In Bau Bau he earns a bit of
money as a becak (three-wheel pedicab) driver to supplement the
meager supply of rice provided for refugees.

He hoped he would find relatives somewhere.

According to local government figures compiled by the regent
of Buton, H. Sahiruddin Udu, there are now 37,000 refugees from
Ambon in Buton, and more continue to arrive.

Frustrated that the central government has yet to grant any
assistance to these refugees, La Ode Masihu Kamaluddin, Inspector
General of Development for Backward Regions, led an expedition of
reporters to Buton from March 25 to March 29 to collect
information on the condition of the refugees. At the last minute,
one reporter was unable to join the team of observers, and
although I am a professor, not a journalist, I was invited to go
along as a foreign representative.

Shortly after the team of observers visited, the refugees at
the market in Bau Bau had to be moved because of heavy rains and
flooding. Other refugee centers around Bau Bau city are located
in an orphanage beside a mosque and in a state Islamic institute.
Although these refugees also sleep on a cement floor, they are
somewhat better off because they are protected from the weather.
However, the refugees reported that they had not eaten rice for
some time, nor had they had any protein.

The day the team visited, the refugees had been given instant
noodles at noon, and this was the only food distributed for the
day. One mother showed the team her baby, a listless infant
suffering from malnutrition; another child had a high fever.
Seven children have already died of diarrhea. The regent
explained that it would take 12 tons of rice a day to feed all
the refugees. All he could do was provide some rice and milk for
pregnant women and babies. There was also a shortage of medicine
and doctors.

In each of the five villages visited by the team of observers,
there were between 700 and 1,500 refugees. These refugees had not
yet received any help from the government.

Most lived on the ground under houses owned by relatives. The
resources of the villages were strained to breaking point. The
teacher at a village school said that formerly he had been
responsible for just over 100 pupils. He had over 200 when we
visited. Most of the refugee children had no books and no change
of clothes. They were hungry and traumatized.

There is no simple solution to the problem of the refugees
from Ambon. Those interviewed by the team said they had been born
in Ambon. In many cases their families lived in Ambon for
generations.

It was their home. Some want to go back to Ambon if there is
real peace, others adamantly refused to return.

"We don't want to be attacked again," one villager said.

Some of the refugees are farmers, but Buton is a harsh and
rocky island with no vacant land. Fishermen need boats and nets.
The merchants, whose shops in Ambon were burned, have lost
everything. One woman demanded to know what the government would
do to help them start again. The refugees who were university
students wondered how they would finish their studies now that
their families had lost everything and they could not go back to
Ambon for their exams.

Representatives from the team of observers met with the
governor in Kendari, the capital of Southeast Sulawesi. He told
them he had just learned that aid sent to the area had not
arrived. He said he would investigate.

The central government has yet to establish any program to
help the refugees of Buton.

The beginning of a solution to the problem of the Butonese
refugees may lie in civil society, in the actions of ordinary
citizens channeled through non-governmental organizations. The
team of observers has already established Yayasan Nurani Dunia, a
foundation to provide aid to victims of social and natural
disaster, with the motto "People to People Aid". The foundation
will establish a Crisis Center in Jakarta to deal with
emergencies like the destruction wrought by the Ambon riots and
the exodus of refugees.

Treasurers of Yayasan Nurani Dunia, Ita Julia Lestari and Ann
Shoemake, can be contacted at 021-3457830.