Can the government deal with refugees?

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

One of the most sickening realities the government now faces is that of refugees -- despite the fact that Indonesia is not even engaged in a war or hostilities with any other nations.

Scores of displaced now live in refugee camps in Kupang, West Nusa Tenggara, Buton, Southeast Sulawesi, Madura, East Java, Medan, North Sumatra along with areas in Aceh and Poso, Central Sulawesi and Pontianak in West Kalimantan.

They are the people who have fled the archipelago's "civil wars."

Government officials may dismiss the term civil war as a characterization of the intercine conflicts and ongoing sectarian clashes which have claimed thousands of lives.

Thousands of East Timorese died in massacres at the hands of local militiamen, armed and backed by the military, after then- President Habibie allowed East Timor to move towards independence under the aegis of the UN in September of 1999.

In Ambon, unresolved clashes between Muslims and Christians have also led to an exodus of thousands of locals. Members of both groups had fled to escape the fighting.

The refugees included migrant families from the island of Buton in Southeast Sulawesi, who had been living in the province of Maluku for more than three generations.

Having no choice, the "Buton people" returned to their homeland, where locals later only half-heartedly accepted them, regarding them as "foreigners." Serious problems, not surprisingly, have emerged.

Sad stories are also commonplace in the conflict in the regent of Poso, Sampit, and most of all regencies in Aceh.

These all go to show that the government has failed to maintain a sense of unity and domestic security.

This has evoked frustration among the displaced, who live day- to-day in temporary camps, or military barracks with very limited infrastructure.

The refugees have lost everything, especially in the economic sense. In being forced to flee their hometowns they have lost their jobs, and it is all but impossible for the government to create new opportunities in the camps where they live.

In normal times, the government will allocate a certain amount of money from its annual budget (APBN) for emergency purposes, such as, say, natural disasters.

In such special circumstances, when the country's economy is in a state of recovery, the government can provide only Rp 1,500 and 400 grams of rice for each refugee per day.

The government has yet to find the best formula to put a halt to the violence to allow the refugees to return home.

Financially, the government is finding it increasingly difficult to afford the refugees' demands for more food and money and cleaner and healthier conditions in their camps.

As for the refugees, many of them have been living in the camps for years; returning home has become their biggest wish.

The Muslim refugees were saddened to spend the Idul Fitri holidays away from their hometowns; similarly, the Christians wish to celebrate Christmas and New Year's peacefully in their hometowns with their relatives.

The question now is when all the upheaval stop? And IS the government really able to deal with the refugees?