Helping kids caught up in conflicts
Violence is a way of life for children living in strife-torn areas of the country. Psychologists warn of the long-term effects of violence upon the young, including development of post- traumatic stress disorder. The Jakarta Post's Rita A. Widiadana and I. Christianto examine what is being done to help the youngest victims of adult conflicts.
JAKARTA (JP): There is a little more hope for 10-year-old Liana on Buton island, Southeast Sulawesi, than in her troubled hometown of Ambon, Maluku.
Together with her parents, she fled a year ago to a refugee center on Buton. Yet there is lingering sadness for her brothers who were left behind.
"We don't know where my brothers are now," Liana told other refugee children and some of their peers during the recent National Children's Congress at the Cibubur campground in East Jakarta.
"My parents and I only hope and pray they're protected by God."
Life is tough for Liana, who works as a scavenger to help her family. She usually earns Rp 1,000 a day by collecting cardboard boxes, plastic bags and bottles.
She said she liked the work because "I can continue my schooling and help my mother. We need to buy food".
Liana is only one of thousands of child refugees from Maluku, the famed "spice islands" divided by a sectarian conflict which began in January 1999. She was invited to the congress, held in conjunction with National Children's Day on July 23, by a non- governmental organization.
"I don't want to return to Ambon. I am so afraid of being killed," she said, remembering how she and other children would flee to nearby fields when they heard the sound of gunfire.
"But maybe someday, if there is no more violence, I would like to see my brothers and my old friends."
Stephanus, 13, a refugee from East Timor, said he often had nightmares. "I see people being shot dead," the boy said in a trembling voice.
National Children's Day is intended as a day of celebration for the nation's young, but there was little cheer on the faces of the refugee children. Their gathering was a reminder that adults have failed in their duty to protect children from harmful influences and uphold their rights.
While some fortunate children celebrated the day in Jakarta and other major cities, thousands of others were in cramped refugee centers in Aceh, Buton, East Nusa Tenggara and other areas. They lack proper food, shelter, health care and, most importantly, protection by the state.
Many children have been injured or killed in the conflicts. They also suffer from the loss of loved ones; data from the Indonesian Child Welfare Foundation (YKAI) put the number of orphaned children in Aceh at up to 20,000.
As of May 2000, the number of refugees in the country totaled 729,829 from 161,666 families in 17 provinces. About 60 percent of the displaced people are under 14 years.
Refugee centers
In Tuapukan refugee center in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, an average of two to three children die every day because of malnutrition and other health problems. Thousands of children have become dropouts.
The country director of Plan International Indonesia, Alka Pathak, said the organization's health posts treated 12,000 infants suffering from diarrhea, malaria and malnutrition from September 1999 to February 2000.
Manager of YKAI's Depot Anak Rescue Project Widya Syamsudin said the situation for children in refugee centers throughout the country was worsening all the time.
"The immeasurable losses they face are hard to imagine. Some of them are separated from their parents, brothers or sisters. Worst of all, they have lost their normal childhood," Widya said after visiting several camps in East Nusa Tenggara.
Like children affected by war, they may experience similar physical and mental problems such as insomnia, nightmares, headaches, fear, depression and other behavioral problems.
She recounted seeing many children traumatized by violence and the stressful conditions in the refugee centers, with no schooling and little to occupy their time. With frustration from food shortages and poor sanitation and health care, fights often break out among children and adults in the centers. Each person is desperately fighting for their rights to proper food and facilities.
There may be other dangers in the centers. Some groups have found indications of the trafficking of children to centers in other provinces, presumably for prostitution and labor.
Widya said a social safety net program was urgently needed to help the refugees. Resuming education for the kids is also important.
"We feel that establishing a classroom environment will give the children an alternative to wandering around the center and dwelling on the ordeal they suffered," said Widya.
Some assistance programs for the children are under way.
Other NGOs, including Nanda Dian Nusantara Foundation, Plan International Indonesia, World Vision Indonesia, Medicine Sans Frontier as well as community and student organizations have established trauma centers, alternative schools, playgrounds and health facilities to help alleviate the children's suffering.
Widya said much more needed to be done.
"Of course, these efforts are far from adequate and only serve as a quick-fix solution to serious problems faced by some Indonesian children."
An executive of the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA), Aris Merdeka Sirait, said the child refugees were only part of the country's many deprived children.
Abuse
Aris said the violence destroying the lives of children was a violation of the UN Convention on Children's Rights.
The convention, approved by 191 nations including Indonesia, establishes basic rights for children, ranging from education, health care, protection from physical and emotional abuse, labor exploitation and prostitution.
He said the country failed to make the tenets of the convention a reality.
"The Indonesian government has done little to improve children's welfare. We have a lot of legal tools yet they have never been implemented properly."
Violence against children, forced child labor and child trafficking, especially for prostitution, continues in the country, he added.
Leading children's rights advocate Lily I. Rilantono, a professor of medicine at the University of Indonesia, warned of the urgency of helping children in refugee centers.
"They badly need the state's protection. You can't just sit and do nothing while watching children trapped in bloody conflicts."
She said it was equally important to help Indonesian children experiencing other forms of abuse.
"Child refugees witness violence in unrest-hit areas, while their friends also experience violent actions against them on the city's streets, schools, playgrounds and even in their own homes," said Lily, who is also the chairwoman of YKAI.
She said violence prevailed in the lives of Indonesian children -- in their families, communities, in the mass media and entertainment -- during the last 30 years.
A rigid educational system, the past authoritarian government and materialism have contributed to the development of a materialistic and violent society, she said. People tended to resort to force and violence to settle conflicts.
Lily believed all the conflicts besetting the country were due to disputes among politicians and leaders, saying they could not accept and tolerate social, cultural, political and religious differences, which were all part of the democratization process.
Activists and children's rights advocates are working to get the message across to politicians, the military and the government about the damage inflicted on the youngest members of society. For the time being, Liana and her friends can only hope for a day when the country will be free of wanton death and destruction.