Home is still far away for Maluku refugees

Home is still far away for Maluku refugees

Ati Nurbaiti, The Jakarta Post, Ambon

Whether and when the state of civil emergency was lifted in
Maluku was not really of any great importance to many residents.

The final lifting of the emergency status on Sept. 5. was
merely official recognition that residents have long been capable
of being in charge of their own safety.

Trust in each other has taken root again, though not to the
point that Muslims and Christians again want to live among each
other ("Maybe in 10, 20 years," says one refugee).

With returned confidence of being able to cross the lines
which earlier defined life and death, even well after dark,
people shrug off questions about how things are different now
than they were under the emergency status.

Earlier this year people were already grateful that they could
use land transportation instead of the more expensive speedboats
to reach "Muslim" or "Christian" areas.

Now they are more concerned about how the government is taking
care of the provision of basic needs.

The housing problem remains unresolved for an officially
estimated 63,971 families, or 332,548 people. The capital houses
refugees from other areas affected by the war which broke out in
1999 -- and Ambon residents themselves have moved from one area
to another within the city.

Scores of families are still occupying buildings and shops,
the interiors divided up by planks to separate families. Lawyers
and journalists are among those spending their fourth year
returning from work to cramped quarters and neighbors' screaming
babies.

Only a fraction of new homes have been built by the government
compared to the number of refugees -- and many of them have
remained empty.

Therefore a new scheme was introduced; the provision of
financial aid for families to build their own homes.

Since homes often accommodate up to five families under one
roof, the 21-square-meter studio homes built by the government
were far from appealing. Moreover, only a few refugees trusted
authorities' claims that their home villages or neighborhoods
were safe enough for them to return.

For thousands of families, it's a long wait to get the
promised aid of a few million rupiah (the amount differs
according to location) to help them rebuild their homes.

The priority is for refugees outside Ambon, and those whose
neighbors in their home villages have said are welcome to return.
This confirmation of welcome is crucial because "neighbors" often
means those of the same religion as people who attacked the
villages, though the attackers may have come from outside the
area.

Given this slow development, victims have sought their own
solutions -- and part of these efforts could become new sources
of conflict.

Refugees recall how they escaped fires only with the clothes
on their backs -- but eventually some were able to gather enough
money to buy abandoned homes.

In a number of neighborhoods such as Batumerah in Ambon,
Muslims asked neighbors to buy or sell homes for them.

Problems may arise in the cases of those who have not sold
their homes, which have been occupied by others since the
buildings were abandoned. This is apart from the refugees living
in stores whose owners seem to have no choice but let them live
there for free, rather than face resistance from a dozen families
or so in each of the three to four-story buildings. And also
scores of families living in the Army's dormitory in Tantui
district -- leaving soldiers to seek shelter elsewhere, including
in shop-houses.

The Army has already asked the refugees to leave, only to get
the stubborn, standard answer: "Find us a home first."

Refugees are being asked to leave all government facilities,
and other problems related to the occupation of buildings and
homes are likely to arise in a matter of time.

Lawyers at the new Baku Bae Legal Aid Office are particularly
concerned with the possibility of property disputes. "This will
be a new source of conflict," says its director, Anthoni Hutane.

At the moment, occupying empty homes and buildings seems to be
the only choice in the long wait for assistance. But sooner or
later an increased feeling of safety might lead to more people
returning to their homes -- and squabbles with the occupants.

As in a number of cases, the owner should expect to pay a
"guarding fee" to persuade the occupant to leave, amounting to
several million rupiah for guarding the house for a number of
years.

Hutane's office is preparing an inventory of land ownership in
case of disputing land claims.

These, then, are some of the issues feared to divide people
again in the future. For now, there are several encouraging signs
of a community coming together again, as reflected in the
vegetable and fish markets, and on the sports grounds where
aspiring soccer players practice.

Issues under the past illusion of harmony among communities of
different religions are being addressed such as alleged
discrimination at the state-owned Pattimura University.

What about the need for justice? While Jakarta activists have
encouraged people to "demand the state's responsibility" for
letting the violence continue for so long in such a relatively
small area, this seems far from the preoccupation here.

On the surface, people do not expect the state to take care of
the justice that should be meted out to those responsible for
Maluku's war, nor the healing of their trauma.

Says judge A. Hehamoni, "People are just grateful that by some
miracle, they survived the selection of massacre."

Residents have long realized that a big mystery lies behind
the conflict that changed the lives of everyone here: the sense
that there was "a big scenario" outside their capacity to
understand and deal with.

They say they do not need soldiers to ensure their safety
either. "Ambonese love to quarrel, after which they will make up
and hug each other again, but how could we have done that with
the security lines dividing us?" Hutane says.

But people do need the government for the intervention that is
crucial to restarting life. Given the failed home assistance
scheme and the slow wait for aid, the judge says simple loans
would be eagerly accepted and homes could be built much more
quickly.

The judge himself would benefit from a better night's rest --
"We hear stones thrown about every night during squabbles among
the refugees," he said.

It is the precise sense that practically everyone's a refugee
that has also brought people together. B. Talea escaped attacks
near his home not far from the airport district of Laha, and
fortunately acquired a home from Muslims who escaped in
Batumerah.

"Locals here had a makan patita (farewell party) for the
Muslim neighbors who had to leave for safer areas," he said.

Batumerah was one of the city's many mixed settlements of
Muslims and Christians, and the Christians were asked to buy or
help seek a buyer for the Muslims' homes. Talea has looked up his
property where he found someone already occupying his partly
damaged home and planting vegetables in his garden.

"I couldn't ask him to leave -- he and others there had heard
on television that refugees from this area were preparing to come
back, so they started to clean up the place. I told him he and
his family could stay as long as they didn't have a place, my
house is big enough."

Such stories on both sides illustrate that mutual help among
former "enemies" is bringing Maluku's survivors together.
However, these efforts must be supported by the government if a
sense of security is to return.