JSC escorts 2,500 Aceh refugees back home

JSC escorts 2,500 Aceh refugees back home

Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh, Aceh

More than 2,500 people who fled eight villages late last month
for fears of attacks have returned home in the troubled province
of Aceh after receiving a security guarantee from the Joint
Security Commission (JSC), officials here said on Tuesday.

The refugees were repatriated by at least 22 trucks to their
villages in Lhoksukon subdistrict in North Aceh on Monday under
the escort of nine JSC members, Henry Dunant Centre (HDC)
representative and peace mediator David Gorman told The Jakarta
Post.

The repatriation followed negotiations between JSC officials
and the refugees on Sunday.

The JSC officials based in the district of North Aceh had
visited the villages in question to ensure that peace was
restored there before persuading the refugees to go home.

M. Syahril Basyah, one of the refugees, said he and other
victims were willing to return home after the JSC promised them
with a security guarantee.

"The repatriation of these refugees shows that security
mechanisms established recently by the JSC are working," Gorman
said.

The villagers had fled to take refuge in a mosque and an
elementary school at Nga Mantang Ubi village, some 15 kilometers
east of Lhokseumawe in East Aceh district, on Dec. 30, 2002 to
escape possible attacks and terror.

According to local village heads, the exodus was sparked by
the establishment of government military posts located in and
around the eight villages, which they feared would be used to
launch attacks against civilian Acehnese.

The village heads said soldiers had ordered them to expel
local civilians who patrolled their villages at night, but they
refused to do so and ran away.

Other villagers then followed suit to escape possible
brutality by troops stationed at the two newly established
military posts, the village heads added.

Gorman said the JSC in North Aceh would continue monitoring
the returning refugees to make sure that they remained safe in
their villages, despite the continued presence of the military.

The repatriation of refugees was one of the most important
programs being to date, and was prioritized by the JSC, which
includes GAM members, government and foreign representatives
appointed by the Geneva-based HDC.

Despite the efforts by the HDC, around 600 refugees are still
refusing to leave the relative safety of a mosque in the Bagok
area in Nurussalam subdistrict, East Aceh, and 200 others are
also staying at Lhoknibong village in the regency.

"They do not dare to go home because they are still
traumatized," said Marzuki, an activist from the People Crisis
Centre (PCC) based in East Aceh.

He said those currently in Bagok arrived on Dec. 10 last
month, one day after the peace deal was signed between the
government and the rebel Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

And the 200 refugees at Lhoknibong have been languishing there
for nearly two years after they fled their villages in fear when
another military post was built, Marzuki added.

However, Aceh's Iskandar Muda Military chief Maj. Gen. Djali
Yusuf denied that the establishment of the military posts
prompted thousands of villagers to flee their homes after the
Dec. 5 truce.

"Such allegations have been manufactured," he said without
elaborating further.

Djali claimed that the military had began, as a policy,
establishing such military posts in several villages a long time
ago to "ensure security and peace for locals".

"Yesterday they (villagers) asked us to maintain the posts,
why do they change minds now?" he wondered, adding that the
soldiers will continue to stay at the posts.

Djali said he has yet to receive an order from the top
military chief in Jakarta to cease or reduce the presence of the
military in villages.

Since the signing of the peace deal on Dec. 9, at least 12
civilians, three rebels and four police and military members have
been killed, the HDC has said.

An average of 87 civilians were killed every month in most of
2002 and an estimated 10,000 people have died since the
separatist conflict began in Aceh in 1976.