Nias children getting closer to home

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Ten Nias children, who had been illegally taken to Jakarta, arrived at Polonia airport in Medan, North Sumatra, on Wednesday.

The children, who can only speak the local Nias dialect, appeared frightened upon seeing the crowd of journalists and officials waiting for their arrival from Jakarta following extensive media coverage of their illegal removal from the island.

"I'm scared here. I want to go home to Nias to see my parents," Dirman Julianus, who hails from Mandehe, said through an interpreter.

The seven-year-old said he missed his parents. In Jakarta, he often cried out of homesickness.

"I always cry when I think of mum and dad," said Dirman, who had no idea of why he was taken to Jakarta in the first place.

Three-year-old Jois shyly expressed happiness that he was returning home to meet his parents, saying he never wanted to go to Jakarta again without his parents.

The director of North Sumatra's Social Affairs Office, Silvester Lase, came to pick up the 10 children, saying they would rest in Medan for a day at an orphanage before going home to meet their parents in Nias the next day.

"We plan to send the children back to Nias tomorrow (Thursday) because they're still tired and need to rest," said Silvester.

The director of Nias regency's Social Affairs Office, Yanus Larosa, said the children had been brought home as they had been illegally taken to Jakarta without proper documents.

The executive director of the Jakarta-based Nias Potential and Empowerment Council (LP2N), Ebenezer Hia, who escorted the children to Medan from Jakarta, said they had been illegally spirited out of Nias.

He said earlier that in addition to the 10 children, some 30 others had been taken to the capital in the past few months without going through proper procedures.

He added that he had received many requests from Nias parents asking the council to trace their children's whereabouts after they had been taken to Jakarta by various so-called foundations.

According to a letter issued by the Nias regental administration on June 10, 2005, and signed by Deputy Regent Agus Mendrova, the 10 Nias children were taken to Jakarta with the consent of their parents and village heads.

When questioned about this, Agus confirmed that he had issued the letter, saying that this had been done as the parents wanted their children to be educated at the Pondok Taruna orphanage in Jakarta.

"I can't stop them if they want to have their children educated in Jakarta, It's their right," Agus said.

He said that many Nias children had been taken to Jakarta orphanages.

"I don't know exactly how many Nias children have being taken to Jakarta. But there are a lot of them. They have been taking them there since even before the March earthquake," Agus said.

Initial reports said that the 10 children had been taken to Jakarta by four workers of organizations called the Youth Foundation (YWAM) in Cipayung, East Jakarta, and the Nation's Hope Foundation (YHB) in Parung, Bogor, West Java.