Nias children getting closer to home

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.